Ceramic Entanglements in the Urartian Periphery : Technology as the Nexus of Politics and Practice / Susannah G. Fishman.

Format:

Book

Manuscript

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Fishman, Susannah G., author.

Contributor:

Ristvet, Lauren, degree supervisor.

Boileau, Marie-Claude, 1972- degree committee member.

Gopnik, Hilary, 1960- degree committee member.

Kassabaum, Megan, degree committee member.

Pittman, Holly, degree committee member.

Smith, Michael, degree committee member.

University of Pennsylvania. Department of Anthropology, degree granting institution.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Penn dissertations--Anthropology.

Anthropology--Penn dissertations.

Local Subjects:

Penn dissertations--Anthropology.

Anthropology--Penn dissertations.

Physical Description:

2 volumes (xvii, 460 leaves) : illustrations ; 29 cm

Production:

[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania] : University of Pennsylvania, 2017.

Summary:

This project examines the dynamic relationship between political context and technological practice by investigating how ceramic production at local centers in Naxçivan, Azerbaijan shifted with the changing political landscape. The regional center of Oglanqala was one of many locally governed polities in the Early Iron Age (1200-800 BCE), became a vassal on the edge of the Urartian Empire in the Middle Iron Age (800-600 BCE), and finally had to survive on the battlefield between Parthia and Rome in the Classical Period (200 BCE-100 CE). Technological production is always embedded in a social context, and new political configurations create new desires, changing methods of identity construction, and shifting market access. In order to reconstruct the ceramic production sequence--including raw material acquisition, forming, decoration, and exchange--samples were analyzed using petrography, neutron activation analysis (NAA), scanning electron microscopy-electron dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), surface treatment analysis, and formal stylistic analysis. By layering this information, it was possible to document how inhabitants of Naxçivan employed ceramic technology as a means of negotiating changing relationships. In the Early Iron Age, ceramics were locally produced within a regional stylistic tradition. Later, Urartian imperial expansion promoted a diversification of style and local material use alongside a significant expansion of multi-directional exchange. In contrast, Roman Period ceramics were produced within a uniform stylistic and technological tradition common throughout the Roman east, but half of the pottery was imported from Artashat, the capital of Roman Armenia. This imperial borderland was never completely incorporated into its powerful neighbors, and technological practices materialized changing relationships of engagement, ambivalence, and resistance.

Notes:

Ph. D. University of Pennsylvania 2017.

Department: Anthropology.

Supervisor: Lauren Ristvet.

Includes bibliographical references.

OCLC:

1334945839