Craft Identities and skill in Copper Age Communities. A multidisciplinary approach to the pottery production of Central Italy

This paper focuses on the pottery production of Italian Copper Age communities from central Italy and its social implications. The study concerns a specific territory, the current Rome area, where the vessels coming from domestic and funerary contexts (4th and 3rd millennia BC) seem to differ in terms of production sequences, expertise and use. The social role of craftspeople in these groups is analysed through a series of aspects that directly and indirectly reflect craft behaviour, such as: technological choices in production, the skill required in specific manufacturing processes and the actual level of skill inferred from the ceramic evidence analysed. The methodological approach presented in this paper combines learning theories with a detailed empirical investigation of the potter’s gesture. Data provided by traceological analyses, focusing on manufacturing traces and use wear, compositional analyses of ceramic pastes (petrographic and chemical analyses) and experimental archaeology (reproduction of pottery modelling sequences and ceramic use activities) are interpreted in a wider framework considering also the social value of the craft product. Empirical results revealed specific behaviour patterns in production and use, suggesting different and coexistent degrees of experience and knowledge within domestic production and a higher level of skill and time dedication for shapes used on funerary occasions. This leads to the question of whether the producers of goods were also always the consumers, within contexts where social inequality is perceived as incipient and the role of artisans is better understood if discussed according to usually underestimated aspects such as the skills of craftspeople, the presence of a supportive learning environment and the social value of the ceramic product.