<i>Ergasteria</i> to <i>emporia</i> – production sites and crafts and their place in past societies

Ergasteria to emporiaproduction sites and crafts and their place in past societies Marion UckelmannWhile looking for books for this New Book Chronicle, I set out to read publications on ancient crafts, a topic that has been highlighted in many volumes, especially during a peak in the 2010s.To my surprise, there are not many recent ones that research crafting through the archaeological evidence of the objects and tools; instead, the theme had evolved into exploring how these crafts and craftspeople were embedded into the wider society and economy of their communities.One common thread is evaluating the 'workshop' and the manner and scale of production, ranging from self-sufficient households, producing most of their tools and implements themselves, to surplus production in these households for exchange and trade, to specialisation in a certain craft and the operation of larger industries for networks of consumers.This opens new avenues to explore the organisation of crafts within their networks of exchange of goods and knowledge as well as for researching change and continuity in a society.The four chosen books highlight some of these aspects.Ergasteria: premises and processes of creation in Antiquity is a collection of contributions on workplaces and their networks of raw materials and trade in the Classical world on various crafts.The craft of antler, bone, horn and ivory working in the early medieval emporia c.AD 600-850 looks at the impact of one craft in particular.Ladders and axes of the American Southwest's Pueblo region, 400-1900 CE: legacies of technological innovation explores a less studied but abundantly used object.And the final book, Anacaona's gift: cotton and the woven arts of the 11th to 17th century Caribbean, seeks to bring a now overlooked craft back to its former prominence.The volumes are quite diverse in their approaches, but all are built on the detailed research of the archaeological record, supported by textual sources.All concentrate on materials that have either so far not been as comprehensively researched as others or they highlight new ways to understand them.