Creativity in the Bronze Age
Understanding Innovation in Pottery, Textile, and Metalwork Production

This book explores the nature of creativity in the European Bronze Age through developments in pottery, textiles, and metalwork.

Lise Bender Jørgensen (Author), Joanna Sofaer (Author), Marie Louise Stig Sørensen (Author)

9781108421362, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 18 January 2018

356 pages, 69 b/w illus. 3 tables
25.3 x 18 x 2 cm, 0.88 kg

Creativity is an integral part of human history, yet most studies focus on the modern era, leaving unresolved questions about the formative role that creativity has played in the past. This book explores the fundamental nature of creativity in the European Bronze Age. Considering developments in crafts that we take for granted today, such as pottery, textiles, and metalwork, the volume compares and contrasts various aspects of their development, from the construction of the materials themselves, through the production processes, to the design and effects deployed in finished objects. It explores how creativity is closely related to changes in material culture, how it directs responses to the new and unfamiliar, and how it has resulted in changes to familiar things and practices. Written by an international team of scholars, the case studies in this volume consider wider issues and provide detailed insights into creative solutions found in specific objects.

Introduction Marie Louise Stig Sørensen, Joanna Sofaer and Lise Bender Jørgensen
Part I. Raw Materials: Creativity and the Properties of Materials: Introduction Marie Louise Stig Sørensen, Joanna Sofaer and Lise Bender Jørgensen
Fibres for Bronze Age textiles Lise Bender Jørgensen and Antoinette Rast-Eicher
Making metals: from copper to bronze Marie Louise Stig Sørensen and Grahame Appleby
Potter's clay Joanna Sofaer
Creativity and materials: reflections Marie Louise Stig Sørensen, Joanna Sofaer and Lise Bender Jørgensen
Part II. Production Practices: Introduction Lise Bender Jørgensen, Marie Louise Stig Sørensen and Joanna Sofaer
Textile production Lise Bender Jørgensen
The production of metal objects Grahame Appleby and Marie Louise Stig Sørensen
The production of pottery Joanna Sofaer
Case studies
Introduction
1. Creativity and spindle whorls at the Bronze Age tell of Százhalombatta-Földvár, Hungary Sophie Bergerbrant
2. Forming metal: the development of moulds Grahame Appleby and Marie Louise Stig Sørensen
3. Variability in the Chaîne Opératoire: the case of Belegiš cremation vessels Sarah Coxon
4. The production of Scandinavian Bronze Age textiles: skill and creativity Sølvi Helene Fossøy
5. Twisting the Bronze Age Lise Bender Jørgensen
Production practices: reflections Lise Bender Jørgensen, Marie Louise Stig Sørensen and Joanna Sofaer
Part III. Effects: Shape, Motifs, Pattern, Colour, and Texture: Introduction Joanna Sofaer, Lise Bender Jørgensen and Marie Louise Stig Sørensen
Case studies
Introduction
6. Creativity in Bronze Age tailoring: women's blouses from Denmark Helga Rösel-Mautendorfer
7. The one-edged razor: a vivid medium of creativity and meaning Flemming Kaul
8. Creativity in middle and late Bronze Age bird-shaped and bird-ornamented ceramic objects in the Carpathian Basin and the lower Danube Region Darko Mari?evi? and Joanna Sofaer
9. To decorate a Nordic Bronze Age razor: a design challenge Marie Louise Stig Sørensen and Grahame Appleby
10. Creativity as sensual cosmology: bird iconography on metalwork in Late Bronze and Early Iron Age Europe Sebastian Becker
11. Pots and stories: creativity and design in the Bronze Age of the Pannonian Plain Joanna Sofaer
12. Left-right logic: an innovation of the Nordic Bronze Age Flemming Kaul
13. Textiles: pattern, structure, texture, and decoration Karina Grömer
14. Pattern, colour, and texture in encrusted ceramics in the Carpathian Basin Joanna Sofaer and Sanjin Miheli?
15. Creating effects in Litzenkeramik Karina Grömer, Sanjin Miheli?, Sarah Coxon and Joanna Sofaer
Creativity and effects: reflections Joanna Sofaer, Lise Bender Jørgensen and Marie Louise Stig Sørensen
Conclusion Joanna Sofaer, Marie Louise Stig Sørensen and Lise Bender Jørgensen.

Subject Areas: Prehistoric archaeology [HDDA], Archaeology [HD], Textile artworks [AFW], Decorative arts [AFT], Ceramic arts, pottery, glass [AFP], History of art: pre-history [ACC]