Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T17:19:54.379Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The meanings of standardisation: conical cups in the late Bronze Age Aegean

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Ina Berg
Ina Berg*
Affiliation:
School of Art History and Archaeology, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Standardisation is not simply an indicator of economic factors, such as mass-production or craft specialization but can have roots which may be technical, social or political. Here the fabric, forming technique and dimensions of conical cups in the Bronze Age Aegean are studied by comparing products from the islands of Kea and Melos. While the fabric and forming technique on both islands are standardised and emulate Cretan models, the degree of standardisation of the pottery shapes varies between the two sites. This is explained by their having different social contexts of production.

Keywords

Bronze AgeAegeanstandardisationpottery production
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 78 , Issue 299 , March 2004 , pp. 74 - 85
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arnold, D.E. 2000 Does the Standardisation of Ceramics Pastes Really Mean Specialisation? Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 7: 333–375.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnold, D.E. & Nieves, A.L. 1992 Factors Affecting Ceramic Standardisation, in: Bey, G.J. III & Pool, C.A. (eds.), Ceramic Production and Distribution: 93–113. Boulder: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Arnold, P.J. 1991a. Domestic Ceramic Production and Spatial Organization. A Mexican Case Study in Ethnoarchaeology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnold, P.J. 1991b. Dimensional Standardisation and Production Scale in Mesoamerican Ceramics, Latin American Antiquity 2: 363–370.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atkinson, T.D. et al. 1904. Excavations at Phylakopi in Melos. London. Macmillan.Google Scholar
Benco, N.L. 1988. Morphological Standardisation: An Approach to the Study of Craft Specialisation, in: Kolb, C.C. & Lackey, L.M. (eds.), A Pot for All Reasons: 57–72. Philadelphia: Temple University.Google Scholar
Berg, I. 2000. The Minoanisation of the Cyclades: A Comparative Analysis of Ceramic Assemblages. Unpublished Ph.D thesis. Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge.Google Scholar
Bijker, W.E. 1995. Of Bicycles, Bakelites, and Bulbs. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Blackman, M.J., Stein, G.J. & Vandiver, P.B. 1993. The Standardisation Hypothesis and Ceramic Mass Production: Technological, Compositional, and Metric Indexes of Craft Specialisation at Tell, Leilan, Syria, American Antiquity 58: 60–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caskey, J.L. 1971. Investigations in Keos Part I: Excavations and Explorations, 1966-1970, Hesperia 40: 358–396.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caskey, J.L. 1972. Investigations in Keos II, Hesperia 41: 357–401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Costin, C.L. 1991, Craft Specialisation: Issues in Defining, Documenting, and Explaining the Organization of Production, in: Schiffer, M. (ed.), Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory 14: 1–56.Google Scholar
Costin, L.C. & Hagstrum, M.B. 1995. Standardisation, Labor Investment, Skill, and the Organization of Ceramic Production in Late Prehispanic Highland Peru, American Antiquity 60: 619–639.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cummer, W.W. & Schofield, E. 1984. Keos III. Ayia Irini: House A. Mainz: von Zabern.Google Scholar
Davis, J.L. 1986 Ayia Irini: Period V. Mainz: von Zabern.Google Scholar
Davis, J.L. & Lewis, H.B. 1985. Mechanization of Pottery Production: A Case Study from the Cycladic Islands, in: Knapp, A.B & Stech, T. (eds.), Prehistoric Production and Exchange. The Aegean and the Mediterranean: 79–92. Los Angeles: Institute of Archaeology, University of Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Davis, J.L. & Williams, D.F. 1981. Petrological Examination of Later Middle Bronze Age Pottery from Ayia Irini, Keos, Hesperia 50: 291–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eerkens, J.W. 2000. Practice Makes Within 5per cent of Perfect: Visual Perception, Motor Skills, and Memory in Artifact Variation, Current Anthropology 41: 663–668.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eerkens, J.W. – Bettinger, R.L. 2001. Techniques for Assessing Standardisation in Artifact Assemblages: Can we Scale Material Variability? American Antiquity 66: 493–504.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gillis, C. 1990a. Minoan Conical Cups. Form, Function and Significance. SIMA 89. Göteborg: Paul Åström.Google Scholar
Gillis, C. 1990b. Akrotiri and its Neighbours to the South: Conical Cups Again, in: Hardy, D.A. — et al. (eds.), Thera and the Aegean World III. Proceedings of the Third International Congress, Santorini, Greece, 6–9 September, 1989: 98–117. London: Thera Foundation.Google Scholar
Gillis, C. 1998. Pottery and Statistics: A Pilot Study, in: Mendoni, L.G. and Mazarakis Ainian, A. (eds.), Kea-Kythnos: History and Archaeology. Proceedings of an International Symposium Kea-Kythnos, 22-25 June 1994: 155–160. Athens: Research Centre for Greek and Roman Antiquity/National Hellenic Research Foundation.Google Scholar
Jones, R.E. 1986. Greek and Cypriote Pottery: A Review of Scientific Studies. Athens: British School at Athens.Google Scholar
Knappett, C. 1999. Can’t Live Without Them — Producing and Consuming Minoan Conical Cups’, in: Betancourt, P. Karageorghis, V. Laffineur, R. and Niemeier, W.-D. (eds.), MELETEMATA. Studies in Aegean Archaeology Presented to Malcolm H. Wiener as He Enters His 65th Year. Aegaeum 20: 415–420. Université de Liège/University of Texas at Austin. Service d’Histoire de l’art et archéologie de la Grèce antique/Program of Aegean Scripts and Prehistory.Google Scholar
London, G.A. 1991. Standardisation and Variation in the Work of Craft Specialists, in: Longacre, W.A. (ed.), Ceramic Ethnoarchaeology: 182–204. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.Google Scholar
Longacre, W.A. 1999. Standardisation and Specialisation: What’s the Link? in: Skibo, J.M. & Feinman, G.M. (eds.), Pottery and People. A Dynamic Interaction: 44–58. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.Google Scholar
Longacre, W.A., Kvamme, K.L. & Kobayashi, M. 1988. Southwestern Pottery Standardisation: An Ethnoarchaeological View from the Philippines, The Kiva 53: 101–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morris, C. & Jones, R. 1998. The Late Bronze Age III Town of Ayia Irini and its Aegean Relations, in: Mendoni, L.G. and Mazarakis Ainian, A. (eds.), Kea-Kythnos: History and Archaeology. Proceedings of an International Symposium Kea-Kythnos, 22–25 June 1994: 189–199. Athens: Research Centre for Greek and Roman Antiquity/National Hellenic Research Foundation.Google Scholar
Schmidt, S.K. & Werle, R. 1998 Coordinating Technology. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Renfrew, A.C. in press. Excavations at Phylakopi, 1974–1977. Athens: British School at Athens.Google Scholar
Renfrew, A.C. & Wagstaff, M. (eds.) 1982. An Island Polity: The Archaeology of Exploitation in Melos. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rice, P.M. 1981. Evolution of Specialized Pottery Production: A Trial Model. Current Anthropology 22: 219–240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rice, P.M. 1991. Specialisation, Standardisation, and Diversity: A Retrospective, in: Bishop, R.L. &Lange, F.W. (eds.), The Ceramic Legacy of Anne O. Shepard: 257–279. Niwot: University Press of Colorado.Google Scholar
Wiener, M.H. 1990. The Isles of Crete? The Minoan Thalassocracy Revisited, in: Hardy, D.A., et al. (eds.), Thera and the Aegean World III. Proceedings of the Third International Congress, Santorini, Greece, 6-9 September, 1989: 128–161. London: Thera Foundation.Google Scholar