The transmission of pottery technology among prehistoric European hunter-gatherers
Name
s41562-022-01491-8.pdf
Description
visibility:open
Size
4.05 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (CRC64NVME)
E0GsezAwFj0=
Resource type
Journal article
Creator (person)
Dolbunova, Ekaterina
Lucquin, Alexandre
McLaughlin, T. Rowan
Bondetti, Manon
Courel, Blandine
Oras, Ester
Piezonka, Henny
Robson, Harry K.
Talbot, Helen
Adamczak, Kamil
Andreev, Konstantin
Asheichyk, Vitali
Charniauski, Maxim
Czekaj-Zastawny, Agnieszka
Ezepenko, Igor
Grechkina, Tatjana
Gunnarssone, Alise
Gusentsova, Tatyana M.
Haskevych, Dmytro
Ivanischeva, Marina
Kabaciński, Jacek
Karmanov, Viktor
Kosorukova, Natalia
Kostyleva, Elena
Kriiska, Aivar
Kukawka, Stanisław
Lozovskaya, Olga
Mazurkevich, Andrey
Nedomolkina, Nadezhda
PiliÄ iauskas, Gytis
Sinitsyna, Galina
Skorobogatov, Andrey
Smolyaninov, Roman V.
Surkov, Aleksey
Tkachov, Oleg
Tkachova, Maryia
Tsybrij, Andrey
Tsybrij, Viktor
Vybornov, Aleksandr A.
Wawrusiewicz, Adam
Yudin, Aleksandr I.
Meadows, John
Heron, Carl
Craig, Oliver E.
Date published
December 22, 2022
Abstract
Human history has been shaped by global dispersals of technologies, although understanding of what enabled these processes is limited. Here, we explore the behavioural mechanisms that led to the emergence of pottery among hunter-gatherer communities in Europe during the mid-Holocene. Through radiocarbon dating, we propose this dispersal occurred at a far faster rate than previously thought. Chemical characterization of organic residues shows that European hunter-gatherer pottery had a function structured around regional culinary practices rather than environmental factors. Analysis of the forms, decoration and technological choices suggests that knowledge of pottery spread through a process of cultural transmission. We demonstrate a correlation between the physical properties of pots and how they were used, reflecting social traditions inherited by successive generations of hunter-gatherers. Taken together the evidence supports kinship-driven, super-regional communication networks that existed long before other major innovations such as agriculture, writing, urbanism or metallurgy.
Project(s)
The Innovation, Dispersal and Use of Ceramics in NW Eurasia (INDUCE)
Funder
| Funder name | Awards |
HORIZON EUROPE Excellent Science | |
Journal title
Nature Human Behaviour
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
eISSN
2397-3374
Official URL