Perspectives On socio-economic practices at the Transition of the neoliThic and eneolithic periods through the INterdisciplinary investiGation of ceramic life cycles

Objective

Pottery is one of the paramount materials found in archaeological excavations in Central Europe, and as such it has been used to track regional chronologies, stylistic trends, and distribution patterns. Recent developments in archaeological pottery analysis, however, focus on broader interpretations of the socio-anthropological dynamics behind pottery production by championing an approach based on the chaîne opératoire concept, i.e. the sequence of technical steps in pottery-making, shaped by learning and transmission. Building on this concept, the POTTING project will provide a novel framework to understand continuity, transformation, and change in prehistoric socio-economic practices at the pivotal Neolithic-Eneolithic transition in Moravia, by remarkably taking into account not only production technology, but also pottery use. Thanks to the long occupation over a time span of more than 1000 years at the Moravian site of Brno Modřice-CTP, the project will unlock socio-economic practices across multiple cultural horizons at a single site, offering unparalleled control over environmental and geographic variables. The analytical framework combining ceramic petrography and micro-CT coupled with the multi-scalar analysis of manufacturing traces, completed by lipid residue analysis to investigate the actual use of pottery, will unveil domestic practices and related economic activities, including raw material prospection, pottery-making, storage, cooking and food consumption practices. Leveraging the expertise in Central European prehistoric material culture offered by the host institution (Masaryk University), and the recent advances in imaging and biomolecular approaches on archaeological pottery brought together by the consultants from partner institutions, the fellowship will equip the researcher with cutting-edge, interdisciplinary analytical expertise to advance current knowledge on socio-economic dynamics at a time of major change in European prehistory.