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Everything Old is New Again?

“…Furthermore, in cases such as the cast iron transition in the Central Plains of China, where evidence is always sporadic (as will be discussed below), a framework or theoretical scheme is particularly necessary to provide an analytical tool to shed light on the relationships between various aspects of technology and to address the nature of cultural transmission in different development models. In this regard, Valentine Roux's (2003Roux's ( , 2008Roux's ( , 2010 research provides a useful, pragmatic framework with which to address the elements in a technological transition, in particular the social conditions that enable changes to take place. She proposed that a dynamic system approach ( Figure 2) can help identify the technical characteristics and social contexts for the appearance of new technology, like the wheel-throwing ceramic technique in the Bronze Age Levant.…”

“…As these studies clearly demonstrate, considering changes to be the result of a "lineal development"-that changes necessarily pass through certain sequences because o f rational choices (Roux 2008:82)-may risk simplifying the whole process o f technological transition. It would be more worthwhile to investigate how a technique was employed to achieve a given goal, and how technical means were selected in accordance with different social strategies, meanings, and conditions (Lemonnier 1986(Lemonnier , 1993.…”

“…Various approaches and models (e.g., Schiffer 1992Schiffer , 2004Schiffer and Skibo 1987;Skibo and Schiffer 2001;O'Brien 2008a, 2008b;O'Brien 2008; Henrich 2001) have been proposed to simulate how traits of one technique were passed down, selected, and altered during the transmission or innovation process. Since technology also links to many facets of society, including organization (Lemonnier 1992:150), world view (Lechtman 1993), and previous knowledge system ( van der Leeuw and Torrence 1989;Roux 2010;Basalla 1989), a social-constructionist approach has been developed to conceptualize the social relations embedded in production processes and the structural logics that led to distinctive patterns of technological choice (e.g., Dobres and Hoffman 1999). Technological change, consequently, is understood to be cumulative and integrated within a network consisting of both social contexts and the evolutionary selection of traits to be transmitted.…”

Groundstone Tools of a Copper-Smiths’ Community

“…These seem to represent low speed wheels; the faster potters' wheels probably appeared during the Middle Bronze Age and are frequently made of basalt (e.g. Amiran et al 1978: 57;Pelta 1996;Roux 2003;Roux and de Miroschedji 2009;Rowan 2003: 191-92;Sadeh 1996: fig. 69, no.…”

“…These include topics such as production and raw material selection, craft specialization, trade and exchange, use context and discard patterns, stylistic developments and functionality (e.g. Milevski 2011;Roux 2003;Roux and Miroschedji 2009;Rowan 1998).…”