The Standardization Hypothesis and Ceramic Mass Production: Technological, Compositional, and Metric Indexes of Craft Specialization at Tell Leilan, Syria

Abstract

Archaeologists often use measurements of standardization in ceramics as evidence for specialized craft production. Analysis of fine-ware bowl kiln wasters from the urban center of Leilan, Syria (ca. 2300 B.C.) provides a rare opportunity to test the standardization hypothesis against the archaeological record of a single production event. Scanning-electron microscopy, xeroradiography, neutron activation, and metric analyses of the wasters show extreme uniformity in manufacturing technology, chemical composition, and vessel dimensions. However, when contrasted with sherds of the same bowl type from other contexts at Leilan, a higher degree of compositional and metric variability is observed. This "cumulative blurring" effect stems from the use of long-lived types from multiple workshops. Although "cumulative blurring" increases sample variability, it does not obscure the overall homogeneity of these ceramics. Our results suggest that standardization can be a reliable index of craft specialization only under conditions of close spatial and chronological control over the archaeological record.

Prácticas de manufactura cerámica en el oeste riojano durante el Período Tardío (ca. siglos XIII-XVII AD). Aportes desde los estudios petrográficos sobre el estilo Sanagasta/Angualasto de la Tambería de Guandacol

“…Las clases más frecuentes son la I y II, seguidas del resto. 5-La estandarización y especialización alfarera son temáticas abordadas por numerosos trabajos arqueológicos y etnográficos, entre ellos Feinman et al (1981), Rice (1987), Arnold (1991), Blackman et al (1993), Stark (1995), Longacre (1999), Costin (2000), Roux (2003).…”

Chemical and Mineralogical Approaches to the Organization of Late Bronze Age Nuzi Ware Production

“…Batiuk (2005) assessed the provenience of the late fourth to early third millennium bc Red‐Black Burnished Wares from the Amuq Plain near Alalakh, arguing that many of the ceramics were locally produced. Other studies have examined ceramic production from a combined chemical and metric perspective, looking at the standardization of vessel sizes and chemical composition within the product of a single firing episode (Blackman et al . 1993).…”

The Smithsonian–nist Partnership: The Application of Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis to Archaeology

“…Earlier characterization studies of sealing clays at Tal‐e Malyan in the highlands of southwestern Iran (Blackman 1985; Zeder and Blackman 2003) and at Tepe Gawra in the Tigris River drainage in northern Iraq (Rothman and Blackman 1992) demonstrated the ability to track information flow within an archaeological site, with both sites displaying periods of primarily parochial administrative concentration and other periods in which external contacts proliferated. Characterization studies carried out on tablets from Tell Leilan in the Khabur River drainage in eastern Syria (Blackman et al 1993; Blackman 2003a) further demonstrated their ability to identify the modern clays of specific drainage systems , with tablets from early second millennium bc contexts. At Arslantepe (Blackman 2003b), in a region of the upper Euphrates River in Turkey, a late fourth millennium bc archive was demonstrated to be a local accounting operation with individual operation, with specialization in sealing certain types of containers indicated.…”