Shaping marble, shaping minds: apprenticeship in an early Neolithic bracelet quarry
Stone bracelets are one of the most outstanding aspects of personal ornamentation of the Early Neolithic in the south of the Iberian Peninsula (5500-4800 cal. BC). These ornaments are an element of cultural identity and a chronological marker of the first Neolithic societies in this area. Discovery...
| Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | article |
| Publication Date: | 2020 |
| Country: | España |
| Institution: | Universidad de Alcalá (UAH) |
| Repository: | e_Buah Biblioteca Digital Universidad de Alcalá |
| Language: | English |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ebuah.uah.es:10017/63743 |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10017/63743 https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01977261.2019.1654700 |
| Access Level: | Open access |
| Keyword: | Neolithic Learning Knapping Marble Experimentation Stone bracelets Historia History |
| Summary: | Stone bracelets are one of the most outstanding aspects of personal ornamentation of the Early Neolithic in the south of the Iberian Peninsula (5500-4800 cal. BC). These ornaments are an element of cultural identity and a chronological marker of the first Neolithic societies in this area. Discovery and study of the Neolithic quarry of Cortijo Cevico (Loja, Granada) has allowed us to identify the extraction and initial reduction of dolomitic marble for the manufacture of bracelets. The archaeological assemblage from the quarry comprises knapping waste, circular roughouts (from which bracelets were manufactured), and the tools used in these activities. In this paper, we evaluate the evidence for apprenticeship processes in the quarry. We use different methodological resources to demonstrate that knowledge transmission occurred in the quarry including experimental knapping by experienced and novice knappers, ethnographic examples, and the application of diacritical schemes to the abandoned archaeological roughouts. |
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