Paper long abstract:

This contribution will examine the floruit of craft skills between 2500 and 1500 BC, and particularly from the 22nd century, in Britain and Ireland to show how the choice of raw materials and the specialised skills that were applied to them articulated with systems of belief and value to create artefacts that were powerful agents in their own right. Concepts such as the politics of envy, and of supernatural power dressing, will be explored, and the reasons for the shifting epicentre of innovation and trend-setting as previously identified by Stuart Needham will be investigated. The contribution will aim to highlight the fruits of an integrated approach to the study of material culture, in which the key element is to ask the appropriate questions and to apply the most informative methods to addressing them.

Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the crafting of flint daggers in Scandinavia during the early 2nd millennium and contrasts their production with the development of metal-working in the same region. Both dagger knapping and metal smelting are placed into wider social, technological and regional contexts to discuss the relationships between the old technology and the new.

Paper long abstract:

Flint daggers are such a characteristic artefact of late 3rd and early 2nd millennium Scandinavia that, until recently, that chronological phase was called 'Dolktid' - the dagger period. The daggers themselves have been repeatedly studied for insights, for example, into chronology (Lomborg 1973), technology (Stafford 1998) and social structure (Apel 2001). They are traditionally described as direct, morphological imitations of contemporary copper/copper-alloy daggers from central Europe which are scarce in Scandinavian contexts. In this paper, I will place early 2nd millennium, Scandinavian flint dagger production into a wider regional and chronological context in order to discuss how the crafting of flint daggers in Scandinavia relates to the adoption of metal. I will further compare their production to contemporary Scandinavian metal-working—both in process and in product. I will suggest that, in crafting flint daggers, knappers were not necessarily seeking to imitate metal objects so much as to engage in a new way of making things which relied on specialised techniques that produced widely recognisable types of objects.

Apel, J. 2001. Daggers, Knowledge and Power. The Social Aspects of Flint Dagger Technology in Scandinavia, 2350-1500 Cal BC. Coast to Coast-Books 3. Uppsala.

Lomborg, E. 1973. Die Flintdolche Danemarks. Studien über Chronologie und Kulturbeziehungen des siidskandinavischen Spatneolitikums. Copenhagen: Universitetsforlaget I Kobenhavn.

Stafford, M. 1998. In search of Hindsgavl: experiments in the production of Neolithic Danish flint daggers. Antiquity 72: 338-49.

Paper short abstract:

The Salzberg in Hallstatt is famous for the organic finds like textiles, wooden and leather objects. So it is possible to look at the development in textile production and craft over the time-span of 1500-500 BC. The Hallstatt -Textiles show a variety of surfaces depending on different function on one hand and elements of decoration like colour, checks and stripes on the other. The kinds of creations show a different approach of prehistoric craftspeople to textile resources that can enable us to gain an insight into their creative way of thinking.

Paper long abstract:

The prehistoric mines and graveyard of Hallstatt show many aspects of prehistoric life from the Middle Bronze Age and Iron Age. Large-scale salt-mining starts in the Middle Bronze Age about 1500 BC, and is marked by an emerging division of labour and clear social hierarchy and continues during the Iron Age. The Salzberg in Hallstatt is famous for the organic finds like textiles, wooden and leather objects. So it is possible to look at the development in textile production and craft over the time-span of 1500-500 BC.

The Hallstatt -Textiles show a variety of different structure types like different weaving patterns, density of textiles, sorts of thickness with two and three dimensional surface structures. So there is a variety of different surfaces depending on different function like clothing, woollen bags or makeshift binding material on the one hand and elements of decoration like colour, checks and stripes on the other.

The Middle Bronze Age was very innovative in terms of designs and developments in textile craft. Weaving techniques like twill weaving, tablet weaving, patterning and sewing techniques are innovations of this period, and flourished during the Hallstatt Period. Some methods of operation (techniques, how textiles are made and manipulated: weaving, sewing, mending) are very different to the today. They show a different approach of prehistoric craftspeople to textile resources that can enable us to gain an insight into their creative way of thinking.

Paper short abstract:

The paper will address metalworking technology using a chaîne opératoire, explicitly focussing on non-discursive knowledge next to the well studied discursive knowledge. In so doing I will adopt a holistic emic approach to comprehend how prehistoric craftspeople understood their technologies.

Paper long abstract:

Were Bronze Age metallurgists farmers or specialists? A question that I will try to address this question by studying the technology of metalworking. Instead of the rather descriptive approach that tends to be related to archaeometallurgical analyses I opt for a more interpretive perspective in which humans play a major role. This means not placing the object at the centre of the study of technology, but rather the agent. Using a chaîne opératoire I will try to show that (metalworking) technology is by no means an issue that can be studied by solely analysing its end result (i.e. the object). Furthermore, in line with Ingold (1990), I propose to distinguish technology from techniques and tools. In so doing it becomes clear that techniques, or the tacit, subjective, context-dependent "knowledge how" (non-discursive knowledge), is heavily understudied in comparison to those aspect that we see as technology; the explicit, practical, objective, "knowledge that" (discursive knowledge). An argument is made that because of this divide, metalworking is often interpreted as a esoteric and ritual craft (e.g. Budd & Taylor 1995; Kristiansen & Larson 2005).

As advocated by Dobres (2000, 98) separating technology into different heuristic spheres is a conceptual dead end. Technology is made up and inseparably connected by a complex web of amongst others, discursive and non-discursive knowledge, belief systems, social organisation and politics. Hence, although immensely complex, studying technology as this intricate web of relations is, in my opinion, the best way forward. If we want to understand how craftspeople were perceived in prehistory we have to try and understand how they understood their technologies. This rather holistic emic approach might then provide some insight into the identity of the metalworker because "as individuals express their life, so they are. What they are, therefore, coincides with their production, both with what they produce and with how they produce" (Marx & Engels 1970,42); You are what you make.

Paper short abstract:

The paper explores the relationship between creativity and tradition and how this interacts with transmission of craftsmanship between generations

Paper long abstract:

A combination of knowledge and skill, craftsmanship is transmitted in communities of knowledge, informally within the family, or more formally through apprenticeship. The absorption of crafts knowledge includes learning to use the senses to see, hear, feel, smell or taste to assess aspects such as the quality of raw materials, if a fire is sufficiently hot, whether or the desired consistency has been reached. Imitation of the master is a core element; the craft is mastered when the apprentice is able to carry out the whole process, resulting in an acceptable copy of the master's work. Imitation assists upholding the proper quality of the products. Still, the ability to imitate is also the precondition for improvisation, for changing the process in ways that do not jeopardize the workmanship, and thus for being accepted by the community.

The importance of imitation in craft transmission encourages the maintaining of tradition, of doing it exactly as it always has been done. Changes signal lack of conformity. Somebody has chosen to do things differently, has gotten away with it, and established a new tradition. Prehistory supplies us with many examples, both of tradition and change. How can we use these to investigate the nature of creativity, and how it interacts with tradition?

Paper short abstract:

Creativity as a social process plays a fundamental role in our human history. Yet there is a void of creative studies within archaeology. This paper investigates how we can access creativity in the archaeological record through analysis of craft production techniques.

Paper long abstract:

The analysis of ceramics forms the focus of this discussion, with an additional focus on the European Bronze Age. This is a time of significant change in the nature of craft production and thus is a crucial period to study in terms of creativity. The Bronze Age site of Százhalombatta in Hungary has a particularly complex history reflected in its material culture, notably in the Middle to Late Bronze Age transition, where a hiatus in site occupation occurs. The Late Bronze Age reoccupation of the site is paralleled with a noticeable difference in ceramic wares, and in some cases a reduction in the quality of wares is apparent.

Through analysis of the production sequence, standardised methods of production are established and variation isolated. A discussion as to which of these constituents constitutes deliberate change or whether they are reflective of error within the production sequence follows. Finally, a comparison is made between ceramic production sequences in the Late Bronze Age to production in the Middle Bronze Age, demonstrating how the nature of craft production changes over time. It is argued that the study of creativity in craft production allows for underlying social and cultural processes to be considered, enriching our understanding of the nature of material culture and the Bronze Age.

Paper short abstract:

This paper asks how interactivity between materials and craft practitioners can be characterised. It offers thoughts on the possible evidence and interpretations which can be used to analyse the relationships between the crafting of wood and metal during Northern European Bronze Age.

Paper long abstract:

The evidence available for wood crafting during the Northern European Bronze Age is extensive. There exists great scope for the examination of this in relation to developments in technological technique and object form within a wide range of contexts. Alongside this, examination of technical variation in metallurgy offers the opportunity to characterise evolving object forms such as tools and their possibilities in wood crafting. This examination can be used not only to assess technological change but also as an analytical tool in characterising the potential for co-operation between differing craft practices. Coupled to evaluation of how notions of craft can be understood, such analysis can lead to identification of the integral place of this co-operation in the innovation and implementation of new crafting techniques and forms.

The paper argues that this scope for viewing change derived from interactions between craftspeople is especially significant in the case of wood crafting and metalworking. It examines their relationship in terms of the potential to view one practice through the other. The quantity of bronze tools alone offers a vast dataset from which a broad range of craft activity can be inferred, and the paper considers how a re-analysis of this data, coupled to assessments of how environmental contexts could affect wood working techniques and usage, can reveal unexplored themes in understanding and characterising the relationship between these materials during the Northern European Bronze Age.

Paper long abstract:

In archaeological texts it is often assumed that a finished product - e.g. an axe, a pot, a piece of textile - is the creation of a single person. That is, it was made by a particular smith, the weaver or another craftsperson working in isolation. This paper poses the question: can we really assume that there was only one person behind all the processes represented by a finished product?

In a recent publication Bronze Age smiths are portrayed as the people who did everything in southern Scandinavia, from making pots to conducting cremations. In contrast, quite the opposite has been suggested elsewhere, such as in Walton Roger's (2007) publication on textile production in Anglo-Saxon Britain, where the range of people involved in various tasks has been highlighted. Also with textile production as its focus, this study will take into account ethnographic, historical and archaeological examples in order to discuss the collaborative nature of craft production. How are the two diametrically opposed views of craft production reflected in our interpretations, and how can they be reconciled?

Paper short abstract:

The paper aims to understand relation between people and metallurgical production and the role of craftspeople in Bronze Age village society in Northern Italy. It focuses mainly on the organization of craft activities in recently discovered settlement in the Po Plain offering a perspective of relations of households, other craft areas (e.g. for textile production).

Paper long abstract:

In Northern Italy, starting from Middle Bronze Age to Later Bronze Age, metallurgy takes place inside villages. Current research confirms some aspects of production: metal-work increases due the Middle Bronze Age period to Later Bronze Age in number and typologies.

Current discoveries give information about the technology of metal objects production and especially about the space organization of craft activities within the villages, with substantial differences among those; this suggests a new perspective in the interpretation and role of metallurgists and the organization of crafts. This paper describers the emergency of new characteristics in metal production and try to understand the role of this craft.

Paper short abstract:

The paper adopts a network perspective on Early Bronze Age ‘metal-work’ in Central Italy, starting from the coincidence of copper mining, production and hoarding in southern Tuscany. It discusses the role of metallurgists in social networks, including exchange, often elusive in object biographies.

Paper long abstract:

Compared with stages of production, (re)use and deposition in object biographies, exchange remains a 'black box'. Nonetheless, it is regarded as crucial in our understanding of European Bronze Age metallurgy. Exchange defines the position of craftspeople in social networks, perhaps even more than their craft or the qualities of their products themselves. In a Latourian sense, Bronze Age metallurgists are only one actor/actant in a 'metal-work' that stretches the full length of object biographies (and back). A network perspective addresses the tendency towards narrative linearity in archaeological applications of the concept of object biographies. Another problem of the latter is their aspatial and ahistorical character, to the detriment of understanding the actual (not conceptual) position of craftspeople in social networks, in particular with respect to the elusive stage of exchange.

This paper substantiates the emergence of an Early Bronze Age 'metal-work' in Central Italy, focused on southern Tuscany where copper mining, bronze production and hoarding spatially coincided. It brings spatial, contextual and composition analyses of ingots and finished pieces of metalwork together in a diachronic account of Copper through Middle Bronze Age networks. This leaves us with an unusually clear impression of exchange networks in Central Italy that bridges the gap in object biographies between production and (re)use and/or deposition. A network approach to metallurgy as a 'metal-work' creates the opportunity to explore the position of craftspeople in social networks and their role in exchange, as well as its intersections with Early Bronze Age cosmology and sociality.

Paper short abstract:

This paper will focus on how changing socio-political systems affected the relationship within pottery workshops/work groups and their products. Aspects of colonial theory will be considered as supporting a notion of local influence on new ideas.

Paper long abstract:

Pottery production in Central Italy underwent a period of diversification and intensification, during the Later/Final Bronze Age (approximately 900 BC). Sites such as Casale Nuovo, Latina, have been interpreted as trade centers, revealing a wealth of evidence of trade and exchange in pottery, metals and other goods. During the Iron Age, a number of new sites were founded, some by Greek colonists, others by native Italic or Etruscan people, whilst sites such as Casale Nuovo were abandoned or relocated.

As a result, pottery production underwent two different types of influence: an internal pressure to meet greater economic demand, and external pressures to absorb new people into an imposed economic structure. The results of these different types of pressures are reflected in a number of aspects of pottery production, including clay selection, processing, and then external appearances.

Archaeologically, there appears to be two very different 'types' of pottery, traditionally viewed very narrowly as relating to closed systems of workshops and protocols. However, recent research into the underlying structures of workshop relationships, as well as the more subtle relationships between local groups and colonialists suggests a more fluid organization.

This paper will consider how colonial theory can shed light on the changing character of pottery workshops and of the resulting products.

Paper short abstract:

This paper uses a discussion of the cremation tradition during the Bronze Age in order reconsider our interpretations of craftsmanship. In particular 'craft' will be considered in relation to materiality and performance in a bid to understand the dynamics of this category of practice.

Paper long abstract:

What constitutes craft? Is it a consistency in learnt and replicated practices? The creation of new material things? The localisation of repeated acts to a particular area or person? Can you have craftsmanship without skill? Or creation without material culture? In this paper I wish to deconstruct a popular 'craft' perspective, and consider which practices can be included into the remit of 'crafts' considering where, if any, differentiations come between making, altering and performing. This appraisal will re-evaluate how we appropriate Bronze Age perceptions of practice into the remit of craftsmanship. To aid this discussion I will be focusing on one particular practice rarely associated with craftsmanship, that of cremation. In order to produce a new substance from the deceased the process of cremation involves learnt and replicated acts which employ particular techniques and technologies. However, despite this we rarely consider cremation as a craft. Using examples, primarily from Bronze Age Wales, I will explore potential Bronze Age attitudes to substances of the world and of the body and consider where divisions concerning materials and making may have existed. I will do this in part by investigating a number of variables in the quantity, condition and contextual treatment of cremation materials in contrast with other substances and objects within welsh Bronze Age contexts. In order to consider what is and what is not a craft we must formulate an idea of a Bronze Age perception of materiality and performance and try to rethink how crafts are located within this.

Paper short abstract:

The paper explores insights into Bronze Age metalworking techniques through experimental archaeology and addresses the potential of experimental archaeology for sustainable development in contemporary crafts practice from a designer/maker perspective.

Paper long abstract:

The Ireland-based Umha Aois project has brought together archaeologists, sculptors and craftspeople since 1995 to experiment with many of the processes involved in producing cast bronze artefacts. By continuously eliminating modern tools and facilities the group has refined both efficiency and authenticity of its methods. Using charcoal-fired pit furnaces fuelled by bag bellows together with stone and clay moulds, the group has produced replicas of excellent quality, including spear heads, axeheads, swords and most recently LBA horns.

Experimental archaeology offers the involved archaeologists a hands-on approach to BA metalworking techniques and with it a deeper, sensory understanding of the complex processes involved which cannot be achieved with a cognitive approach alone. For the craftspeople involved in experimental archaeology, however, it has further implications for their practice. Re-discovering and applying pre-historic methods can offer economic, environmental and social advantages for their professional practice, enabling economically viable and environmentally sustainable casting for production of craftwork and commissions.

On the example of producing a LBA Irish horn replica, the paper follows the process and compares costs and environmental impact studies (EE and CO2 emissions) for both BA and contemporary ceramic shell processes. It will explore potential, risks and limitations of introducing BA methods to contemporary craft practice but will also examine the relationship of maker and material now and in the past. In reverse, it poses the question how these issues were relevant to the BA maker.

Paper short abstract:

The burials of Bell Beaker metalworkers are found across central and western Europe and they are often of high status. These men are not thought to have been specialist smiths and the tools placed in the graves were used in the making of objects, not making metals. Being a metalworker was only one aspect of the identities that their mourners chose to signify.

Paper long abstract:

Stone tools used in metalworking are found in Bell Beaker graves across central and western Europe. The burials are invariably of men and they often date to early in the local Bell Beaker sequences (24th-22nd centuries BC). As assessed by grave and monument types and the Number of Artefact Types placed in the grave by their mourners, these men were often of high social status. In contrast Early Bronze Age and later burials with metalworking tools are much less frequent.

Comparative, compositional and experimental studies all indicate that the stone tools found in Bell Beaker graves were used in the making or finishing of small metal objects such as gold ornaments or copper knives. In comparison to the knowledge and skills that were needed to prospect for ores, extract them and process them, the technological skills needed to make or finish the objects were modest. However, the stone tools used in the extraction and processing of ores were almost never placed in graves.

Several of these graves contain multiple examples of the same type of objects suggesting the practice of ‘over–provision’ as a way of indicating the highest status. Even so, few would regard the individuals with whom these metalworking tools were buried as specialist (or at least full time) craftsmen and in many cases the skills - or status – of a metalworker and the wide ranging connections it symbolised is only one of several persona signified in these graves.