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Bronze Age textile evidence in ceramic impressions: weaving and pottery technology among mobile pastoralists of central Eurasia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Paula N. Doumani  and
Michael D. Frachetti
Paula N. Doumani
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Washington University in St Louis, 1 Brookings Drive-CB 1114, St Louis, MO 63130, USA (Email: [email protected]; [email protected])
Michael D. Frachetti
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Washington University in St Louis, 1 Brookings Drive-CB 1114, St Louis, MO 63130, USA (Email: [email protected]; [email protected])
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Extract

Textiles are powerful indicators of technology and contact, as the authors show for the peoples of the Bronze Age central Asian steppes. In this case the textiles are mainly missing, but have left their imprints on the surface of the inside of pots, captured when otherwise redundant cloths were used to paddle or jacket the clay before hardening and firing. A good supply of old cloths seems to have been part of a potters' equipment and some were used several times. The authors analyse and date the fibres and weaves to give an indication of changing cultural context through the Bronze Age.

Keywords

RussiaKazakhstanBronze Agethird millennium BCsecond millennium BCsteppetextilespottery
Type
Research article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 86 , Issue 332 , June 2012 , pp. 368 - 382
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2012

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