Mobilities and Pottery Production Archaeological and Anthropological Perspectives

Our workshop aims at a deeper understanding of various itineraries of pottery and dif-ferent forms of human mobilities in which pottery is relevant, bringing together archae-ological and anthropological perspectives. For thousands of years, pottery has been an important part of many societies’ material culture and therefore a major research topic in both disciplines. In past and present societies the material existence of ceramic vessels is informed by various movements across time and space but also by periods of stasis: from the mo-ment of their production until their exclusion from daily practices, either disposed as waste, excluded as funerary objects or stored as collectibles. In their seemingly endless material durability, ceramic vessels might outlive their human producers, distributors or consumers and travel farther and longer. Still they are embedded in the regimes of human mobility, ranging from daily subsistence-based mobility to long-term migrations. In such processes, pottery shifts between spatial, temporal, social, economic and cultural contexts. Thereby ceramic vessels are appropriated and integrated in new contexts of action and meaning, sometimes leading to material transformations. This workshop takes place in the context of our archaeological research project „Mobili-ties, Entanglements and Transformations in Neolithic Societies on the Swiss Plateau (3900-3500 BC)“ to which our PhDs are connected. We address the above outlined topic by analysing the production of pottery. Based on dendrochronologically dated settle-ments between 3900 and 3500 BC, two regional pottery styles and their local variations are well known, Pfyn and Cortaillod. The vessels share the same habitus and were made of clays and temper deriving from the settlements’ surroundings. However, some vessels specific to other pottery styles are also present on the sites. They are characteristic for pottery styles known from more or less far off regions (Michelsberg, Munzingen or Néo-lithique Moyen Bourguignon). Some of them were travelling objects, as their non local raw materials show. Others seem to have been produced locally, pointing to long-term mobility and a change of residence from neighbouring social groups.

Itineraries of pottery: a mixed methods approach to mobility

Neolithic wetland sites in the Swiss Plateau provide an extraordinary database for the study of mobilities, entanglements and transformations in material culture. Based on dendrochronologically dated settlements between 3900 and 3500 BC, two regional pottery styles and their local variations are well known, Pfyn and Cortaillod. The vessels share the same habitus and were made of local raw materials. However, some vessels specific to other pottery styles are also present in the sites. By focusing on itineraries of vessels and shifts in pottery knowledge, their appropriation in different contexts and the resulting material entanglements, we want to approach the multiple regimes of mobility: At Lake Constance - known for Pfyn pottery - specific Michelsberg vessels like tulip beakers and lugged jars occur in small numbers. These travelling objects were produced with exogenous raw materials and transported to the sites from Southern Germany. At Concise (Lake Neuchâtel) besides the local Cortaillod pottery the whole repertoire of NMB pottery, characteristic for Eastern France, was also produced. Further cases from the same space-time frame point to other regimes of mobility. In our two PhD-projects we compare pottery practices - styles, techniques, raw materials - from over 20 key sites in the region. Based on Bourdieu’s reflexive anthropology, we apply different qualitative and quantitative archaeological and archaeometrical methods, thus striving for a deeper understanding of habitus and the transformative potential of moving people, objects and ideas on local and regional scales and related social contexts.

Pottery as an indication of mobilities?

Pottery is one of the most common and stylistically differentiated sources in prehistoric archaeology. This might be the reason why it served as a waste projection surface for archaeological notions about culture, identity, and mobility in the past. As we do not have access to emic categorisations of Neolithic societies we focus on contexts of practice in which pottery was incorporated. It is the moment of production, which left some of the clearest traces on the vessels. Different ways of using raw materials, specific techniques, and characteristic pottery styles can be observed. We understand them as a result of habitus, as socially shared internalized schemes, patterns and habits in pottery production. Taking this as a staring point, two main pottery groups can be differed on the Swiss Plateau between 3900 and 3500 BC: the Mediterranean influenced Cortaillod pottery in Western Switzerland and the Danubian influenced Pfyn pottery in North-Eastern Switzerland. These pottery styles were not only entangled to some degree. Furthermore, in some settlements vessels made in “foreign” styles - Michelsberg, Munzingen, Néolithique Moyen Bourguignon - are present too. Some of them were travelling objects, as their nonlocal raw materials show. Others were locally made, indicating long-term mobility of their producers. To analyse these phenomena of mobilites and entanglements in our PhDs we plan to apply different archaeological and archaeometrical methods, thus striving for a deeper understanding of the transformative potential of moving people, objects and ideas in Neolithic societies on the Swiss Plateau.

Mobilities, Entanglements, Transformations. Outline of a Research Project on Pottery Practices in Neolithic Wetland Sites of the Swiss Plateau

A large number of later Neolithic sites (3900–3500BC) in Switzerland, Southern Germany and Eastern France offer outstandingly well preserved archaeological materials from cultural layers. Due to the wide use of dendrochronology, settlement remains and artefact assemblages can now be placed into a precise and fixed chronological framework, thus presenting a unique case within prehistoric archaeology. In earlier research, chronological and regional units were constructed on the basis of pottery. These spacial and temporal units of typical pottery sets were understood as Neolithic cultures, as culturally more or less homogenous entities connected with (ethnic) identities. Today, with a larger data corpus of excavated settlements at hand, we can begin to understand that this period of the past was in fact characterised by a multitude of cultural entanglements and transformations. This is indicated by the occurrence of local and non-local pottery styles in one and the same settlement: for example typically local Cortaillod pottery is found together with NMB-styled pottery in settlements at Lake Neuchâtel or Michelsberg pottery is regularly occurring in settlements at Lake Constance where Pfyn pottery style is the typical local one. These and many more examples show that there must have been complex entanglements of social ties expanding between Eastern France, Southern Germany and the Swiss Plateau. Given these circumstances the former notions of Neolithic culture should be critically revised. Therefore, in late 2014, the Prehistoric Archaeology Department at the Archaeological Institute of University of Berne started a four-year research project funded by Swiss National Science Foundation in late 2014: ‘Mobilities, Entanglements and Transformations in Neolithic Societies of the Swiss Plateau (3900-3500 BC)’. It’s objective is to address the topic sketched above by adopting a mixed methods research (MMR)-design combining qualitative and quantitative approaches from archaeology and archaeometry. The approach is theoretically based on Pierre Bourdieu’s reflexive sociology and his concept of habitus but includes further concepts of practice theories. By shifting the focus to the movement of people, ideas and things – to pottery production practices in contexts of mobility – a deeper understanding of the transformative capacities of encounters can be achieved. This opens the path for new insights of Neolithic societies including social, cultural and economic dynamics that were underestimated in former research.

Cyprus: its ancient cities, tombs, and temples. A narrative of researches and excavations during ten years' residence in that island.

Cesnola, L.P., honorary degree, 1880.

Not so ancient: the extant crown group of Nothofagus represents a post-Gondwanan radiation

This study uses a molecular-dating approach to test hypotheses about the biogeography of Nothofagus. The molecular modelling suggests that the present-day subgenera and species date from a radiation that most likely commenced between 55 and 40 Myr ago. This rules out the possibility of a reconciled all-vicariance hypothesis for the biogeography of extant Nothofagus. However, the molecular dates for divergences between Australasian and South American taxa are consistent with the rifting of Australia and South America from Antarctica. The molecular dates further suggest a dispersal of subgenera Lophozonia and Fuscospora between Australia and New Zealand after the onset of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and west wind drift. It appears likely that the New Caledonian lineage of subgenus Brassospora diverged from the New Guinean lineage elsewhere, prior to colonizing New Caledonia. The molecular approach strongly supports fossil-based estimates that Nothofagus diverged from the rest of Fagales more than 84 Myr ago. However, the mid-Cenozoic estimate for the diversification of the four extant subgenera conflicts with the palynological interpretation because pollen fossils, attributed to all four extant subgenera, were widespread across the Weddellian province of Gondwana about 71 Myr ago. The discrepancy between the pollen and molecular dates exists even when confidence intervals from several sources of error are taken into account. In contrast, the molecular age estimates are consistent with macrofossil dates. The incongruence between pollen fossils and molecular dates could be resolved if the early pollen types represent extinct lineages, with similar types later evolving independently in the extant lineages.

The origin of the metazoan biphasic life cycle: New insights from an ancient phylum

The biphasic life cycle, characterised by metamorphosis from a pelagic larva to a benthic adult, is found throughout the Metazoa. So is sexual reproduction via eggs and sperm. Amidst a tangled web of hypotheses on the origin of metazoan biphasy, current weight of opinion lies with a simple, larva-like holopelagic ancestor that independently settled multiple times to incorporate a benthic phase into the life cycle. This school of thought derives from Haeckel's interpretation of the gastrula as the recapitulation of a gastrean ancestor that evolved via selection on a simple, planktonic hollow ball-of-cells to develop the capacity to feed. We suggest that a paradigm shift is required to accomodate accumulating evidence of the genomic and developmental complexity of the metazoan last common ancestor, which was likely to have already possessed a biphasic lifecycle. Here we incorporate recent evidence from basal metazoans, in particular poriferans, to argue that a more parsimonious theory of the origin of biphasy is as a direct consequence of sexual reproduction in an ancestral benthic adult form. The metazoan embryo can itself be considered the precursor to a biphasic life cycle, wherein the embryo represents one phase and the adult another. Embryos in the water column are subject to natural selection for longeveity and dispersal, which sets them on the evolutionary trajectory towards the crown metazoan planktonic larvae. This alternate view considers the conserved use of regulatory genes in disparate metazoans as a reflection of both the complexity of the LCA and the antiquity of the biphasic life cycle. It does not require that extant embryogenesis, including gastrulation, recapitulates evolution.

Ancient missense mutations in a new member of the RoRet gene family are likely to cause familial Mediterranean fever

Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is a recessively inherited disorder characterized by dramatic episodes of fever and serosal inflammation. This report describes the cloning of the gene likely to cause FMF from a 115-kb candidate interval on chromosome 16p. Three different missense mutations were identified in affected individuals, but not in normals. Haplotype and mutational analyses disclosed ancestral relationships among carrier chromosomes in populations that have been separated for centuries. The novel gene encodes a 3.7-kb transcript that is almost exclusively expressed in granulocytes. The predicted protein, pyrin, is a member of a family of nuclear factors homologous to the Ro52 autoantigen. The cloning of the FMF gene promises to shed light on the regulation of acute inflammatory responses.

Perspectives on sexual and reproductive health among women in an ancient mining area in Brazil

The purpose of this study was to describe the reproductive profile and frequency of genital infections among women living in the Serra Pelada, a former mining village in the Para state, Brazil. A descriptive study of women living in the mining area of Serra Pelada was performed in 2004 through interviews that gathered demographics and clinical data, and assessed risk behaviors of 209 randomly-selected women. Blood samples were collected for rapid assay for HIV; specimens were taken for Pap smears and Gram stains. Standard descriptive statistical analyses were performed and prevalence was calculated to reflect the relative frequency of each disease. Of the 209 participants, the median age was 38 years, with almost 70% having less than four years of education and 77% having no income or under 1.9 times the minimum wage of Brazil. About 30% did not have access to health care services during the preceding year. Risk behaviors included: alcohol abuse, 24.4%; illicit drug abuse, 4.3%; being a sex worker, 15.8%; and domestic violence, 17.7%. Abnormal Pap smear was found in 8.6%. Prevalence rates of infection were: HIV, 1.9%; trichomoniasis, 2.9%; bacterial vaginosis, 18.7%; candidiasis, 5.7%; Chlamydial-related cytological changes, 3.3%; and HPV-related cytological changes, 3.8%. Women living in this mining area in Brazil are economically and socially vulnerable to health problems. It is important to point out the importance of concomitant broader strategies that include reducing poverty and empowering women to make improvements regarding their health.

Ancient Greek and Roman Worlds

"All are sole-authored, refereed items. I chose these four items because they are the eligible ones that, in my view, are most innovative in terms of content and/or methodology and are having the most impact in terms of reviews and citations."

Elephants and polity in ancient India as exemplified by Kautilya's Arthasastra (Science of Polity)

After providing some background on the domestication and use of elephants in ancient India, this article concentrates on the role of the elephant in Indian statescraft as outlined in Kautilya’s Arthasastra, reputed to have been written in the fourth century BC (over 2300 years ago). The body of this essay is presented as follows: first background on the nature of Kautilya’s Arthasastra is provided and then his advice is outlined and discussed about the care of elephants. This care involves the duty of the King, the duties of the superintendent of elephants and the law relating to the treatment of elephants. Subsequently, Kautilya’s views about the use of elephants in war are considered. The essay concludes with an overall assessment of the role of the elephant in the polity of ancient India as portrayed by Kautilya. It is argued that the high use value of elephants to ancient Indian rulers, especially in war, had a significant positive impact on the conservation of Asian wild elephants, and incidentally other wildlife in India as well. Today, the conservation of the Asian elephant depends mostly on its use for tourism and its non-use economic values which reflect human empathy with it and which are reinforced in India by social and cultural values.