Spatial Mobility and Translocality in the northern Alpine Foreland (3950–3800 BCE)
Abstract
The paradigm of cultural history still has an influence on how forms of Neolithic social cohabitation are imagined. Once established for the purpose of relative chronology, and based on pottery, concepts of Neolithic cultures implied the existence of homogeneous, static social units with more or less clear spatial-temporal boundaries. Even if their initially ethnic interpretation has long been rejected, the prevention of any other social interpretations led to a blind spot, which was filled unintentionally by top-down projections of premises onto the past. Furthermore, we observe a lack of epistemological and theoretical reflections on what determines different forms of social cohabitation and how they could be approached archaeologically. By taking mobility as an epistemological entry point to understanding forms of social cohabitation, we will explore pottery production and distribution practices by drawing on ceramics from precisely dendrochronologically dated Neolithic wetland sites on the northern Alpine Foreland (3950–3800 BCE). Inspired by Bourdieu’s theory of habitus and social practice, we propose an inductive bottom-up approach to explore typical local pottery production practices. Following Wenger, it is assumed that pottery was produced within settlements in so-called communities of practice, leading to the (re)production of typical local pottery styles. However, shifting to a supra-regional perspective, it can be shown that stylistic and thus social and cultural diversity in settlements was not an exception but a reoccurring phenomenon that suggests cross-regional entanglements, which were related to spatial mobility between settlement groups with different pottery production practices. The material and social histories of ceramic vessels correspond well with known settlement histories. From a social archaeological perspective, both point to the residential mobility of individuals or subgroups and can be understood as forms of horizontal social organisation of translocal social groups and thus sociospatial configurations.
Date Issued
2014-03-15
Publication Type
Conference Item
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