Revolutions: the introduction of the potter’s wheel to southern Britain, and its implications for understanding Late Iron Age societies

Abstract

ABSTRACT The introduction of the potter’s wheel was one of the fundamental technological changes in the later Iron Age of southern Britain. Despite this, wheel technology remains an under-analysed aspect of Iron Age material culture, with discussion of technology remaining constrained by a simplistic opposition between ‘wheelmade’ and ‘handmade’ wares. New data are presented in this paper which substantially improve our understanding of how the potter’s wheel was used during the first decades of its employment by British potters. Using an approach informed by material agency and practice theory, focus is placed on the dynamic use of wheel technology as a way of exploring the experiences and decision-making processes of craftspeople living in this turbulent period. Based on these new data, it is argued that previous studies have over-emphasised the role of economic factors such as productive efficiency in causing technological change. The results instead support a use-led hypothesis for the adoption of wheel technology as well as an economic mentality which was not profit-driven. The agency of wheel technology is also explored and is identified as playing a potential grassroots role in Late Iron Age social change, as well as a formative role in the emergent identities of semi-professional craftspeople.