Technical Traditions Research Articles

The Social Implication of a “mixed” Ceramic Assemblage: Understanding the Predynastic Community of Nag el-Qarmila (First Nile Cataract, Egypt) Through Pottery Technology

This article investigates the social landscape of the First Nile Cataract region in the 4th mill. BCE through the application of petrographic and technological approaches to pottery analysis. The study focuses on the ceramic assemblages from the settlement WK15 and the necropolis WK14 at Nag el-Qarmila and identifies for the first time three technical traditions along with their synchronic and diachronic interaction. It provides new data on the more ancient phases of the so-called Naqadan productions and their relationship with the Shale Ware and the Nubian Black-Mouthed Ware. The results allow us to better frame the mixed assemblage that characterizes a site far from the elite centers and where relations between mobile and sedentary groups were, therefore, more fluid. The data obtained also constitute a comparative nucleus for the growth of technological and petrographic studies at other sites and periods, and the numerous insights that emerged will be useful for directing future research.

Castillo Decorated Ceramics as Boundary Objects: A Technological Reappraisal of the North Coast Tradition from Peru During the Early Intermediate Period

ABSTRACT On Peru’s northern coast, the frequent findings of Castillo Decorated ceramics in Virú (200–600/700 BCE) and Moche (100–800 CE) archaeological contexts have led to definition of a northern coastal tradition. Presumably, these ceramics were produced by a community of potters who possessed and transmitted their own technical traditions for nearly eight centuries, independent of the elites. A recent study of Virú and Moche shaping techniques reveals that Castillo Decorated ceramics were mainly produced by hammering, a typical Virú percussion technique. However, one exception is found at the Uhle Platform at Moche, where some of these ceramics were manufactured by coiling, a Moche technique. To reconsider the North Coast tradition, in particular the spatial and chronological distribution of Castillo Decorated ceramics, I apply the boundary object concept to understand the use of two distinct and contemporary shaping techniques for production of the same vessel form.

The Launch of a Political Satellite: Constructing the Ming Tombs Reservoir and "Mass Engineering" in Communist China.

Archives and oral histories show that the Ming Tombs Reservoir was a showcase project in Communist China directed by and involving the country's top leaders. This was one of the first projects to rely on the mobilization of physical labor rather than specialized machinery, driven by a belief in self-reliance and the use of local resources. It argues that the focus on the "masses," rather than engineers or scientists, challenged established engineering procedures and technical traditions. Historical evidence suggests that adopting a "build while being designed" mindset and mobilizing the "masses," projects could be completed, but often in ways that ultimately proved less than optimal. The case study suggests that innovations fail when local enthusiasm and technical knowledge are not balanced. By focusing on the role of the "masses" in shaping a novel technological landscape, this article highlights "mass engineering" to better understand this model of native innovations and economic autarky.

Putting chaînes opératoires back in their workspace and tracking down their entanglements. The evolution of the Logardan workshop (Iraqi Kurdistan) at the end of the Early Bronze Age

Data from recent work at Logardan (Iraqi Kurdistan) makes it possible to approach the history of a vast ceramics workshop from a brand-new perspective. Indeed, not only do Logardan kilns and production structures constitute, at this stage, the largest Mesopotamian set of remains inherent to the manufacture of ceramics, but the extensive excavation of the workshop on several levels also offers the possibility of tracking the evolution of this workspace. This diachronic perspective was adopted on the basis of a techno-spatial analysis of the ceramic chaînes opératoires. First, in-situ ceramics were examined in order to reconstruct the different production techniques that were performed in the workshop. Then, the qualitative, quantitative, and spatial evolution of these different technical traditions were observed throughout the stratigraphic sequence and according to the location of the kilns and other work installations. The aim of tracing the history and spatial interaction of the techniques was to record the evolutionary dynamics of the relationships between the potters who worked at Logardan over several generations.

The Solutrean Antlerworking in Hort de Cortés–Volcán del Faro (Valencia, Spain) in the Southwest Europe Context: a Preliminary Study

In this work, we present a preliminary analysis of the Solutrean antlerworking at Hort de Cortés–Volcán del Faro (Valencia, Spain) (ca. 26–21 ka cal BP). A restudy of its archaeological sequence, which came to encompass the Early Upper Palaeolithic to the Magdalenian period, has been a mandatory subject in the last years. This site became an archaeological reference since the beginning of its excavation in the 1960s but has not been systematically studied. The implementation of more specialized studies is used a) to observe the distribution of technical pieces in the stratigraphy and identify possible stratigraphic alterations and b) to restudy a huge lithic, osseous, and faunal collection which can provide new information that may clarify them. The aim is to develop a systematic study, from a technological point of view, to identify and characterize operational schemes and to define the modalities of antlerworking. The technological analysis of waste products, blanks, roughouts, and objects allows us to observe how raw material is obtained and transformed into a toolkit following the refitting by default method. It will help us analyze some questions about the raw material acquisition and transformation like (1) selection between hunted and shed antlers and its possible explanation, (2) the existence of planning of tool manufacture, and (3) the step-by-step production of the debitage. We will extract conclusions and analyze different social aspects: (1) by identifying technical traditions and comparing them with other studied sites and periods and (2) by knowing a new aspect of the way of life of these human groups.

An archaeometallurgical investigation of iron smithing in Swahili contexts and its wider implications

This paper presents the most extensive archaeometallurgical study of iron-smithing debris excavated in East Africa. It presents an integrated methodology, including morphological, chemical, petrographic, and contextual analysis of iron slag excavated from secondary ironworking contexts. Iron slag from three Swahili sites was analysed—Unguja Ukuu located on the southwestern coast of Zanzibar, and Tumbe and Chwaka situated in the north-east of Pemba Island. The results suggest that Unguja Ukuu smithing is associated with oxidising hearth atmospheres and high amounts of CaO, while slag from Tumbe and Chwaka indicates reducing hearth atmospheres and high silica:alumina ratios, potentially pointing to the use of a flux. Distinct technical traditions can be seen at Unguja Ukuu when compared to Tumbe and Chwaka, suggesting a regional rather than chronological pattern. Temporal continuity is evident throughout the occupation of Unguja Ukuu and between sites of different periods in north-western Pemba. The spatial distribution of iron slag at these sites suggests that smithing was taking place across the extent of Unguja Ukuu, while slag scatters were more localised and disassociated from domestic contexts at Tumbe and Chwaka. The wealth of information on technological and organisational aspects of smithing obtained during this study indicates that an integrated methodology can yield valuable data for a variety of smithing sites, irrespective of excavation strategies.

Brief interviews with hideous stone: a glimpse into the butchery site of Isernia La Pineta — a combined technological and use-wear approach on the lithic tools to evaluate the function of a Lower Palaeolithic context

The onset of the Middle Pleistocene (780 ka) in the European continent is associated with significant environmental variations (Middle Pleistocene Revolution), innovative behavioural strategies (bifacial productions, land-use patterns, raw material management) and a global increase in the archaeological evidence from 600 ka onward. Whether these changes are related to the rise of the Acheulean, the informative potential carried by these contexts is currently being explored through multidisciplinary approaches, allowing us to infer the role of these sites and the type of activities conducted. From this perspective, the Italian peninsula is a hot spot to compare the different technical behaviours and strategies human groups employ, given its crucial geographic location and solid archaeological record, both culturally and functionally speaking (the presence of sites with and without bifaces and core-and-flake assemblages). The site of Isernia La Pineta (590 ka), offering a rich lithic and faunal record, is an excellent case to join together the lithic technological study (i.e. “cultural” and technical tradition) with the functional analysis (i.e. activities conducted and exploited materials). Here, we present the result of the combined approach of these two disciplines on flint assemblages from layers t.3a and t.3coll. The new data will be discussed within the chrono-cultural framework of the Middle Pleistocene Revolution, linking the degree of complexity of the lithic production of Isernia with its function as a butchery site.

UMA PROPOSTA PARA O ENSINO DO EFEITO FOTOELÉTRICO A PARTIR DE UMA CONTEXTUALIZAÇÃO HISTÓRICA

The photoelectric effect is an abstract phenomenon that is difficult to observe and understand by students, creating an obstacle to their learning. The photoelectric effect consists of the ejection of electrons from a material exposed to a certain frequency of electromagnetic radiation. The packets of light, called photons, transfer energy to electrons. If this amount of energy is greater than the minimum energy needed to pull out the electrons, they will be pulled from the surface of the material, forming a photoelectron current. This article aims to describe the development, application and evaluation of a proposal for a didactic sequence in a high school class to teach the photoelectric effect, using the History of Science as a knowledge building tool. The strongly technical tradition in the field of Physics is reflected in the initial teacher training, making the learning process mechanistic, led to study and understand only what can be measured. However, the process of teaching physics is a human activity and needs to be analyzed from this perspective. This is the great relevance of approaches with a historical, philosophical and social bias in understanding science not as an entity that knows the whole truth, but as something that has been built over time in the most different possible ways, being subject to changes over time. of new discoveries.

Культурные тренды и их особенности в материалах стратифицированных комплексов нижнего течения р. Селенги (Итанцинская впадина, юго-восточное Прибайкалье)

The proposed publication presents materials of multilayered geoarchaeological sites of the Southeastern Baikal Region, which have their own specifics of formation. Cultural horizons are included in deposits of subaerial genesis, which mainly form the surfaces of river terraces on the right bank of the main water artery of the region, the Selenga River in its lower reaches. Preliminary cultural and chronological definitions, based on the results of a typological analysis of archaeological collections, demonstrate the dynamics of the development of cultural phenomena from the Final Pleistocene to the Holocene. The main trend, characteristic of almost all the studied sites, demonstrates the “delay” of cultural innovations noted in the archaeological cultures of the eastern coast of Lake Baikal and Western Transbaikalia. As a result of a study of a series of sites in the Itantsa depression (lower reaches of the Selenga River) in the early 2000s, we revealed the stability of the morphological and technical and technological appearance of stone tools in the Final Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic. We also noted the uniformity of the typology of the tool set made of stone and bone, and the stability of the exploitation of a single raw material base (raw materials are of the same type in terms of isotropic characteristics). These characteristics indicate a strong tradition of stone processing for more than 10 thousand years. The situation changes about 3–4 thousand years ago (the beginning of the Paleometal era), which is expressed in the expansion of the raw material base of stone raw materials, although stone processing technologies remain in the same technical traditions. Traditions of ceramic production are represented by fragments of vessels with imprints of woven net and cord, found both in the Neolithic assemblages and in the materials of the cultural horizons of the Early Bronze Age. The obtained materials can serve as initial data for the reconstruction of the development of cultural phenomena against the background of changes in the paleoclimatic situation in the Baikal region as a whole. It should also be concluded that human stay in the southeastern Baikal region is associated with climatic fluctuations towards relatively warm conditions, while the humidity indicator did not play a big role.

'Contact' as a Manifestation of Sensorimotor Empathy: The Experience of Expert Écuyers in Interaction with Horses

Chemero's concept of sensorimotor empathy offers a relevant introduction to the study of human/non-human relationships. This article proposes an empirical characterization of this phenomenon occurring in human–horse interactions through the notion of 'contact', which is a core concept in the technical tradition of the equestrian world. According to the assumptions of 4E cognition, we approach the notion of contact with a broader meaning than how it is usually defined, i.e.as the connection of the rider's hand with the horse's mouth. We state that contact involves the whole body and that it is not a passive touch but a dynamic one. Contact is intersubjective, meaning that its quality depends on the two agents of the interaction: the human and the horse. Within such an interaction, sensorimotor empathy allows the human and the horse to understand through the body and to fine-tune with each other to bring about 'good contact'.

Evolutionary Dynamics of Armatures in Southern France in the Late Mesolithic and Early Neolithic

Abstract The use of weapons, and therefore of arrowheads, contributed to structuring the technical, economic, social and cultural domains. In the technical sphere, emblematic projectile armatures are often considered to be loaded with cultural values and to embody the expression of human group identity. The study of their variability, in time and space, can shed light on mechanisms of mutation and innovation stemming from adaptative strategies and cultural choices. During the seventh and sixth millennia, the renewal of arrowheads corresponds to major changes in lithic equipment. Between the Late Mesolithic and the Early Neolithic, we observe a diversification of arrowhead shapes and the evolution of represented types. These observations enhance interpretative scenarios, especially questions concerning the transfer of know-how, techno-economic renewal and neolithisation. This article proposes to study these changes at the sequence of the Baume de Montclus site, a key site in Southern France. The selected sequence covers 1.5 millennia of occupation, roughly from 6500 to 5000 cal. BCE, with a corpus of geometric bitruncations of about 650 pieces. The combined study of microwear and technological and typological data leads to a comprehensive interpretation of manufacturing processes, hafting methods and function. These analyses provide valuable information on the diversity of arrowheads, the identification of specific technical traditions and the characterisation of techno-functional ruptures throughout this sequence. These results will subsequently be integrated into a wider, regional and extra-regional context, with a particular focus on the emergence of blade and trapeze complexes (BTC) and the neolithisation of the western Mediterranean basin.

Bone technology in the Badegoulian and Magdalenian of Parpalló (Valencia, Spain): A diachronic vision

This paper analyses the Badegoulian and Magdalenian bone industries from a technological perspective. Following the Refitting by default method, we analyse the different product categories (waste products, blanks, roughouts, and objects) to identify technical traditions in both periods and compare them with each other and with other studied sites. The identification of three Operational Schemes of transformation (Fracturing sensu lato, Extraction and Segmentation) arises important information in this sense. This study will enable us to explore different questions: 1- the relationship between hunted fauna for butchering and technical purposes, 2- the existence of planning for manufacturing tools, 3- the presence or absence of a standardised industry, and 4- the link between typology and raw material choice.Finally, it helps to identify possible stratigraphic alterations similar to those that occur during old excavations by observing how the technical pieces are distributed in the stratigraphy.

Socio-economic dynamics of Magdalenian hunter-gatherers: Functional perspective.

The beginning of the Middle Magdalenian is marked by an increase in the density and geographic extension of evidences of human occupation across western Europe. The Early Middle Magdalenian (19,5–17,5 ka cal. BP) thereby extends from Poland to Spain, and the sharing of the flint-knapping concepts and the circulation of raw materials show the existence of networks active over this wide area. In parallel, part of the production of art, ornaments, microliths, bone industry, and the proportions of hunted ungulates vary regionally and allow to identify distinct technical traditions. Departing from a palethnographic approach at a regional scale, this paper aims at participating in renewing our understanding of the mechanisms of regionalisation during the period, and among past societies of hunter-gatherers. The reflection is based on the techno-functional analysis of stone tools from two cave sites of west-central France that are at the heart of the definition of two technical traditions: La Marche (Magdalenian with Lussac-Angles points) and the Blanchard cave (Magdalenian with navettes). Inter-site comparisons of the functioning and management of stone tools, and of subsistence strategies show the sharing of techno-economical norms, expressing the adhesion to a wider community of practice. The long-term occupation of at least part of the caves and the high density of sites in the Vienne, the Creuse, the Gartempe, and the Charente Valleys, indicate the strong regional implantation of human societies. This strong territoriality (effective and symbolic) is likely a major factor to understand the specificity of the EMM expressions in the area, as well as the sharing, in the same economic territory, of technical norms and of part of the system of symbolic representation.

The Santa María pottery of El Bolsón valley (Catamarca, Argentina): Compositional characterization and implications on the elaboration processes, ca. 1000–1600 ce

AbstractThe results obtained from the multi‐analytic compositional characterization of ceramic pastes and paints of the Santa María style, from the El Bolsón valley (Belén Department, Catamarca Province, Argentina), are presented here. This pottery style had a wide regional distribution in Northwestern Argentina between ca. 1000 and1600 ce and is characterized by its complex iconography painted in black, cream and red. The analyses show that the containers correspond to the technical tradition of using grog temper and suggest that its manufacture involved a double firing process. This reveals a new practice for the time.

A river and its people: The example of Lower Palaeolithic occupations of the Têt fluvial terraces

Current data on human groups from the Lower Palaeolithic periods in Western Europe show a variability in material production, represented by the disconcerting diversity of lithic technocomplexes. Since the birth of the prehistoric discipline, fluvial and alluvial environments have been considered the witnesses of prehistoric occupations during the long Quaternary period. In this article, therefore, I wish to question the link between the geomorphological unit, the fluvial terrace and the lithic productions discovered there. Here, I take the example of the early occupations of the fluvial terraces of the river Têt, which is part of the sedimentary basin of Roussillon (Pyrénées-Orientales, France). During the Pleistocene, the Têt River deposited different generations of fluvial terraces, expressed by the variety of levels present in the landscape. This study focuses on level T3b attributed to Marine Isotopic Stage (MIS) 10, which yielded several series of lithic industries on pebbles. The assemblages, from the localities of La Llabanère, Le Jas and Le Moulin à soufre, represent a total of 890 pieces. Despite a taphonomic bias linked to the stripping of alluvial levels during the Quaternary, the results of recent prospecting highlight the reliability and technological consistency of these assemblages. Technicofunctional analysis made it possible to question these lithic series and to reveal their variability, witnessing the technical adaptation of prehistoric populations to the fluvial environment and inherited technical traditions. Flaking and shaping chaînes opératoires are well represented and help to illustrate the diversity of technical expressions of the Middle Pleistocene populations. Nevertheless, contrary to previous studies, we note a clear predominance of flaking chaîne opératoire that are expressed in particular through the diversity of flake tools. Finally, these results reinforce the importance of a new methodological approach to the analysis of Lower Palaeolithic technocomplexes in Europe.

Technical traditions and individual variability in the Early Neolithic: Linear pottery culture flint knappers in the Aisne Valley (France).

For the Early Neolithic lithic industry in Western Europe (5500-4800 BCE), the study of technical behaviors, recognition of technical traditions, and even more so, idiosyncratic manifestations are not widespread. In this study, we propose an original approach to lithic industries based on the identification of "communities of practice" and individuals within housing units. The comparison of lithic series from the Meuse, Rhine and Seine basins allowed us to identify different technical traditions in the Early Neolithic. The study of three dwelling units at two sites in the Aisne Valley in France shows that it is possible to distinguish different flint blade debitages, which we interpreted as the work of different knappers. This novel study of hand-finding in the villages of the first agro-pastoralists populations proves stimulating for the renewal of perspectives on the interpretation of the organization of activities within villages.

Pottery forming of the Cardial and Epicardial Neolithic wares: Analysis and systematisation of technological traces from the ceramic productions of Cova del Frare (NE Iberian Peninsula, 5200-4800 BCE)

The onset and development of the Neolithisation process in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula have been determined by the division between the Cardial and Epicardial chrono-cultural horizons based on the characteristic traits of the ceramic productions. The investigations about these productions have been fundamentally focused on their formal and decorative features, while other research dealing with their production and use have just recently emerged in the last years.This paper focuses on the reconstruction of the forming technologies that were used for manufacturing the Early Neolithic vessels from Cova del Frare (Barcelona, NE Iberian Peninsula) assigned to the Cardial and Epicardial styles. The analysis and systematisation of manufacturing traces reveal that both ceramic wares were produced with the same forming practices, regardless of their decorative techniques: the use of circular juxtaposed patches and the assembly of coils. The evidence of these pot-forming processes, which prevailed during the Early Neolithic occupations of this cave (5217–4796 cal. BCE), provides the first empirical data of the forming practices that were used by the first communities of farmers in NE Iberia. Furthermore, these results enable us to include this area in the discussions on the distribution of these technical traditions and practices during the Early Neolithic in the Western Mediterranean.

Analysis on the Types of Lace and Drawnwork Introduced to Shanghai

Shanghai was an important lace export port in the early 20th century. Due to the lack of documentation, the historical research on the introduction of lace technology centered on Xujiahui Notre Dame is still not exhaustive. This article uses the latest collected literature as a supplement to verify and analyze the construction of the lace workshop of Notre Dame in Xujiahui, Shanghai. Based on the technical principles in the lace system, the time and variety of lace and drawnwork technology in the Shanghai area have been combed and researched, found that the varieties in the Shanghai area are relatively rich, of which the technical traditions of Needle lace and Crochet have been formed very early. As a famous lace variety in Shanghai, the introduction time of Filet lace is not synchronized with the first two.

Technological persistence in ceramic production in the southeastern Hispaniola. The case study of El Cabo (600–1502 CE)

This research aims to provide a better understanding of the diffusion of ceramic morphological traits in the Greater Antilles and how communities experienced and integrated new ideas into their manufacturing traditions. The chaîne opératoire approach together with the communities of practice theory produce a holistic methodology to unveil social and temporal connections between artifacts, sites and communities. A detailed petrographic and macro-trace analysis of the ceramic manufacturing techniques for the site of El Cabo (Dominican Republic) is provided. Results evidence a complex homogeneous assemblage characterized by one major techno-group but petrographic heterogeneity. The communities, who lived in El Cabo, experienced and integrated changes in vessel shape and style (from Ostionoid to Chicoid features), though maintained conservative and stable traditions in the main technological steps. The petrographic heterogeneity implies that the inhabitants of El Cabo were probably involved in a broader regional network of interaction and were thus not limited to their community for the production of their pottery. Communities from different locations were, as shown by the presence of raw materials from various and distant geological environments, affiliated with a common ancestor represented by the persistence of one shared technical tradition.

The First Main Line in Russia

The article is dedicated to the 170th anniversary of the first Russian railway main line St. Petersburg–Moscow. The country’s railway transport, as the main type of transportation, has a rich history and remarkable patriotic, labour, scientific, and technical traditions. We must remember them. The emergence of railways in Russia, as in other countries of the world, was accompanied by many problems that needed to be solved: financing methods, types of ownership, track gauge, types of traction and signalling, traffic management and control, competition with other modes of transport, etc. The stage of emergence of railways in Russia is very instructive. What extreme points of view were expressed, and how long did it take to start building main lines? After the society realised the need for construction of railways, it became obvious that the costs required are not affordable neither for the state, nor for creditors, nor for private entrepreneurs. To better understand how construction of the first railway in Russia was conducted, the article offers many illustrations.