6533b7defe1ef96bd1275902

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Façonner la terre. Traditions techniques des potiers dans la vallée du Rhin supérieur (Xe-VIIIe siècle av. J.-C.)

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How was pottery made during the Bronze Age? The technological ceramic study carried out on 16 habitation and 3 funerary sites of the upper Rhine Valley and its surroundings, which date from the 10th to the 8th centuries BC, reveals an incredible variety among chaînes opératoires. Macrotraces observed on 829 ceramics are abundantly illustrated, and their interpretation is based on a review of numerous ethnographic and experimental reference papers. The chaînes opératoires are depicted by trees following a rigorous method of hierarchical data clustering. This allows technical traditions, which are inherited and transmitted among members of social- and spatial based communities, to be reconstructed in an innovative manner. These networks of interplays, which are linked to craft-learning, are modeled using similarity measures between ceramics assemblages. Pottery styles, determined by types of shapes and decorations, can then give insight into the potters' social identities. The transmission of technical traditions reveals that these social groups persisted through chronological phases. However, relying solely on potters' social membership is insufficient when it comes to explaining the presence of such diversity in chaînes opératoires. First, paste examination proves that finished products were moved across various distances. Then, statistical tests ofindependence indicate that some techniques producing utilitarian advantages (waterproofing, thermal shock resistance...) are preferentially used to make some shapes of containers. Thus, recurrent technical behaviors are conditioned by which finished product is wanted, leading to discussions concerning the intended function of the ceramics (which is different from their actual use). Finally, the co-representation of several technical traditions within ceramic assemblages introduces the concepts of complementary and competing productions, as well as the question of pottery as a specialized craft at the dawn of the Iron Age. By determining the techniques used to produce ceramics, through thorough methodological consideration and an interpretive reasoning following successive and crossed frames, this book investigates the entire social and economical context surrounding potters of the Late Bronze Age.