A Biographical Approach to the Ethnogeology of Late Prehistoric Portugal
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3989/tp.2000.v57.i1.259Keywords:
Geoarchaeology, Polished stone tools, Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Portugal, Artifact biographiesAbstract
In this paper, I explore the relationship between an artifact's biography and the raw material from which it was made. Specifically, I discuss the biographies of groundstone tools from five Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic (3500-2000 BC) sites in lowland Portugal. An analysis of the formal and material characteristics of tools (totalling over 1300) from these sites indicates that the raw material from which a tool was made not only constrained the form and function of that tool, but also determined, to a large extent, whether that tool would be recycled and the context (settlement V5. burial) in which that tool would be ultimately deposited. I suggest that both the material properties and the socio-symbolic associations of different raw materials might explain the biographies of the artifacts from which they were made.
Downloads
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2000 Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
© CSIC. Manuscripts published in both the print and online versions of this journal are the property of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, and quoting this source is a requirement for any partial or full reproduction.
All contents of this electronic edition, except where otherwise noted, are distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence. You may read the basic information and the legal text of the licence. The indication of the CC BY 4.0 licence must be expressly stated in this way when necessary.
Self-archiving in repositories, personal webpages or similar, of any version other than the final version of the work produced by the publisher, is not allowed.
