Periodic Reporting for period 1 - BREAKING THE MOULD (Breaking the Mould: A cross-cultural analysis of the character of bronze smiths and craft diversity in late Bronze Age Europe (1300-800 BC))
Período documentado: 2015-08-01 hasta 2017-07-31
Craft is fundamentally an expression of technical, aesthetic, social and cultural spirit of past ages, with advances in the general parameters of craft marking milestone shifts between old through to new Stone Ages or the early through to advanced metal ages. The use of metals represents one of the most fundamental paradigm shifts in later prehistory, when engagement with landscapes changed as new raw materials were sought and a suite of hitherto independent technologies coalesced - pyrotechnology, stone carving, wood working, ceramic production and more to enable metalworking. This was not just a shift in the materials used therefore, but a fundamental shift in how people interacted with their physical world through technology. This began quite modestly by the end of the Stone Age (certainly by the fifth millennium BC), but it remained something of a novelty. By the later part of the second millennium BC, however, things changed utterly. Metal came to be used commonly and by many different elements in society. The massive impact this had on social worlds could be compared rather broadly with the move from the first days of airplanes as rare and wonderful objects to today's mass travel by air - the technologies remain in the same general realm, but the social impacts are completely different. For this reason, the project explores the major changes in metal production taking place around 1300-800 BC in Europe. At the core of this work is exploring what was the nature of this change by assessing who was making metal objects, how and where this was done, where did they obtain their resources (and from whom), and what were people doing now with metal that was so different to before. In broader terms, the range of tools and weapons, and ornaments, that emerged in this era and the ways these were used were to shape the course of many elements of European societies right up until the latter half of the second millennium BC. The objective of this project is to characterise culturally particular developments in bronze workshop practices using case-study areas in Europe, and through this to rethink relationships linking resource control, craft organisation and identity formation. This is achieved by measuring variability in the technological choices, skillsets and knowhow underlying smithing traditions and defining the social practices of craft production. I will employ a cross-cultural approach using three case studies: the Balkans, Central Europe and Northwest Europe.
In first six months of the project, 3D scanning and modelling of objects was undertaken in the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin, Ireland and at Vrsac, Sremska Mitrovica and Kikinda museums in Serbia. Samples for metallographic and compositional analyses were taken in these museums also.
A database was made of all current published / available metallographic and metallurgical analyses in the Aegean, Balkans, Central Europe and Britain and Ireland. Samples taken and existing samples in my collection were prepared and consultation with my colleague Peter Northover initiated in Year 1. These have been used to build up a comparative analysis of different techniques used specific to each of the areas, and to define similarities and differences in metalworking traditions.
Experimental reproduction of mould making technology was initiated at the beginning of Year 2 at the UCD Centre for Experimental Archaeology and Material Culture, which included the use of 3D prints of objects as templates for making accurate replicas. These replicas were then also used, specifically a hammer and an anvil, to test metalworking techniques.
A 2 day workshop was organised in UCD on the interface between 3D digital modelling and experimental archaeology, the results of which will be published in the journal Open Archaeology (a peer-reviewed and fully open access venue) for which I am the guest editor.
A database was made of all current published / available metallographic and metallurgical analyses in the Aegean, Balkans, Central Europe and Britain and Ireland. Samples taken and existing samples in my collection were prepared and consultation with my colleague Peter Northover initiated in Year 1. These have been used to build up a comparative analysis of different techniques used specific to each of the areas, and to define similarities and differences in metalworking traditions.
Experimental reproduction of mould making technology was initiated at the beginning of Year 2 at the UCD Centre for Experimental Archaeology and Material Culture, which included the use of 3D prints of objects as templates for making accurate replicas. These replicas were then also used, specifically a hammer and an anvil, to test metalworking techniques.
A 2 day workshop was organised in UCD on the interface between 3D digital modelling and experimental archaeology, the results of which will be published in the journal Open Archaeology (a peer-reviewed and fully open access venue) for which I am the guest editor.
The use of new digital technologies and traditional crafts in synthesis represents a methdological step forward in the field. Integrating this in turn with material science has enabled my project to develop the most accurate replicas available globally to experimentally test theories on metalworking traditions. This is then used reflexively with analyses of ancient metalwork to assess the veracity of existing methods and to explore new theories in how metalworkers achieved particular qualities in their work.