Not So Much a Pot, More a Way of Life

Book excerpt: There is more to artefact analysis than the study of chronology and provenance. This is the theme of these essays which are based on discussions at the Theoretical Archaeology Group conferences at Durham and Bradford in 1993 and 1994. The authors are concerned that some of the theoretical and practical orientations of artefact analysis are restrictive and of questionable validity. Contents include: Individual and community choice in present-day pottery production and exchange in the Andes (Bill Sillar); The social context of eating and drinking in early Roman Britain (Karen I Meadows); Historical, geographical and anthropological imaginations: early ceramics in southern Italy (M Z Pluciennik); From ceramic finishes to modes of production: Iron Age finewares from central France (Kevin Andrews); Why do excavation reports have finds catalogues? (Penelope M Allison); Family, household and production: the potters of the Saintonge, France, 1500 to 1800 (Elizabeth Musgrave); The social significance of imported medieval pottery (Duncan H Brown); Habitus, social identity and Anglo-Saxon pottery (P W Blinkhorn); Towards a phenomenological approach to the study of medieval pottery (C G Cumberpatch); Size is important: Iron Age vessel capacities in central and southern England (Ann Woodward & Paul Blinkhorn).