Creativity in the Bronze Age: understanding innovation in pottery, textile, and metalwork production

"Creativity is an integral part of human history, yet most studies focus on the modern era, leaving unresolved questions about the formative role that creativity has played in the past. This book explores the fundamental nature of creativity in the European Bronze Age. Considering developments in crafts that we take for granted today, such as pottery, textiles, and metalwork, the volume compares and contrasts various aspects of their development, from the construction of the materials themselves, through the production processes, to the design and effects deployed in finished objects. It explores how creativity is closely related to changes in material culture, how it directs responses to the new and unfamiliar, and how it has resulted in changes to familiar things and practices. Written by an international team of scholars, the case studies in this volume consider wider issues and provide detailed insights into creative solutions found in specific objects"--Publisher's description.

Introduction / Marie Louise Stig Soørensen, Joanna Sofaer, and Lise Bender Jørgensen -- part 1. Raw materials: creativity and the properties of materials. Introduction / Marie Louise Stig Sørensen, Joanna Sofaer, and Lise Bender Jørgensen -- Fibres for Bronze Age textiles / Lise Bender Jørgensen and Antoinette Rast-Eicher -- Making metals: from copper to bronze / Marie Louise Stig Sørensen and gRahame Appleby -- Potter's clay / Joanna Sofaer -- Creativity and materials: reflections / Lise Bender Jørgensen, Joanna Sofaer, and Marie Louise Stig Sørensen -- part 2. Production practices. Introduction / Lise Bender Jørgensen, Marie Louise Stig Sørensen, and Joanna Sofaer -- Textile production / Lise Bender Jørgensen -- The production of metal objects / Marie Louise Stig Sørensen and Grahame Appleby -- The production of pottery / Joanna Sofaer -- Case studies -- Introduction: Creativity and spindle whorls at the Bronze Age tell of Százhalombatta-Földvár, Hungary / Sophie Bergerbrant -- Forming metal: the development of moulds / Grahame Appleby and Marie Louise Stig Sørensen -- Variability in the Chaîne Opératoire: the case of Belegiš cremation vessels / Sarah Coxon -- The production of …