Materials and Materialities
Materials and materiality is a key concept in archeology. To offer a very oversimplified explanation, materials are the things that artifacts are made of: wood, clay, stone, ivory, etc. Materiality is all the cultural trappings around materials: how humans relate to materials. How much these two concepts overlap is cause for much debate and discussion, but for now, it is enough to say that materials and materiality are a core concern of the discipline. The models shown here attempt to unpack materials and materiality of Bronze Age Food Vessels in a visual way. They present materials as they change through production and also in the context of a wider world of materials (both in the Bronze Age and now). These models try to ask questions about archaeological materials and materiality: what are they, how are they, and how do they relate to a broader natural and cultural world of materials?
Interested in the basket vessels?
These images were inspired by the work of archaeologist Linda Hurcombe. Her research focuses on experimental archaeology and the lost archaeology of perishable materials. As part of her own research on Bronze Age food vessels, she commissioned baskets based on the decorations on food vessels.