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A Case for the One-offs: Improvisation and Innovation Within a Copper Age Potting Community

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 June 2016

Sheila Kohring*
Affiliation:
Division of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3DZ, UK Email: sek34@cam.ac.uk

Abstract

Unique objects are often poorly integrated into discussions about the social organization of production or technological processes. Often they are frustratingly interpreted as ritual or prestige objects, or they are simply consigned to footnotes in archaeological reports. This does not do them justice and their contextualization may provide greater insight into the social factors involved in production activities. This paper attempts to demonstrate what unique, or one-off, objects can tell us about technological systems and how improvisational technical choices can lead to innovation within society. It focuses on a particular example of pottery production and usage at the Copper Age site of San Blas (Spain) and how two particular vessels on the surface appear to be unique one-off products. This paper shows that one-off objects may in fact be opening the door to innovation through acts of improvisation within existing socially sanctioned production aesthetics and object ideals.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research 2016 

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