The Social Context of Technological Change

Andrew J. Shortland, Andrew Shortland

• Publisher: Oxbow Books
• Year: 2016
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781785705663
• Subtopic: Egyptian Ancient History
• Index: History

The technological capabilities of the ancient world have long fascinated scholars and the general public alike, though scholarly debate has often seen material culture not as the development of technology, but as a tool for defining chronology and delineating the level of interactions of neighboring societies. These fourteen papers, arising from a conference held in Oxford in September 2000, take the approach that technology plays a vital role in past socioeconomic systems. They cover the Near East and associated areas, including Greece, Crete, Cyprus, Anatolia, the Levant, Mesopotamia and Egypt from the end of the Middle Bronze Age to the Late Bronze Age (1650-1150 BC), a period when many technological innovations appear for the first time.

Table of contents

• Preface and acknowledgements
• List of contributors
• 1 The mobility of artisans and opportunities for technology transfer between Western Asia and Egypt in the Late Bronze Age
• 2 Technological change in the East Mediterranean Bronze Age: capital, resources and marketing
• 3 Society and technology in the Late Bronze Age: a guided tour of the cuneiform sources
• 4 Egyptians, Hyksos and military hardware: causes, effects or catalysts?
• 5 Stone Vessel Production: New Beginnings and New Visions in New-Palace Crete
• 6 Stone Vessel Workshops in the Levant: Luxury Products of a Cosmpolitan Age
• 7 The Provenance of Canaanite Amphorae found at Memphis and Amarna in the New Kingdom
• 8 Glass and faience at Amarna: different methods of both supply for production, and subsequent distribution
• 9 Gold and Granulation: Exploring the social Implications of a Prestige Technology in the Bronze Age Mediterranean
• 10 Minoan foreign relations and copper metallurgy in MMIII–LMIII Crete
• 11 Social influences on the development and spread of glass
• 12 Problems and possibilities in workshop reconstruction: Qantir and the organisation of LBA glass working sites
• 13 The Evolution of Glazing Technologies in the Ancient Near East and Egypt
• 14 Problematising the Transition from Bronze to Iron
• Cover