Creativity in the Bronze Age

Understanding Innovation in Pottery, Textile, and Metalwork Production

Lise Bender Jørgensen, Joanna Sofaer, Marie Louise Stig Sørensen

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9781108421362
• eBook ISBN:
  9781108383677
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Archaeology
• Index: Social Sciences

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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Title page
• Copyright information
• Table of contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• List of contributors
• Preface and Ackowledgements
• Introduction
• Part I Raw Materials: Creativity and the Properties of Materials
• Part II Production Practices
• Part III Effects: Shape, Motifs, Pattern, Colour, and Texture
• Conclusion
• References
• Index