‘Nothing new under the sun’: Rethinking recycling in the past– Editorial

Abstract

Editorial for the Special Issue of Archaeometry 'Tackling Recycling in the Past'. The practice of recycling has undoubtedly become one of the most important strategies to build a long-term sustainable society in the modern world. However, both the perception and practice of recycling can be traced back to prehistory through various archaeological records. Objects made of stone, jade, mortar, textiles, pottery and bones display evidence of physical reshaping and repair, as do objects of metal and glass. Metal and glass, moreover, are materials which can be melted and recast, freeing ancient people from the limitations of the physical form of the original object. Illustrating and understanding patterns of recycling and the underlying social organization can significantly advance our knowledge of ancient people, their economic, political and cultural motivations for recycling, as well as the broad interaction between the social and material world. Though the issue of recycling is not novel in the discussions and debates of the archaeological circle, new theoretical frameworks, methodologies and archaeometric data encourage us to revisit the topic in this special issue. In this editorial, we consider what recycling means in the past, and why these papers are vital.

Asking different questions: highly radiogenic lead, mixing and recycling of metal and social status in the Chinese Bronze Age

“…The reverse side of the same coin: disentangling the human-metal interaction through mixing and recycling of the metal It has been recognised widely that the potential existence of mixing and recycling could place serious obstacles for provenancing metal in antiquity (Pernicka, 1995;Wilson and Pollard, 2001;Sainsbury and Liu, 2022). So far, however, very few scientific techniques have enabled scholars to directly distinguish between freshly made objects and those made from mixed and recycled metal.…”

“…Sourcing the raw materials of archaeological objects is potentially more complex than sourcing geological materials. The most obvious reason for this is that the creation of archaeological objects involves human actions and choices (Soressi and Geneste, 2011; Sainsbury and Liu, 2022). One good example is seen in the study of archaeological bronzes.…”

Once upon a Glass—Cycles, Recycles and Reuses of a Never-Ending Material

“…Despite the recent increase in papers dealing with recycling in the past [1][2][3][4][5], there is little discussion of the motivating factors for and the implications of recycling [6]. As Sainsbury and colleagues pointed out, the recycling process should be viewed more appropriately as a contribution of meaning to objects and materials, involving four important parameters in the analysis: time, form, function and property [7].…”

“…As Sainsbury and colleagues pointed out, the recycling process should be viewed more appropriately as a contribution of meaning to objects and materials, involving four important parameters in the analysis: time, form, function and property [7]. With its modern baggage, the word "recycling" frequently causes misunderstandings in the ancient interpretation, as recycling is quite often conceived as a task related solely to economic and environmental Heritage 2023, 6 concerns. Given these considerations, it may be more appropriate to refer to "mutability" when talking about recycling in the past, a concept which has recently been introduced by Sainsbury and colleagues to describe "a more useful umbrella term for a wide range of activities involving changes to both form and substance" [7].…”