Consequences of the Introduction of Metallurgy

This paper discusses the underdetermined changes brought about by the introduction of extractive metallurgy in the southern Levant. It takes a long-term-perspective. The author sums up current perspectives with regard to a modified chronology based on calibrated radiocarbon dates before re-evaluating the interconnections between technical innovation and social change. Arguments in favor and against a Schivelbuschian view on extractive copper metallurgy are discussed as well as a variety of social fields in which changes can be detected.Dieser Beitrag beschreibt die Veränderungen, die die Einführung der extraktiven Metallurgie in der südlichen Levante bewirkten. Dabei wird eine Langzeitperspektive eingenom- men. Der Autor fasst aktuelle Perspektiven im Hinblick auf eine geänderte Chronologie zusammen, die auf kalibrierten Radiokarbondaten basiert. Damit können die Verbindungen zwischen technischer Innovation und sozialen Veränderungen neu bewertet werden. In diesem Zusammenhang werden Argumente für und gegen einen an Schivelbusch angelehnten Blick auf extraktive Kupfermetallurgie sowie auf eine Vielzahl sozialer Bereiche diskutiert, in denen Veränderungen festgestellt werden können

Tel Tsaf, Israel: Die Arbeiten des Jahres 2013

The prehistoric settlement Tel Tsaf, situated near Beth Shean in the middle Jordan Valley, is excavated by an international team of scientists. The work started in 2013 with a test campaign that could verify the existence of very well preserved Late Neolithic/Middle Chalcolithic remains with no later disturbances right under the top-soil. Soundings in the west of the site could document a much larger settlement area than previously thought. The stratigraphy continues to the Neolithic Wadi Rabah-culture and thus offers the unique situation to examine the beginnings of early forms of social complexity. The project aims to document this stratigraphy and analyse the socioeconomic changes involved in this process in an interdisciplinary perspective

Contextualising Ancient Technology

The diffusion of innovations from the Near East into the ‘static’ surrounding peripheries has become a well-known archaeological paradigm, often summed up as Ex Oriente Lux. While this conflicts with modern, scientifically controlled chronologies, it is difficult to explain as mere local developments and pure chance the appearance of large-scale communication networks, the transformation of power concentrations in the first states, or the diffusion of the wheel, alloyed metals, and writing. The papers in this volume follow two approaches to convene on new insights into the prehistoric and ancient innovation process. Theoretical perspectives attempt to challenge and modify traditional models of innovation diffusion that lack the chronological depth of archaeological sources, while case studies from the Copper, Bronze and Iron Ages of Europe, southwest Asia, and North Africa analyze the specific archaeological and sociopolitical contexts, the technological traditions of innovations, and the specifications of their emergence, spread, and improvements

A Research Program on Innovations in Prehistory and Antiquity

The authors discuss the simultaneous appearance of technological innovations in three key technologies (metallurgy, wheeled vehicles, weighing systems) in the second half of the 4th millennium. This is done from a source-critical perspective because the innova- tions are discussed with the help of dynamic maps from the Topoi project Digital Atlas of Innovations. Besides indications of diffusion gradients influenced by special research conditions, exceptional waves of innovation can be detected for all three technologies in the discussed period. These waves of innovation cannot, however, be generalized but have to be understood on the basis of the respective technology traditions and lines of devel- opment specific to local areas. Monocentric diffusion theories can be clearly disproven, local technology developments and their converging in certain centrally situated regions have to be assumed instead. Similarly, the transfer of objects and their châine opératoire can only be detected rather infrequently, while the adaptation to local socio-economic and environmental factors can be demonstrated

The earliest cotton fibers and Pan-regional contacts in the Near East

Fiber technology (cordage and textile) has played a central role in all human societies for thousands of years, and its production, application and exchange have deep roots in prehistory. However, fiber remains have only rarely been observed in prehistoric sites because they tend to decay quickly in normal environmental conditions. To overcome preservation problems of macroscopic remains, we employed microbotanical analysis on soils from anthropogenic sediments in activity areas at Tel Tsaf in the Jordan Valley, Israel (ca. 5,200–4,700 cal BC), and recovered fiber microremains. This includes at least two types of bast fibers and the earliest evidence of cotton in the Near East, some of which were dyed in various colors. Some of these fibers likely represent the remnants of ancient clothing, fabric containers, cordage, or other belongings. The cotton remains, probably derived from wild species originating in South Asia, predate the oldest known cotton domestication in the Indus Valley by about two millennia. Tel Tsaf played a pivotal role in trans-regional trade and exchange networks in the southern Levant, and the presence of cotton at the site points to possible connections with the Indus Valley as early as 7,200 years ago

The Interplay of People and Technologies

Histories of innovation are prototypical success stories. The advent of the wheel, of writing, printing, the steam engine or computers: where would we be without these path-breaking technological innovations and their global consequences? At least retrospectively, innovations appear as linear, straightforward processes. However, this view is too simplistic. Innovations are not self-evident new elements of life but meet social and technological resistance. In accounts of past innovations, we also often forget that their price is always an irremediable loss of knowledge and practical skills. This collection of essays shows that innovations, both ancient and more recent ones, are located in a network of pre-existing life-worlds. The authors elucidate the wide and often unrecognized impacts of innovations on social structures and cultural practices. Case studies from ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, central Europe and the modern world highlight the preconditions and off-ignored secondary effects of innovation. They address the complex social negotiations and the multitude of unforeseen and unplanned changes which accompany the New, rather than focusing on intended changes, which are usually understood as improvements and ways to broaden possibilities for action. Our ultimate goal is to investigate the complex entangle ments of innovations in past and present worlds and deepen our understanding of mechanisms of cultural change

Diversidad cultural en la Eurasia occidental prehistórica: ¿Cómo se difundieron y reinventaron las innovaciones en tiempos antiguos?

El discurso arqueológico ha destacado durante mucho tiempo las grandes narrativas de difusión. Desde los centros culturales de Egipto y Mesopotamia, las ondas culturales emitían e inundaban las regiones circundantes. Fue con el advenimiento de la datación en C14 que muchos de esos modelos difusionistas no pudieron ser sostenidos ya que las supuestas periferias de repente disponían de fechas más antiguas para muchos fenómenos técnicos, sociales o religiosos que se suponían originados originalmente en el Cercano Oriente. Hoy, por primera vez, la arqueología es capaz de rastrear tales difusiones sin tener un modelo subyacente que deba ser aceptado. En cambio, la arqueología moderna es capaz de ayudarse a sí misma a comprender la complejidad y los problemas de los procesos de difusión y, por lo tanto, permite una nueva y profunda comprensión histórica. Este trabajo explorará los registros arqueológicos de Europa y Asia Occidental, con alguna mención al norte de África, y estudiará cómo la diversidad cultural del "Viejo Mundo" también influyó en los procesos, que a menudo se simplifican como una evolución de la complejidad, es decir, la difusión del conocimiento técnico y el surgimiento de sociedades complejas.The archaeological discourse has for a long time stressed great narratives of diffusion. From the supposed centres of Egypt and Mesopotamia cultural waves emitted and flooded through the surrounding regions. It was with the advent of C14-dating that many of those diffusionistic models could not be upheld anymore since the assumed peripheries suddenly disposed of older dates for many technical, social or religious phenomena that were thought to have initially originated in the Near East. Today, for the first time, archaeology is able to trace such diffusions without having an underlying model which is also needed for dating the finds. Instead modern archaeology is able to help itself understand the complexity and problems of diffusion processes and thus allows a new, deep historical understanding. The paper will explore the archaeological record of Europe and Western Asia, with some mentions on Northern Africa, and study how cultural diversity of the “Old World” also influenced processes, which are often simplified as an evolution of complexity, namely the diffusion of technical knowledge and the rise of complex societies.Fil: Klimscha, Florian. Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum Hannover; Alemania

What Makes the World Go Round? SilencedConsequences of the Introduction of Metallurgy

Dieser Beitrag beschreibt die Veränderungen, die die Einführung der extraktiven Metallurgie in der südlichen Levante bewirkten. Dabei wird eine Langzeitperspektive eingenommen. Der Autor fasst aktuelle Perspektiven im Hinblick auf eine geänderte Chronologie zusammen, die auf kalibrierten Radiokarbondaten basiert. Damit können die Verbindungen zwischen technischer Innovation und sozialen Veränderungen neu bewertet werden. In diesem Zusammenhang werden Argumente für und gegen einen an Schivelbusch angelehnten Blick auf extraktive Kupfermetallurgie sowie auf eine Vielzahl sozialer Bereiche diskutiert, in denen Veränderungen festgestellt werden können.This paper discusses the underdetermined changes brought about by the introduction of extractive metallurgy in the southern Levant. It takes a long-term-perspective. The author sums up current perspectives with regard to a modified chronology based on calibrated radiocarbon dates before re-evaluating the interconnections between technical innovation and social change. Arguments in favor and against a Schivelbuschian view on extractive copper metallurgy are discussed as well as a variety of social fields in which changes can be detected