Early ironworking in Iron Age South India: New evidence for the social organization of production from northern Karnataka

Abstract

Iron production was integral to political and ritual practices during the South Indian Iron Age (ca. 1200–300 b.c.), yet the investigation of the social relations of metals production during this period has been overshadowed by studies of iron consumption, particularly of iron objects in megalithic mortuary contexts. Recent archaeological research in the Tungabhadra River Corridor, Karnataka, has revealed iron production debris within and between settlements in more ephemeral occupational contexts, such as rockshelters. One notable discovery is the earliest ironworking facility in South India at Bukkasagara. The regional pattern suggests that iron production involved at least two classes of specialist producers—smelters and smiths—who exercised varying degrees of control over the practice and products of their craft. It also suggests that iron production was an important component in the construction and negotiation of Iron Age social differences, affiliations, and inequalities.     

A discussion of magic and medicines in East African iron working: actors and artefacts in technology

Through an inquiry into locally constructed, pre‐industrial Tanzanian iron smelting practices this article looks beyond social representation of technologies and suggests a more nuanced perspective than the more familiar rituals of transformation and gendered procreative paradigm. It is demonstrated that among the Pangwa and Fipa peoples iron smelting symbolism was not merely a social representation of “something” else and of something of greater significance such as religion, economy and politics, rather there were no real distinctions between technology and other spheres of life; there was no (ontological) difference between humans and non humans. Drawing on inspiration from phenomenology and semantics, as well as Actor Network Theory, I will argue that among Fipa and Pangwa iron workers the use of magic and medicines, as well as an overall thermodynamic conception of the body, was transferred from personal and collective lived experience by metaphorical imagination to the iron smelting furnaces.     

In Search of the Social: Steamboats, Square Wheels, Reindeer and Other Things

This paper examines the concept of the ‘social,’ particularly from an archaeological perspective, and explores how it relates to the ways in which we seek to understand the processes of technological innovation and change. It is demonstrated that the concept ‘social’ is far from well defined and that enquiry is bedevilled by artificial polarization between subject-centred approaches and object-centred particularism. Through the medium of early United States steamboat technology a different approach is forged through the melding of people and things with the idea of viewing artefacts as active social actors along with people. Ultimately, it is argued that maritime archaeologists should be more bullish in their approaches to material things—instead of adopting social theories ‘wholesale,’ we should insist that they include the things we study: boats, material objects, people, artefacts, landscapes and animals.     

The Role of Metallurgy in Transforming Global Forests.

Forest degradation—both past and present—has been a significant research focus of many disciplines in recent decades, and it is an area in which the multidisciplinarity and long-term perspectives of archaeological endeavour has the potential to make a particularly valuable contribution. One of the past craft activities that has long been linked to significant socio-economic change and associated accelerations in forest cover reduction and environmental decline is the intensification of early iron production—an industry reliant on the consumption of charcoal as fuel for much of its history. However, the impact of iron production on the transformation of woodlands is dependent on a suite of interrelated factors—climatic, ecological, technological and cultural—only some of which have so far been adequately scrutinised. This paper explores the theoretical context that links iron production with deforestation in academic and popular cultures, examining the role that archaeology can play in investigating this association, before reviewing recent methodological approaches that aim to interrogate the relationship between metallurgy and the environment in archaeological settings.     

Settlement Dynamics and Social Organization in Eastern Iberia during the Iron Age (Eighth–Second Centuries BC)

Summary.   This paper explores the formation of urban societies in the eastern Iberian Peninsula. From the Early Iberian Iron Age onwards it is possible to trace the emergence of a hierarchical settlement pattern in which larger settlements carried out the most important functions of control and exploitation of the resources in this territory, extending their authority over several small farming villages. This settlement pattern is associated with the complex socio-economic structures and political organization of Iberian aristocracies. In this paper we will focus on the development of the Iberians' active role in exchanging goods with oriental traders; it is this contact which subsequently produces social change in the Iron Age period.     

NETWORKS OF IRON: THE ROLE OF BLACKSMITHING IN MEDIEVAL COPENHAGEN

The information which can be extracted from studying craft and production in past societies is by no means limited to technology and exchange. Analysing the chaîne opératoire of iron production in medieval society provides a new perspective and knowledge of its role for urban development. Seen as a complex network of economic, social and material relations, craft and production are embedded in society and have the power to influence it. This article presents and discusses the remains of blacksmithing found at the site of Rådhuspladsen ('City Hall Square') in Copenhagen. The analysis focuses on the scale, types and organisation of the ironworking, as well as identifying the people who may have been involved, including their social and geographical networks. This study aims to better understand the role of iron production for the development of medieval Copenhagen and in general, its role in medieval Danish towns.     

The Mythical Shapeshifting of Capital and Petrification of Labour: Deepening Conflict on the Agrofuel Frontier

In the great civilisations of the past, shapeshifting promised a restoration of order in turbulent times in return for the deference of loyal subjects. It was a strategy of the powerful to maintain advantage and could also be used to bind opponents to an undesired form. This study finds its resonance in the contemporary shapeshifting that is the supposed transition from the fossil fuel economy. With reference to the fusion of oil, grain and sugar companies in Brazil's ethanol sector, it explores how amidst economic, environmental and political insecurity these “old villains” of the carbon economy have fused and emerged as the “new heroes” of the green economy. Accounts of dissenting rural subjects, however, unveil the mythical nature of avowed social gains from this shapeshifting. Amidst rural conflict and a successive weakening of regulation, it becomes evident how their petrification, in a metaphorical and increasingly literal sense is required.     

Does Practice Make Perfect? Craft Expertise as a Factor in Aggrandizer Strategies

The focus of this article is on exploring craft expertise and its potential as a factor in aggrandizer strategies. It is argued that there are elements of natural aptitude which enabled certain individuals to excel at flintknapping, allowing them to create objects of exceptional size and beauty in acts of elaborate knapping. Practice alone will enable an individual to reach a certain level of proficiency, but only practice in combination with ability can result in world-class performance. If, as is argued, native ability in some domain is a rare commodity, then harnessing it and developing it through practice would provide an opportunity for a potential aggrandizer to control prestige goods and accrue social capital. In situations where raw material, knowledge, and know-how are ubiquitous, as may have been true for flint technology in southern Scandinavia during the Late Neolithic, this might be one of few means available for a would-be aggrandizer to control prestigious goods.     

Eruvim: Talmudic places in a postmodern world

Lodged in the heart of Western urban space, eruvim are religious enclaves important to Orthodox Jewish culture. Eruvim enable acceptable behaviours on the Sabbath as defined by Talmudic theological dogma. Work, and the carrying of all objects associated with work, is prohibited in public spaces on the Sabbath by the Talmud, yet within the boundaries of the eruv, many such restrictions are relaxed, facilitating social interaction and community cohesion. This paper examines the religious and spatial dimensions of eruvim, including the obsessive detail paid to the demarcation of their boundaries, which serve as metaphorical walls and doorways. It also explicates the local politics through which private space is effectively extended into public space. Conceptually, the paper situates the topic within broader concerns about diasporic Jewish identity, which is threatened by assimilationism, slow demographic growth and secularization. It invokes recent theories concerning the spatialization of consciousness and subjectivity, noting the recent growth of eruvim as part of the global surge in ethnic identity that has emerged as a backlash to postmodern capitalism.     

Gender,precarity and hybrid forms of work identity in the virtual domestic arts and crafts industry in Canada and the US

Over the last several decades, there has been a growing recognition of the precarious nature of employment in creative economies, including craft industries. Despite this work, little research has explored how the rise of the platform economy is affecting labour market precarity. Our article explores the nature of precarity in craft blogging, looking in particular at the domestic arts and crafts. We examine how a growing number of women have left other forms of employment to engage in sewing, knitting, quilting, cooking and baking. Many women have also taken to blogging about their endeavors. However, there is a paucity of research on the variety of types of work that craft bloggers engage in and the challenges they face. Drawing upon interviews with female domestic arts bloggers in Canada and the United States, the article explores the work that craft bloggers engage in, the space and time of labour, and the variable sources of income that they access through their work. The article analyzes the experiences of precarious labour that arise at the interface of craft and the internet, and the multiple identities that stem from hybrid forms of creative work.     

Concrete and non-concrete: exploring the contemporary authenticity of historic replicas through an ethnographic study of the St John’s Cross replica,Iona

ABSTRACT

What do we actually know about how replicas of historical objects and monuments ‘work’ in heritage contexts, in particular their authenticity, cultural significance and intangible qualities? In this article we examine this question drawing on ethnographic research surrounding the 1970 concrete replica of the eighth-century St John’s Cross on Iona, Scotland. Challenging traditional precepts that seek authenticity in qualities intrinsic to original historic objects, we show how replicas can acquire authenticity and ‘pastness’, linked to materiality, craft practices, creativity, and place. We argue that their authenticity is founded on the networks of relationships between people, places and things that they come to embody, as well as their dynamic material qualities. The cultural biographies of replicas, and the ‘felt relationships’ associated with them, play a key role in the generation and negotiation of authenticity, while at the same time informing the authenticity and value of their historic counterparts through the ‘composite biographies’ produced. As things in their own right, replicas can ‘work’ for us if we let them, particularly if clues are available about their makers’ passion, creativity and craft.     

河北徐水东黑山遗址出土铁器的实验研究

本文对河北徐水东黑山遗址出土的66件战国至唐宋时期铁器样品进行了碳十四年代测定、金相组织观察和夹杂物成分分析,认为该遗址内出土的铁器制作年代集中于战国两汉时期,铁器的材质全为生铁和生铁制钢产品．采用了铸造、退火、炒钢、淬火以及可能存在的灌钢等工艺,同时该地区至少在汉代已能根据不同的材质和工艺制作不同的器物．本研究为深入认识战国两汉时期太行山东麓北段的钢铁技术提供了新的科学材料。     

Conceptualising differently-mobile passengers: geographies of everyday encumbrance in the railway station

This paper develops ideas of differential mobility at the scale of the ‘everyday’ by investigating some of the complex relationships between mobility and immobility; facilitation and encumbrance when moving through railway stations. Drawing on in-depth qualitative research with rail passengers in Britain, the first section explores the entangled relationship between differently-mobile bodies and the station by considering some of the tensions that emerge between experiences of encumbrance and facilitation. Focus here is on how navigating through the station with different mobile objects, or ‘prostheses’, impacts on passengers in a variety of ways. Drawing on insights from science, technology and society studies, it demonstrates how moving with different objects gives rise to fluid apprehensions of both mobile objects and the built form of the station itself. However, and importantly, this section suggests that this fluidity also has the capacity to disrupt the intended affective dimensions of the built form. The second section explores how differently-mobile passengers move through the station with these mobile objects. Drawing on de Certeau's notion of ‘tactics’ and Ingold's idea of the ‘taskscape’, this section pulls out some of the practical knowledges that, through repetition, develop into skills and techniques for moving. In doing so, this paper seeks to illuminate some of the complex relationships between mobility, prosthetics, encumbrance and affectivity that emerge when moving through the railway station.     

Meaning in the making: The potter’s wheel at Phylakopi,Melos (Greece)

It is now commonly accepted that technology is, to its very core, a social product through which we can explore cultural choices. This cultural dimension of technology will be examined with reference to the introduction and use of the potter’s wheel at Phylakopi on Melos (Greece) during the Late Bronze Age. At this site, the co-existence of two different manufacturing techniques was so deeply embedded that, despite the presence of hybrid vessels, many aspects of the pottery production had become linked to either a local (hand-built) or Minoanising (wheel-thrown) tradition. It will be argued that the traditional hand-building technique was associated with individual and rooted facets of the Melian identity (such as kinship, social class, or gender). Reasons for the initial stimulus for adoption of the potter’s wheel are considered to lie in its potential for competitive social practice through association with exotic, symbolically laden technologies, craft products and consumption rituals. The gradual application of the technology to ever more complex vessels, on the other hand, corresponds to the apprenticeship sequence outlined by Roux and Corbetta and may indicate an incomplete learning process or a certain lack of practice opportunities among local potters.     

THE CROW DOWN HOARD, LAMBOURN, WEST BERKSHIRE

Summary.   The discovery of a hoard of five middle Bronze Age gold objects during a metal-detecting rally on the Lambourn Downs in 2004 precipitated an archaeological investigation into their character, provenance and context. This article describes the objects themselves, their composition, how they were made and their archaeological background. It also reports the result of forensic archaeological work undertaken on them. The parallels for the objects and the social context of their deposition are discussed.     

The historical geography of islands Introduction: rethinking islands

The introduction to this special issue of five essays on the historical geography of islands considers the growing interdisciplinary interest in the material and metaphorical condition of islands. It explores how the physical and literal attributes of islands have a range of understandings such as the catalytic role of islands in shaping the modern disciplines of social anthropology and evolutionary biology. Thereafter, the Falkland Islands are used to illustrate how the complex interplay of physical and metaphorical meanings have profound implications for territorial nationalism in this case the South West Atlantic. Long viewed as an abstract territorial space, the history and geography of the Falklands reveals how islands should never be seen as simple or straightforward. The final section of this introduction details the five contributions and highlights how each author not only explores the geographical and cultural diversity of islands but also traces some of the implications for human understandings of these remarkable environments.     

INHABITING NEW LANDSCAPES: SETTLEMENT AND MOBILITY IN BRITAIN AFTER THE LAST GLACIAL MAXIMUM

Summary.   This paper explores the debate over the reoccupation of northern Europe after the last glacial maximum. Previous contributions to this debate have focused more on the timing of this event, rather than the technological and mobility strategies that enabled people to move into new landscapes. It is argued that a more detailed examination of the archaeological evidence from specific sites can provide a more nuanced understanding of these issues and can highlight the variety of technical economies employed in the late glacial. These concerns are explored through a case study from the Vale of Pickering in northern England.     

Statecraft,Scalecraft and Urban Planning: A Comparative Study of Birmingham,UK, and Brisbane,Australia

Recent discussions on state rescaling have pointed towards the need for a greater focus on how and why state activity may change over time in order to generate insights into the provenance, trajectories and outcomes of rescaling in different global regions and national state spaces. Consequently, this paper explores the dialectical and recursive relationship between the concepts of “statecraft” and “scalecraft” to explore the evolving sites, objects and mechanisms for urban planning within two key urban centres in different parts of the world—Birmingham, UK, and Brisbane, Australia. It is illustrated how a range of actors—from the national to the local level—have sought to craft and reshape the strategies and structures for urban planning according to different imperatives. In turn, the implications for a tighter specifying of the process of state rescaling are considered, as well as the subsequent nature of urban planning arrangements.     

Firing up craft capital: the renaissance of craft and craft policy in the United Kingdom

Crafts have recently been experiencing a renaissance. This revitalization sees craft increasingly recognised as a growing industrial sector with benefits linked to educational, cultural and economic development policy agendas. This paper engages with policy debates around the place of craft in the United Kingdom from 2010. Drawing on craft sector perspectives and UK government policy initiatives it situates the disciplines and practices of craft within their institutional support networks, organizational contexts and draws attention to the role of individuals in driving agendas. The paper focuses on the national facing crafts development organizations, the UK Crafts Council and the UK Heritage Crafts Association, alongside recent policy discussion emerging from the UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. Recognizing that the legacies of past practice often inform contemporary agendas, the paper explores how the advocacy of craft in the recent past has shaped the place and positioning of craft in contemporary UK politics.     

‘They'd only call you a scally if you are poor’: the impact of socio-economic status on children's identities

This article highlights the importance of socio-economic status to children's understandings of their own identity and belonging. It draws on a participatory research project with two groups of children, aged 8–13 years, from different socio-economic backgrounds, in two different geographic locations. It explores how children perceive and understand their own social and economic situations in relation to others. Whilst the children, from both backgrounds, did not regard themselves as rich or poor, they acknowledged social difference through their discussions of ‘chavs’ and ‘posh’ children. The article highlights the importance of place to those children with fewer socio-economic resources. The article confirms the nature and extent of the stigma associated with being relatively poorer, and increases our understanding of a socially divided society through children's eyes. It demonstrates how even young children perceive and experience social divisions, and contributes to a fuller picture of inequality from a child's perspective.