Abstract
Despite a general interest in studying technological change, archaeologists have only rarely attempted to explain the rise and fall of steatite vessel manufacture. Explaining steatite vessel manufacture requires that all information on age and spatial distribution be extensively sampled and accounted for. Documenting spatial distribution shows that steatite vessels are not restricted to a single environmental or depositional context, nor were they manufactured at all steatite outcrops. A correlation between vessel distribution and mast forest, however, was identified. Analyzing steatite vessel age reveals that the technology was present at low levels for lengthy periods of time, but the absence of a trend in age across space fails to support migration/diffusion models of spread. As a durable and portable boiling technology, steatite vessels would have offset the relatively high processing costs of mast by reducing processing time and replacement costs among mobile populations.
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