The RITaK Conferences. 2013-2014: Raw Materials, Innovation, Technology of Ancient Cultures - RITaK 1
Keywords:
raw materials, technology transfer, knowledge transfer, innovations, resources, mining, theory, reciprocity, goods exchange, materiality, economics, archaeometallurgy, crafts, societies, bronze, trade, coins, numismatics, salt, silver, economic historySynopsis
Globally, raw materials play a central role and are a key factor in determining the economic power and growth of modern states, confederations and coalitions. The extraction and supply of raw materials is a main driving force in global trade today, but has also profoundly influenced human economic and cultural history. In order to elucidate the importance of mineral ores in pre-modern societies, PhD students and staff at the Leibniz graduate school “Raw Materials, Innovation and Technology of Ancient Cultures” [RITaK] – a co-operation between the German Mining Museum [Deutsches Bergbau-Museum, DBM] and the Ruhr-University Bochum [RUB] – were involved in interdisciplinary research. This publication contains the results of the international RITaK end-of-project conference, held from the 27th-29th of September, as well as contributions to the RITaK workshop “Perspectives for an Economic Archaeology”, held on the 22nd and 23rd of November 2013. At a theoretical and model-building level, the first seven articles provide archaeological, sociological and economic perspectives on the diverse economic, cognitive, cultural and social feedback processes set in motion by the appropriation and use of raw materials. The following contributions focus on different archaeological and historical cultures in Europe, Central Asia and the Mediterranean area from the Neolithic to the Middle Ages. Raw material processing and preparation, metal recycling, prehistoric and historic mining, the exchange mechanisms involving raw materials and their products, as well as technology and knowledge transfer, are all covered. Together, the 23 contributions to this volume offer the possibility for intensive engagement with the theme of resources and their influence on and entanglement with human behaviour, mentalities, knowledge acquisition, technological and social developments and even the relationship between people and their environments and the human appropriation of space.
Chapters
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Front matter
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Content
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Preface
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Resources, innovation, technology: Theoretical approaches to abstract concepts and research content
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Kulturelle Ökonomie: Theoretische Aspekte und archäologisch-ethnographische Beispiele
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Kulturelle Aspekte von Strategien zur Bewältigung des Strukturwandels
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Die Vielfalt der Tauschpraxis. Ein praxistheoretischer Beitrag zur Soziologie der Reziprozität
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The resources in practice. A new notion of materiality in sociology
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From mechanics to embodiment. Some theoretical considerations on techniques
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Ungleichheit in agrarischen Gemeinschaften - Ein agentenbasiertes Computersimulationsmodell
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From the Aegean Sea to the Parisian Basin: Spondylus shell exchange in Europe during the process of Neolithisation
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Organisationsformen von Tausch im Neolithikum – Eine Fallstudie aus Nordwestbayern
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Experimental archaeology in Bronze Age mining and smelting – hard rock, hot metal, new ideas
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A new player in the game? An archaeological and archaeometallurgical approach in detecting long distance relations in Late Chalcolithic Anatolia
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New thoughts about Iron Age metallurgy in Faynan: A discussion
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The palaeoecological effects of prehistoric and historic mining on the vegetation and the environmental implication. The example of Kitzbühel (North Tyrol, Austria)
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Salz – Bergbau – Wirtschaft: Diskussion wirtschaftsarchäologischer Aspekte am Beispiel der prähistorischen Salzbergwerke von Hallstatt
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Das Thema Wirtschaft im Diskurs der Oppidaforschung
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Metal trade of the Phoenicians in Huelva
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The sources and supply of silver for Archaic Greek coinage: A re-evaluation of the lead isotope and chemical data
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A brief survey of the development of silver mining in ancient Laurion
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Roman imports and metal recycling in the Roman Iron Age settlement Kamen-Westick
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The access to raw materials and its impact on Hedeby’s development in the Viking period
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Between the Bronze Age and the Middle Ages: New Investigations of Slag from Panjhir, Afghanistan
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Development of specific mining technological aspects from the Early to the Late Middle Ages
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Innovations in medieval mining laws
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Contributors
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Programs