BREAKING and MAKING BODIES and POTS Material and Ritual Practices in Sweden in the Third Millennium BC
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AUN 40 BREAKING AND MAKING BODIES AND POTS Material and Ritual Practices in Sweden in the Third Millennium BC ÅSA M. LARSSON Dissertation presented at Uppsala University to be publicly examined in Geijersalen, Centre for the Humanities, English Park Campus, Uppsala, Friday, September 18, 2009 at 13:00 for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The examination will be conducted in English. Abstract Larsson, Å M. 2009. Breaking and Making Bodies and Pots. Material and Ritual Practices in Sweden in the Third Millennium BC. Department of Archaeology and Ancient History. Aun 40. 493 pp. Uppsala. 978-91- 506-2092-4. In South Sweden the third millennium BC is characterised by coastal settlements of marine hunter-gatherers known as the Pitted Ware culture, and inland settlements of the Battle Axe culture. This thesis outlines the history of research of the Middle Neolithic B in general and that of the pottery and burial practices in particular. Material culture must be understood as the result of both conscious preferences and embodied practices: technology can be deliberately cultural just as style can be un-selfconscious routine. Anthropological and ethnoarchaeological research into craft and the transmission of learning in traditional societies shows how archaeologists must take into consideration the interdependence of mind and body when interpreting style, technology and change in prehistory. The pottery crafts of the Pitted Ware and Battle Axe cultures were not just fundamentally different technologically, but even more so in the attitudes toward authority, tradition, variation and the social role of the potter in the community. The Battle Axe beakers represent a wholly new chaîne opératoire, probably introduced by a small group of relocated Beaker potters at the beginning of the period. The different attitudes toward living bodies is highlighted further in the attitudes toward the dead bodies. In the mortuary ritual the Battle Axe culture was intent upon the creation and control of a perfect body which acted as a representative of the idealised notion of what it was to belong to the community. This focus upon completeness, continuation and control is echoed in the making of beakers using the ground up remains of old vessels as temper. In contrast, the Pitted Ware culture people broke the bodies of the dead by defleshing, removal of body parts, cremation, sorting, dispersal and/or reburial of the bones on the settlements. The individuality of the living body was destroyed leaving the durable but depersonalised bones to be returned to the joint collective of the ancestors. Just as the bodies were fragmented so were the pots, sherds and bases being deposited in large quantities on the settlements and occasionally in graves. Some of the pots were also tempered with burnt and crushed bones. At the end of the Middle Neolithic the material and human remains show evidence of a growing effort to find a common ground in the two societies through sharing certain mortuary rituals and making beakers with a mix of both traditions, stylistically and technologically. Keywords: Middle Neolithic, Late Neolithic, Pitted Ware culture, Battle Axe culture, Corded Ware culture, pottery, pottery technology, craft, chaîne opératoire, mortuary archaeology, mortuary house, burial, ritual, defleshing, cremation, secondary mortuary practice, osteology, ethnoarchaeology, culture, culture change, identity, ethnicity, practice, cognition, body, embodiment Åsa Maria Larsson, Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Box 626, Uppsala University, SE-75126 Uppsala, Sweden © Åsa Maria Larsson 2009 ISSN 0284-1347 ISBN 978-91-506-2092-4 urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-107370 (http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-107370 English revised by Kristin Bornholdt Collins Cover design: Å. M. Larsson. Cover: Pitted Ware vessel (Bagge & Kjellmark 1939), Battle Axe beaker (Forssander 1933), pit and wolf-tooth decorated beaker (drawing by Gunlög Graner) Layout: Göran Wallby, Publishing & graphic services, Uppsala University library Published with contributions from Berit Wallenberg Foundation, Royal Gustavus Adolphus Academy. Printed in Sweden by KPH, Uppsala, 2009 In Loving Memory of Inga, Olle, Sussi and John Forever part of me Motho ke motho ka batho People are people because of other people C ONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................................... 9 P ART I – T HE P REMISE 1. INTRODUCTION AND OUTLINE ......................................................................................14 2. INTERPRETING STONE AGE SOCIETIES ........................................................................... 21 2.1 Culture and Change in Prehistory ..............................................................22 Humanities and the Concept of Evolution.......................................................23 Navigating Between Culture and Nature........................................................ 25 2.2 Body and Self: Practice, Cognition and Embodied Experience............... 36 P ART II – T HE M IDDLE N EOLITHIC B 3. DIVERSE CULTURES, CULTURAL DIVERSITY ................................................................... 44 3.1 Pitted Ware Culture ................................................................................... 45 East Coast Pitted Ware Culture....................................................................... 45 3.2 Battle Axe Culture ..................................................................................... 59 Corded Ware Complex..................................................................................... 59 Battle Axe Culture in Sweden..........................................................................64 4. PITTED WARE CULTURE POTTERY TRADITIONS ............................................................. 73 4.1 Styles and Chronologies: A History of Research...................................... 74 Laying the Foundation..................................................................................... 74 Expanding Borders and Competing Typologies.............................................80 The Next Generation: from intuition to definition.........................................88 4.2 After Fagervik: Empiricism and Criticism ................................................ 101 Pitted-ware Pottery in the 21st Century: Style and Technology .....................113 5. BATTLE AXE CULTURE POTTERY TRADITIONS................................................................117 5.1 Styles, Types and Chronology: A History of Research............................ 118 Forssander: style and stratigraphy ................................................................120 Malmer: empiricism and objectivity................................................................121 Tilley: style and statistics ................................................................................ 133 Hulthén: craft and technology .......................................................................136 5.2 Battle Axe Pottery: A Discussion.............................................................139 P ART III – L IVING B ODIES 6. MAKING MATERIAL CULTURE ....................................................................................154 6.1 Craft, Tradition and Potters .....................................................................155 What Potters Think and Do, and Think They Do ...........................................160 Who Is the Potter? .......................................................................................... 172 6.2 The Chaîne Opératoire of Pottery ............................................................176 Learning How to Make a Pot..........................................................................176 The Operational Sequence of Pottery Craft: a summary..............................183 Pottery as Craft and Chaîne Opératoire in Archaeology................................ 192 7. MAKING A PITTED WARE POT ................................................................................... 198 7.1 Beneath the Surface: Craft, Technique, Technology ............................. 199 Technological Change and Continuity in Eastern Central Sweden............... 201 Interregional Comparison of Pitted-ware Craft ........................................... 205 Local Variation of Pitted-ware Craft Technology ......................................... 209 Tempering, Shaping, Firing ............................................................................ 214 Daily Practice with Pitted-ware Vessels: lipid analyses................................. 218 7.2 Pitted Ware Potters: The Craft Community ........................................... 224 8. MAKING A BATTLE AXE BEAKER ................................................................................ 227 8.1 Beneath the Surface: Craft, Technique, Technology............................. 228 Interregional Comparison of Battle-axe Pottery Craft .................................228 Chronology......................................................................................................237 Tempering, Shaping, Firing ........................................................................... 240 Using a Beaker ................................................................................................247 8.2 Battle Axe Potters: The Craft Community ............................................. 253 A Peculiar Kind of Corded Ware Culture........................................................254 The