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Spreading of Innovative Technical Traits and Cumulative Technical Evolution: Continuity or Discontinuity?

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Abstract

This paper questions the spreading of techniques considered as advantageous when measured in terms of energetic efficiency. A present-day case study, in which techniques do not spread, is used to highlight a transmission model that can be used to understand the spread of technical systems in terms of demic or cultural processes. The model is then applied to the spread of the potter’s wheel in the second and third millennium bc in the southern and northern Levant. Results show that both demic and cultural processes explain how the potter’s wheel became prevalent in the Levant. The selective forces are discussed by comparing the ceramic production contexts. We conclude that technical evolution is regulated by social mutations, i.e., major discontinuities.

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Acknowledgements

I want here to warmly thank J. P. Thalmann who invited me to analyse the ceramic assemblages of Tell Arqa (Lebanon), N. Panitz-Cohen and A. Mazar who gave me access to the Beth Shean material, E. Marcus who kindly offered me to examine the Tel Ifshar material and lastly the Israel State Collections of Antiquities for providing access to the Intermediate Bronze Age material. Research on ceramic assemblages in Israel was made possible thanks to researchers’ month allowances granted by the CRFJ (Centre de Recherches Français de Jerusalem, Jerusalem French Research Center). Our special thanks also to the lab “Prehistory and technology” (CNRS) who funded the ethnoarchaeological investigations in India. At last, I want to thank two anonymous reviewers for relevant comments, which helped in improving a first version of this paper, as well as Jim Skibo for improving the English. Illustrations have been made by G. Monthel (CNRS, UMR 7055).

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  1. Maison René Ginouvès, 21 allée de l’université, 92023, Nanterre cedex, France

    Valentine Roux

  2. CNRS, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, Nanterre, France

    Valentine Roux

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Roux, V. Spreading of Innovative Technical Traits and Cumulative Technical Evolution: Continuity or Discontinuity?. J Archaeol Method Theory 20, 312–330 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-012-9153-4

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