Panel 6.4 – Making Value and the Value of Making: Theory and Practice in Craft Production


Organiser/Chair:

  • Helle Hochscheid (University College Roosevelt/Utrecht University)
  • Ben Russell (Edinburgh University)

External Discussant:

  • Robert Sobak (Bowdoin College)

Speakers:

Panel abstract

This panel investigates the relation between production processes and value attribution in ancient crafts. In the process of making things, it is the craftsperson who shapes functionality and value of artefacts. She/he is, however, never a lone force but depends on networks of suppliers, fellow craftspeople, consumers, wider audiences, the material conditions for the application of craft, and more ephemeral considerations like aesthetics or religious value. Ancient economic history, especially from an archaeological perspective, tends to focus, with good reason, on the objects produced by craftspeople, on form and style, and on distribution. Typological approaches, necessary for sorting and analyzing large bodies of material evidence, have also prioritized the form of finished artefacts and, when they have been applied to part-worked objects, have tended to concentrate on identifying discrete stages in production processes. The maker, as an individual, responding to their own needs as well as those of their customers, is often absent from this picture. In recent sociological and anthropological studies, the role of makers as individuals trained in a particular way, responding to their materials, and operating in a wider network of production, has been more obviously stressed. Key recent works include Tim Ingold's Making: Anthropology, Archaeology, Art and Architecture (2013), Richard Sennett's The Craftsman (2008), David Miller's edited volume Materiality (2005) and even more specialized studies written by practicing craftspeople, like Peter Korn's Why We Make Things & Why It Matters (2013). This panel will bring together scholars interested in making and the role of the maker to discuss what new anthropological and sociological approaches might add to our understanding of ancient craft production and valuation. Among the topics explored in the panel are: - Interaction between craftspeople and the users of their products - Economic value in relation to other types of value attribution - The role of different participants in the chaine opératoire, and indeed the validity of this term - Training of craftspeople and its impact on production - The concept of materiality and its meaning to how craft products are used and valued The aim is to cover multiple periods and media, with papers on Aegean, Greek and Roman material, sculpture, mosaics and other forms of craft production.

 

Paper abstracts

1. Tatiana Ivleva (Newcastle University)

Making Romano-British glass bangles: Inside the craftsperson mind
The appearance of glass bangles in Britain is dated to the mid-first century AD, starting with the Roman conquest of the Isles. Prior to the Roman invasion, Britain had no history of glass bracelets production, albeit on the Continent the glass bangles were in circulation already for two and half centuries. The close inspection of ca 400 fragments from Roman Britain has shown that these bangles had been produced in the similar manner as the La Tène D1 Continental types. What guided the glass workers in Roman Britain to start making the glass bangles according to the century-old technique: process of self-discovery, consumer pressure, knowledge transfer, learning by doing after watching? There is evidence to suggest that craftspeople made bangles through the process of self-discovery influenced by the local consumer pressure, while others profited from the direct knowledge transfer and apprenticeship. The experimental work in making the replicas of the Romano-British glass bangles done by the experienced, highly creative glass artisan supervised by the author gave possibility to glimpse into the craftsperson mind. The artisan made numerous attempts as to the reproduction; yet, the seemingly easy technique in theory was difficult to replicate in practice. The failure to replicate, however, has provided compelling insights into the process of making a glass artefact.

 

2. Maria Coto-Sarmiento and Simon Carrignon (BSC-Barcelona Supercomputing Center) / Xavier Rubio-Campillo (University of Edinburgh) / José Remesal Rodríguez (Universitat de Barcelona)

An Agent Based Model to detect variations in the transmission of potters from Baetica province
The goal of this study is to analyse the transmission of technical skills among potters within Roman Empire. Specifically, our case of study has been focused on the production processes based on Baetica province (currently Andalusia) from 1st to 3rd century AD.
Variability of material culture allows to observe different production patterns that can explain how social learning evolves. Unfortunately, it is extremely difficult to identify some evidence of social learning strategies in the archaeological record. In Archaeology, this process has been analysed by the study of the production of handmade pottery. In our case, we want to know if the modes of transmission could be similar with a more standardized production as Roman Age.
In particular, we analyse a set of measures among different amphorae shapes from different workshops to quantify the differences on the production pattern. Specifically we want to identify if there are differences in the transmission of learning processes depending on the spatial distance. For this reason, we propose here an Agent Based Model that allows to compare different processes of transmission (vertical vs horizontal). In this model, we implement a mechanism of pottery production with different social learning processes under different evolutionary scenarios. In particular, the aim of this study is quantifying which one of these transmission mechanism might explain the results obtained in our dataset.

 

3. Ben Russell (University of Edinburgh)

Stone Carvers and their Working Processes: Problematising the Chaîne Opératoire
The chaîne opératoire emphasizes dynamic process, focusing on the stages of working and their sequence in the creation of an object. Where conventional studies of artefacts tend to view them as finished products, studies of the chaîne opératoire consider issues such as raw material sourcing, production, transport, use, even re-use and discard. While the chaîne opératoire approach has demonstrated the utility of exploring craft production as part of this broader context of activities, critics of the methodology underpinning this approach argue that production is rarely as simple as the chaîne opératoire implies. Variability, circularity, and trial and error are realities of making; the idea of sequence is not necessarily problematic but the fixity and linearity of this sequence are.The maker rarely exists in isolation and the changing demands of the customer or client will also impact on the planning of the production process. The aim of this paper is to consider the applicability of the chaîne opératoire to the specific field of Roman sculptural studies. It will be argued that while particular sequences of actions can be seen in certain instances it would be wrong to reconstruct a standard approach to sculptural production based on single examples; each project was unique and, while broad trends can be noted, so can a wide variety of individual approaches to this craft.

 

4. Natacha Massar (Royal Museums of Art and History)

How many craftsmen to prepare an army?
Although many people have written about the economic aspects of Greek warfare in Antiquity, few have commented on the crafts and craftsmen involved. An exceptional source gives us some insight into this aspect of war preparation.
From 399 to 397 BCE, Dionysius I of Syracuse built up a navy and a land army in order to fight the Carthaginians. In Book XIV 41-43, Diodorus Siculus gives an extensive account of these preparations. This description will be my starting point to examine the materials, activities and, especially, skills necessary to achieve the tyrant’s goal. These range from finding a source of wood to provide raw material for the carpenters to the building of ship sheds to protect the vessels when not at sea. But Diodorus also mentions how so many craftsmen were lured to Syracuse, what some of Dionysius’ requirements were and how, as their patron, he encouraged and motivated the people working for him.
Other sources can help fill in the picture, especially concerning the navy as well as developments in the Hellenistic period.
Taken together, they provide an unexpected image of the chains of production, the variety of skills, and the great numbers of craftsmen involved, as well as the competition between states and individuals to hire the most skilled. Among the questions addressed will be the requirements of the patrons, the status of the workmen, their mobility, possible teamwork as well as rivalries.

 

5. Ann Brysbaert (Leiden University)

Crafting as making, thinking and being (together)
In the prehistoric east Mediterranean, hierarchical societies developed technological systems and production processes for both quotidian and prestige and luxury items. This paper addresses questions about how artisans reacted to and interacted with specific production demands linked to elites’ identity formation and reconfirmation practices, while they were perhaps also forming their own identities through crafting.
Crafting or making is connecting and performing: materials to each other, people to each other, people to materials, materials to people. Crafting is both technical and social and creates distinction. Someone who is very skilled through life-long practicing develops differently than someone who does not. Socio-technical distinctions are thus logical consequences of making and are linked to value attributions at various levels. Value ascription may differ according to social groups and may be both inclusive and exclusive. How can we identify such socio-technical processes and practices, and their consequences, how can we define the role(s) that craftspeople played in the socio-political and economic contexts of elite-based societies, and are these always as clear-cut as usually portrayed? Processes of value ascription to crafting in Aegean BA contexts are compared to contemporary craft contexts in order to understand whether such values and value ascriptions are universal or context-specific.

 

6. Helle Hochscheid (University College Roosevelt/Utrecht University)

Owning the stones: materiality, ownership and classical Greek sculpture
This paper looks at the value of classical Greek sculpture through the lens of the anthropological concepts of ownership and materiality. Claims to ownership come about in different ways through people’s relations to objects, for instance, through sale, gift-giving or inheritance. Labour is seen as a key cause of ownership: ‘work transforms material things into property’ (Hodder 2012, 24).
But the relation between making and owning is not straightforward. For instance, the value of raw marble in ancient Greece is obscure. Sculptors sold the value of the labour that they added to the stone; but during carving, did they own the object? After sale, the relation between sculptors and their works was not severed. Completed works were invaluable as points of reference for ancient craftsmen’s careers. Similarly, dedicators of votive sculpture ceded possession to sanctuaries, but their continuous self-proclamation through image and text is the locus of the monuments’ value, extending far beyond their formal ownership. In gravestones, ownership and identity are even more entangled: stelai could claim ancestral burial plots and familial property.
This paper explores the shifts in value of classical Greek sculpted monuments at different stages of their creation and existence. It examines the ways in which participants in this process could be formed by the monuments they owned, and argues that the value of sculpture lay with this shaping of identity rather than with economic worth.

 

7. Heide Frielinghaus (JGU Mainz)

Assessment of Value Attribution. The evidence of votive offerings
While some kinds of value attribution were connected with post-production aspects, others touch on post-production as well as on production aspects, and some – like those concerning material, ornamentation or craftsmanship – were definitely related to production processes. The last-named relationship held true, too, when the/a value attribution in question happened not until after the actual production – and, therefore, without the attributing person’s/persons’ involvement in the actual production process – or when the value(s) attributed to a certain object changed in the course of time or usage. Based on the assumption that votive offerings were given to the gods because they were thought to be of (some kind of) value, it will be asked in how far production-related values may have played a part in choosing them. Drawing on concepts like that of 'object biographies' a selected part of the material evidence in the sanctuary of Olympia will be evaluated with regard to the question, if some of the aspects named hereafter were of particular/no importance in the objects’ selection: material (focus on unfinished metal objects, objects of simplified form, use of/feigned precious metal), ornamentation (focus on occurrence/extent/quality in contrast to similar objects in different contexts), flawlessness (focus on objects with barely visible/obvious/crude repairs) and craftsmanship.

 

8. Gert van Wijngaarden (University of Amsterdam)

Time and Place in Distance Value. The case of cylinder seals in Bronze Age Greece
Exotic items circulate widely in many non- or proto-monetary economies. Objects imported from far-away and artefacts made locally or nearby, but imitating foreign styles and techniques, are exchanged as commodities or in the form of gifts. Exotic objects often acquire value because they convey notions of a luxury lifestyle and they refer to a wider world of connections beyond the realm of daily life. The ways in which exotic items are used may vary according to the cultural context in which they circulate and, in many cases, are different from the functionality intended by craftspeople who made such objects in the area of origin. This raises the question regarding the materiality of exotic items: what role did the materials, techniques, artistic style and quality play in the way these objects acquire value in a new context.
This question will be explored by addressing the Near-Eastern or Near eastern-style cylinder seals that have been found in the Bronze Age Aegean. The Levant and Mesopotamia had a long tradition of sealing with cylinders and there are many seals in the region – and in many museums all over the world. Cylinder seals can be made from different materials and many contain a highly specific iconography. The Aegean did not have a similar tradition of sealing by cylinder. Instead stamp seals were used. Nevertheless, a small number of cylinder seals have been found in Minoan and Mycenaean contexts. Most appear to have been imported from Cyprus or the Near East, but some may have been regionally made. By investigating the contexts in which these Aegean cylinders have been found, I will explore the way they acquired their exotic value.

 

9. Caroline Cheung (University of California, Berkeley)

Precious Pots: Making and Repairing Dolia
Dolia defy generalizations about pottery. Considered a class of pottery yet often manufactured alongside bricks and tiles in workshops that supplied building industries, dolia were large storage containers for agricultural commodities that were also considered architectural features. Despite their widespread use in the Mediterranean, little work has been done on their production. This paper discusses findings based on over 400 dolia and dolium fragments from three sites in west-central Italy: Cosa, Pompeii, and Ostia. As craftspersons gained a deeper understanding of material properties for producing dolia, they developed more sophisticated techniques and materials for production-phase repairs; dolium repairs shifted from traditional pottery mending techniques added during the vessel’s use-life to architectural joinery techniques applied during the production-phase. Dolium mending techniques were not static or fixed; instead, they reveal developments in skills, knowledge transfer, and industries, as well as different workforces. The life histories of dolia, including their production, (re)use, repairs (both during the production-phase and use-life), and discard, illuminate the value of these containers; the relationship between making and repairing; the different craftspersons and their knowledge in forming and/or mending these vessels; possible interactions between dolium makers, users, and repairers; and how knowledge developed in order to manufacture these costly vessels.

 

10. William Wootton (King's College London)

The value of surfaces: the experience of making and the making of experience
This paper examines the value invested in surfaces. It brings together research on the economics of production with recent work on the dynamics of experience to consider the interplay between the expectations and intentions of the consumer and the expertise and insights of the maker. Case studies from the Roman world, focused on interior decoration such as mosaics, will present some of the variability in terms of their materiality and character while also making the case for the experiential quality of the investment.