Valentine Roux

Skills and learning difficulties involved in stone knapping: The case of stone‐bead knapping in Khambhat, India

Abstract Skills involved in the knapping of Harappan long carnelian beads are studied in order to assess their value as well as knappers’ socio‐economic status. Skills are studied by reference to present‐day bead knapping in Khambhat, India. They are examined from the way actors are able to handle the complexity of the task and achieve it. They are analyzed in terms of learning difficulties and duration of apprenticeship. The methodology followed is proper to the psychological field. It enables us to understand, in particular, the necessary long apprenticeship required for knapping long beads whatever the culture in which it takes place. It follows that Harappan long carnelian beads are interpreted on the one hand as made by highly skilled craftsmen who developed specialized skills for a very limited demand, on the other hand as highly valuable.

Identification of wheel throwing on the basis of ceramic surface features and microfabrics

Abstract Wheel throwing has long been identified in archaeology on the basis of specific surface features as well as internaldiagnostic structures detected by radiographic techniques. On the basis of an experimental study, this paper proposes to re-examine the criteria of ceramic forming processes. Interpretation of the physical reaction of clay to hydric and mechanical stress helps to show the relationship between microfabrics and ceramic forming processes. Integrated analysis of surface features and microfabrics allows us to distinguish wheel throwing from wheel shaping of coil-built roughouts and gives us information that we can apply to a study of 3rd millennium archaeological materials from Mesopotamia, Iran and India. Our preliminary conclusions suggest that the 3rd millennium vessels, usually considered as wheel thrown, were initially formed by coiling and then shaped on a wheel.

Functional mastery of percussive technology in nut-cracking and stone-flaking actions: experimental comparison and implications for the evolution of the human brain.

Various authors have suggested behavioural similarities between tool use in early hominins and chimpanzee nut cracking, where nut cracking might be interpreted as a precursor of more complex stone flaking. In this paper, we bring together and review two separate strands of research on chimpanzee and human tool use and cognitive abilities. Firstly, and in the greatest detail, we review our recent experimental work on behavioural organization and skill acquisition in nut-cracking and stone-knapping tasks, highlighting similarities and differences between the two tasks that may be informative for the interpretation of stone tools in the early archaeological record. Secondly, and more briefly, we outline a model of the comparative neuropsychology of primate tool use and discuss recent descriptive anatomical and statistical analyses of anthropoid primate brain evolution, focusing on cortico-cerebellar systems. By juxtaposing these two strands of research, we are able to identify unsolved problems that can usefully be addressed by future research in each of these two research areas.

Revisiting the History of the Potter's Wheel in the Southern Levant

Abstract Recent discoveries at Tel Yarmuth (Early Bronze Age, c. 3500–2350 BC) enable us to revisit the question of the introduction of the potters wheel in the Southern Levant. Two tournettes have been found which represent the typical potters wheel of the 3rd millennium BC in the Southern Levant. Their technological analysis, as well as an analysis of the EB III ceramics, confirms that at Yarmuth, and other contemporary sites, potters did not throw ceramics on the wheel, but coiled roughouts which were then thinned and/or shaped on the tournette. Only a small range of vessels were fashioned on the tournette, suggesting that it was used by a limited number of potters. It is suggested that the potters using the tournette may have been specialists attached to the elite of a major city and occasionally shared out between several settlements within a region.

The innovation of the potter's wheel: a comparative perspective between Mesopotamia and the southern Levant

The southern Levant and northern Mesopotamia are two areas in which the potters wheel seems to have appeared independently. New data enable us to undertake a comparison between both regions. As a result, it appears that in both regions the context of production of the first wheel-made vessels was very similar. Wheel-coiled bowls were made by craft specialists attached to some kind of elite and responding to the demand of this same elite for fine vessels. Thus the potters wheel was not adopted to improve productivity, but to produce to strong vessels with status value. As a consequence, this technology was not transferred to more utilitarian categories of vessels, and in both regions its development followed the same distinctive saw-tooth evolutionary trajectory.

Ethnoarchaeology in France: Trends and Perspectives

French ethnoarchaeological studies distinguish between three main approaches, which stem from different intellectual heritages, logicism being the first approach, palethnology and experimental archaeology the second, and anthropology of techniques the third. As we shall see, these different approaches have provided invaluable regularities and insights for better interpreting and understanding archaeological data. They tend in fact to converge when examined in the light of the unified theory elaborated by A. Gallay, whose ultimate goal is to provide solid actualist models for a better reconstruction of historical scenarios.

Individuals among the pots: how do traditional ceramic shapes vary between potters?

ABSTRACT At the crossroad of archeology and experimental psychology, we addressed the issue of interindividual variability in traditional ceramic shapes. The goal was to explore whether such variability could imply potter signatures. We set up a field experiment with 5 expert Nepalese potters, asking them to produce 3 shapes (replicated 5 times). The 2D profiles of the experimental productions were analyzed with a shape analysis method borrowed from biology. In a complementary experiment focusing on shape discrimination, the participants were asked to visually identify their own productions and those of their colleagues. Results indicated that the potters produced slightly but significantly different shapes. We assume that during apprenticeship individuals developed their own motor skills, which reflect upon the finished products. Interpreting shape variability in terms of individuals could provide supplementary information on the social organization of the production, either for modern or ancient periods. As for shape discrimination, our preliminary results indicated that a few potters visually distinguished individual signatures. Those craftsmen could play a key role in the selection and evolution of the traditional ceramic shapes.