Fingerprints and the Organization of the Ceramic Industry Over Time at Tell Leilan Gender and the State in Northern Mesopotamia during the Early and Middle Bronze Age

The goal of my research is to elucidate the organization of ceramic production at Tell Leilan with respect to gender roles during from 3400 to 1700 BCE through a study of fingerprint impressions on pottery. I have developed and tested a technique for determining the proportion of men and women who formed and finished vessels in a certain ceramic assemblage using the distribution of epidermal ridge densities. There is a discrete change in the sex of potters at Leilan with the rise of urbanism and state formation at the site, but there is no alteration in this pattern that correlates with changes in the various regimes that had hegemony over the site over time during the Early and Middle Bronze Age. This result informs us about the effect of state authority on the public and private organization of crafts as well as the division of society along gender lines. Surprisingly, the change that occurs with the rise of the state at Tell Leilan does not occur at village sites in the Leilan Regional Survey. This result indicates that the changes in social fabric that occurred at urban sites with the establishment of state institutions did not occur to the same extent in hinterland settlements even though the state did control some of the ceramic production at these sites, at least during the Akkadian period. This methodology and research should allow for further evaluation of the highly theoretical literature on the relationship of gender to craft production in the ancient world

Inferring the age and sex of ancient potters from fingerprint ridge densities: A data-driven, Bayesian mixture modelling approach

The density of epidermal ridges in a fingerprint varies predictably by age and sex. Archaeologists are therefore interested in using recovered fingerprints to learn about the ancient people who produced them. Recent studies focus on estimating the age and sex of individuals by measuring their fingerprints with one of two similar metrics: mean ridge breadth (MRB) or ridge density (RD). Yet these attempts face several critical problems: expected values for adult females and adolescent males are inherently indistinguishable, and inter-assemblage variation caused by biological and technological differences cannot be easily estimated. Each of these factors greatly decreases the accuracy of predictions based on individual prints, and together they condemn this strategy to relative uselessness. However, information in fingerprints from across an assemblage can be pooled to generate a more accurate depiction of potter demographics. We present a new approach to epidermal ridge density analysis using Bayesian mixture models with the following key benefits: Age and sex are estimated more accurately than existing methods by incorporating a data-driven understanding of how demographics and ridge density covary. Uncertainty in demographic estimates is automatically quantified and included in output. The Bayesian framework can be easily adapted to fit the unique needs of different researchers. </p

Anthrofest 2014

The University of Pennsylvania anthropology annual undergraduate research conference known as ANTHROFEST brings together undergraduates involved in research across all concentrations in anthropology, as well as faculty and the broader undergraduate and graduate community. Each year, select students present and discuss their original research to the community at Penn. The conference is open to the public

The Late Chalcolithic Pottery of the Malatya and Altınova Regions: Distinct but Overlapping Communities of Practice

Dieser Beitrag befasst sich mit der Keramikindustrie in den Ebenen von Malatya und Altınova in der Region am oberen Euphrat in der Osttürkei am Ende des Spätchalkolithikums (LC 5, ca. 3400–3200 v. Chr.). Wir stellen die Produkte dieser Industrien in ihrem historischen Kontext innerhalb regionaler Trends im ausgehenden frühen Chalkolithikum, in ihrem geographischen Kontext mit Vergleichen zu keramischen Sammlungen aus Obermesopotamien und Zentralanatolien und in ihrem architektonischen und sozialen Kontext vor. Es ergibt sich ein Bild, in dem tief verwurzelte, lokale Traditionen der Keramikherstellung neben neu eingeführten Traditionen fortbestehen, die ihre Besonderheiten in Aussehen, Funktion und Herstellungstechniken bewahren, obwohl sie meist lokal hergestellt wurden. Die Erzeugnisse der verschiedenen Töpfergemeinschaften, die an diesen parallelen Industrien beteiligt waren, wurden in den Kontext der Nahrungsmittellagerung, -zubereitung und -konsum integriert, der diese Gemeinschaften überspannte und gleichzeitig ihre Eigenart betonte. Trotz dieser allgemeinen Ähnlichkeiten bestehen jedoch in jedem der hier behandelten Zeiträume tiefgreifende Unterschiede bei den Warenrezepturen, Produktionstechniken und interregionalen Verbindungen zwischen den benachbarten Ebenen von Malatya und Altınova.This paper focuses on the ceramic industries from the Malatya and Altınova Plains in the Upper Euphrates Region of Eastern Turkey at the end of the Late Chalcolithic Period (LC 5, ca. 3400–3200 BCE). We introduce the products of these industries in their historical contexts, by connecting them with regional trends from the end of the Early Chalcolithic Period, in their geographic contexts, by comparing them to ceramic assemblages from Upper Mesopotamia and Central Anatolia, and in their architectural and social contexts. The picture that emerges is one in which enduring local traditions of ceramic production continue alongside newly introduced traditions that preserve their distinctiveness in appearance, function, and production techniques, although they were mostly produced locally. The products of the various potter communities that were involved in these parallel industries were integrated on matters of food storage, preparation, and consumption that cross-cut these communities while also emphasizing their distinctiveness. However, despite these overall similarities, deep differences in paste recipes, production techniques, and inter-regional connections between the close-by Malatya and Altınova Plains persist during every period addressed in this paper.Bu çalışma, Türkiye’nin Doğusunda, Yukarı Fırat bölgesinde yer alan Malatya Ovası ve Altınova’da bulunan Geç Kalkolitik dönemin sonu (GK 5, yaklaşık M.Ö. 3400–3200’ler) seramik endüstrilerine odaklanmaktadır. Bu endüstrilerin ürünlerini; tarihsel bağlamları içinde, Erken Kalkolitik dönemin sonundan itibaren görülen bölgesel eğilimler içinde, coğrafi bağlamlarında, Yukarı Mezopotamya ve Orta Anadolu'daki seramik buluntu toplulukları ile karşılaştırmalı olarak, mimari ve sosyal bağlamları içinde ele almaktadır. Sonuçta ortaya, seramik üretiminin derin ve yerel geleneklerinin yanı sıra, görünüm, işlev ve üretim teknikleri açısından farklılıklarını koruyan, çoğunlukla yerel üretim yeni geleneklerin de yer bulduğu bir tablo çıkmaktadır. Bu birbirine paralel endüstrilerin içinde yer alan çeşitli çömlekçi topluluklarının ürünleri, bu toplulukları birbirine bağlayan ve aynı zamanda onların ayırt edici özelliklerini vurgulayan gıda depolama, hazırlama ve tüketim bağlamlarına entegre edildi. Tüm bu benzerliklere rağmen, yakındaki Malatya ovası ve Altınova arasındaki seramik hamuru tarifleri, üretim teknikleri ve bölgeler arası bağlantılar arasındaki her dönemde varlığını sürdüren derin farklılıklar da bu yazıda ele alınmıştır