Miniatures from domestic contexts in Iron Age Iberia

Abstract

This article reviews a set of miniatures from domestic contexts in Iron Age eastern Iberia, and interprets them in terms of their role in forging social personae. After an introduction to the historical case under consideration, the miniatures are described in terms of their typology and their contexts of provenance are outlined. Though not abundant, they tend to occur in central places in the landscape; specifically, they are often found in houses of the powerful. The vast majority are miniatures of pottery and tools, though some miniature weapons are recorded. We contend that these objects were used as a means of enculturation and for the learning of values and norms. It is no coincidence that they emerge in the archaeological record of Iron Age Iberia at the same time as the rise of a social structure based on hereditary power.

Miniature in Everything but Meaning: A Contextual Analysis of Miniature Vessels at Homol'ovi I

“…Alternatively, if miniature vessels were produced by adults for children's play/enculturation (e.g., Bullen 1947; Park 1998), the production quality may be high, closely mimicking full-sized versions. When objects ended their use life as toys, they were likely to be discarded in domestic or midden areas of a village; miniature vessels have been recovered from domestic contexts in India (Menon and Varma 2010) and Iron Age Iberia (López-Bertran and Vives-Ferrándiz 2015). It is also possible that miniature vessels were appropriated and used for play by children at some point in their life history (Crawford 2009:61–62).…”

“…Miniaturized forms of objects, humans, and animals are found in archaeological contexts throughout the world. These forms are unique in that they are constructed to reference or signify a full-sized object, in addition to embodying their own inherent meaning and/or function (Foxhall 2015; Kiernan 2015; López-Bertran and Vives-Ferrándiz 2015). Miniature ceramic vessels, though relatively uncommon, have been found at sites across the Pueblo Southwest.…”

“…For the purpose of this research, miniature vessels are defined as vessels of small enough size to render them unlikely to be involved in daily practices of cooking, serving, or storing food, but that mimic in design and vessel form the standard corpus of a ceramic assemblage (see also López-Bertran and Vives-Ferrándiz 2015). Their size—typically weighing 40 g or less and measuring under 10 cm in height and diameter—distinguishes these from vessels on the smaller end of the size distribution of a typical ceramic assemblage.…”

“…Our study examines the miniature vessels uncovered during excavations of Homol'ovi I, an ancestral Hopi pueblo in northeastern Arizona, to better understand their significance in past Pueblo society. This analysis considers both technological characteristics and contexts of use and deposition to understand production as well as the social practices and performances utilizing these vessels (Flegenheimer et al 2015; Foxhall 2015; López-Bertran and Vives-Ferrándiz 2015). By completing a detailed analysis of the assemblage, the variability in miniature vessel construction, use, and discard can be assessed in relation to the hypothesized learning and ritual frameworks.…”

Miniatures as Ritual Objects: Exploring the Role of Small-Sized Vessels among the Complex Late Holocene Hunter-Gatherers from the Paraná River Lowlands in South America

“…Miniatures constitute a scaled-down version of real artefacts (López 2012), which, because of their small dimensions, apparently cannot be used for the same purposes as the objects of which they are copies. The miniaturization of objects exists on a global scale, so that the archaeological record of miniatures in different raw materials covers a large spatial, temporal and cultural spectrum (Aguirre 2004; Carey 2006; Cervantes et al 2011; Fladd & Barker 2019; Guerra Clará 2014; Hermes 2003; Kiernan 2015; López Bertrán & Vives Ferrándiz 2015; Park 1998; Park & Mousseau 2003; Prous & Jácome 2007; Uribe et al 2007; Valdez et al 2006, among others). Small objects are frequent in ritual contexts, such as sanctuaries or burials, where they served as votive and mortuary offerings (Gabaldón Martínez 2004).…”