Periodic Reporting for period 4 - INDUCE (The Innovation, Dispersal and Use of Ceramics in NW Eurasia) Période du rapport: 2021-03-01 au 2023-02-28 Résumé du contexte et des objectifs généraux du projet What is the problem/issue being addressed?The Innovation, Dispersal and Use of Ceramics in North-west Eurasia is a project hosted by British Museum (BM), the University of York (UoY) and the Centre for Baltic and Scandinavian Archaeology (ZBSA), Schleswig, Germany. The project has investigated the origins, adoption and use of pottery vessels by hunter-gatherers across a landmass from the Urals to the Baltic. This is the first time that a systematic analytical approach has been applied to the use of pottery containers by hunter-gatherer-foragers. The project aimed to revolutionise our understanding of this area of hunter-gatherer technology, in terms of use, dispersal and chronology. After decades of research, the decoupling of agriculture and the production of pottery vessels in many areas of the world has resulted in a new wave of thinking to understand when and why hunter-gatherers made and used pottery containers and how the technology dispersed over vast regions. Identifying the origin and determining the use of pottery vessels in pre-agricultural societies continues to challenge archaeologists and these questions are now key issues in Eurasian archaeology. There is little understanding of the environmental and cultural contexts that led to the emergence of pottery or the timing and dynamics of its dispersal, nor its legacy following the introduction of food production. Addressing these significant lacunae in Eurasian prehistory motivated this project. The team has explored these phenomena, generating significant new data on the origins and function of forager pottery.Why is it important?The project has succeeded in bringing a new narrative to the Neolithisation debate of Northern Europe by highlighting the role of hunter-gatherers in facilitating the transmission of pottery technology from North-Eastern Europe to the Baltic during the mid-Holocene. Fundamentally, we have shown that this was a cultural rather than a demographic process and one that was not contingent on the environmental or landscape setting. While pottery has been the focus of this project, the mode and tempo of cultural transmission is also relevant to other hunter-gatherer innovations. Our project highlights the role of hunter-gatherers in shaping the trajectory of subsequent cultural and technological developments in Northern Europe including to food producing Neolithic societies and beyond. We also show that the early farming groups who expanded into Northern Europe most likely replacing hunter-gatherers and bringing their own pottery technology, nevertheless continued to use ceramic vessels in much the same way. We have also gathered intriguing evidence of hunter-gatherers acquiring farmed foods, such as cheese or butter, before the arrival of agriculture. What are the overall objectives? The project had four main objectives. Objective 1: When, and under what circumstances, did pottery vessels emerge in NE Europe? Were pottery vessels independently invented in NE Europe or did the knowledge derive from elsewhere?Objective 2: How, and when, did early pottery spread from its first occurrence and what factors stimulated or hindered its dispersal?Objective 3: To what degree did pottery transform prehistoric economy and societies?Objective 4: How did pottery use change through space and time, especially following the introduction of farming, and as pottery was introduced into new regions with markedly different ecological and environmental regimes? Travail effectué depuis le début du projet jusqu’à la fin de la période considérée dans le rapport et principaux résultats atteints jusqu’à présent Productive, sustained multinational co-operation with archaeologists and museum curators in nine countries - Belarus, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Ukraine - through regular updates, sampling visits and attendance at conferences and workshops throughout the study region. The sampling and analysis of over 1500 pottery vessels from across the study region, combining lipid biomarker and compound-specific carbon isotope analysis, radiocarbon dating and identification of plant and animal tissues in the organic crusts. This includes building a more robust reference database of authentic plant and animal tissues from across the study region. An archive of the data has been produced. The largest study of early pottery use by hunter-gatherers demonstrates spatial differences in pottery use, particularly variable use of terrestrial resources.The project represents the first systematic appraisal of AMS dating to establish robust chronological control for the introduction and dispersal of pottery vessel technology across the study area. Over 500 radiocarbon dates have been produced. A total of 15 peer-reviewed articles have been published in the period 2019-2023 inclusive. This includes regional and site-specific case studies, theoretical approaches and methodological developments. The most significant article, which brings together analytical, compositional and chronological data from across the study region, was published in 2023 in Nature Human Behaviour (The transmission of pottery technology among prehistoric European hunter-gatherers). Progrès au-delà de l’état des connaissances et impact potentiel prévu (y compris l’impact socio-économique et les conséquences sociétales plus larges du projet jusqu’à présent) This research has shown that hunter-gatherer ceramics provide an exceptional source of biomolecular and microfossil evidence of use, allowing detailed reconstruction of vessel contents. The project has generated hundreds of new radiocarbon (AMS) dates to date the sites where early pottery occurs. Comparative studies documented the technological and typological similarities in hunter-gatherer ceramics across the study region to provide variables that could be subjected to statistical testing and modelling.The project is a case study in technological choice, process and change. It has enabled an unprecedented opportunity to enhance dialogue between archaeologists in nine different countries across the study area, in particular in the role that groundbreaking laboratory science can play in building a clearer understanding of past human action. More widely, this prompts a fresh look at the cultural origin of Europeans. Our research is rebalancing the role that hunter-gatherers from Northern Europe played a much wider role to the development of prehistoric Europe than hitherto acknowledged. Study area, site locations and examples of reconstructed forms for the pottery styles
