In relation with a workshop on pottery production spaces that will take place on the 9th of December 2022 (programme forthcoming), the research teams "Du Village à l'état au Proche et Moyen-Orient" (Vepmo) and "Archéologie de la Gaule et du Monde Antique" (Gama) of the UMR 7041 Archéologie des sciences et de l'antiquité (Arscan), are editing a special issue in the Journal of Archaeological Science : Reports, entitled "Exploring Craft Spaces: A New Insight into the Archaeology of Pottery Production". This special issue aims to explore new approaches to pottery manufacturing spaces, from prehistory to the contemporary period, using cutting-edge scientific techniques. The expected papers will focus on the informational value of these spaces and related structures to address technological and socio-economic issues.

Argument

The issue aims to explore new approaches to pottery manufacturing spaces, from prehistory to the contemporary period, using cutting-edge scientific techniques. The expected papers will focus on the informational value of these spaces and related structures to address technological and socio-economic issues.

From the 8th millennium BC onwards, pottery manufacture developed in Southwest Asia and became a significant trait of Neolithic societies. Widely adopted, ceramic material represents a revolution on several scales and quickly constituted an important part of production activities.

Since the pioneering work of General Pitt Rivers in the 19th century, major studies have focused on ceramic products to approach processes of consumption and production and the underlying social mechanisms. However, many workshops and production systems have not been archaeologically investigated. The organizational patterns of these spaces are widely unknown and therefore difficult to link with technological practices and ethnological models of production.

How is the production spatially structured? What technologies are used? How are the production systems constructed and how do they evolve in time? These loci constitute the nodes of the relations between the producers and the society. Hence, workshop location, infrastructures layout and tools are the missing links to apprehend the integration of the craft industries in the ancient societies.

Thus, our Special Issue focuses on different aspects of craft areas, the scientific methods to study them regardless of any chrono-cultural context and their potential to reveal the organization of the potters’ work.

Main themes

The issue is conceived around 2 main themes:

• Materiality: Tools, structures, and materials employed in the processes of pottery manufacture.
• Spatiality: The relations and integration of the production areas to their natural or built environments, the architecture of spaces, the dynamics of occupation and reoccupation.

To summarise, this Special Issue intends to corroborate the significance of pottery production in the economy of the ancient societies, to outline original approaches to fieldwork research and especially the use of new methods, and to revise interpretative trends such as the outdated opposition between “domestic” and “industrial” modes of production.

How to submit

Article proposals must be submitted on the platform

before 15 April 2023.

It will be possible to submit manuscripts from the end of November 2022 to the 15^th of April 2023 on the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports website. Each proposition will be double peer reviewed by the journal reviewers. Please refer to the journal guidelines for further information on how to prepare your article. The special issue will be announce on the journal website from end of november.

This call for papers is related to a workshop that will be held in Paris (La Sorbonne salle 6, 12 place du Panthéon 75005) on the 9^th of December 2022 and accessible online (programme forthcoming).

Selection

The guest editors of this special issue will pre-select the submissions which will then be reviewed anonymously by two reviewers from the journal's network. The journal will dedicate a page to the special issue on its website from November 2022.

Guest Editors

• Claire Padovani, Paris 1 University – UMR 7041 Arscan Vepmo (Claire.Padovani@etu.univ-paris1.fr)
• Julie Flahaut, Paris Nanterre University – Inrap – UMR 7041 Arscan Gama (julie.flahaut@inrap.fr)
• Sonja Willems, Catholic University of Louvain – Museums for Art & History of Brussels – UMR7041 Arscan Gama (sonja.willems@uclouvain.be)

Editors

• Ellery Frahm, Yale University, United States of America
• Chris Hunt, Liverpool John Moores University, United Kingdom

Associate Editors

• Ruth Blasco, Catalan Institute of Human Paleo-Ecology and Social Evolution, Spain
• Kristine Bovy, University of Rhode Island, United States of America
• Miguel Ángel Fano, University of La Rioja, Spain
• Danielle A. Macdonald, The University of Tulsa, United States of America
• Mike Morley, Flinders University College of Humanities Arts and Social Sciences, Australia
• Frederik Rademakers, British Museum Department of Scientific Research, United Kingdom
• Manuel Will, University of Tübingen, Germany

Editorial Board

• Mark Aldenderfer, University of California Merced Department of Anthropology & Heritage Studies, United States of America
• Astolfo Araujo, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil
• Denisse L. Argote Espino, National Institute of Anthropology and History Colonia Polanco, Mexico
• Paul Backhouse, Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum, United States of America
• Juan A. Barceló, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain
• Hans Barnard, University of California Los Angeles Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, United States of America
• Eric J. Bartelink, California State University Chico, United States of America
• Huw J. Barton, University of Leicester School of Archaeology and Ancient History, United Kingdom
• Mark Bateman, The University of Sheffield, United Kingdom
• Zbigniew M. Bochenski, Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakow, Poland
• Hendrik J. Bruins, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Israel
• Christopher Carleton, Max-Planck-Institute for Chemical Ecology, Germany
• Enrico R. Crema, University of Cambridge Department of Archaeology, United Kingdo
• Genevieve Dewar, University of Toronto, Canada
• Metin Eren, Kent State University, United States of Americ
• Anders Fischer, Kalundborg, Denmark
• Scott M. Fitzpatrick, University of Oregon, United States of America
• Elisabetta Gliozzo, University of Bari, Italy
• Aurora Grandal-d’Anglade, University of A Coruna, Spain
• Bryan Hockett, Nevada Bureau of Land Management, United States of America
• Jim Innes, Durham University, United Kingdom
• Cui Jianfeng, Peking University School of Archaeology and Museology, China
• Emily Lena Jones, The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, USA
• Feng Li, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
• Marco Madella, Pompeu Fabra University, Spain
• Andrew Millard, Durham University, United Kingdom
• Chris Nicholson, Arizona State University, United States of America
• Rachel S. Popelka-Filcoff, The University of Melbourne, Australia and Society of Archaeological Science
• Eleanora Reber, University of North Carolina Wilmington, United States of America
• Thilo Rehren, The Cyprus Institute, Cyprus
• Paula J. Reimer, Queen’s University Belfast, United Kingdom
• Ion Sandu, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Romania
• Ian Scharlotta, California Air National Guard, United States of America
• Ruth Shahack-Gross, University of Haifa, Israel
• Teresa Steele, University of California Davis, United States of America
• Katherine Szabo, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
• Kenneth Barnett Tankersley, University of Cincinnati, United States of America
• Robin Torrence, Australian Museum, Australia
• Nicki Whitehouse, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom

Emeritus Editor

• Andrew Howard, Council for National Academic Awards, United Kingdom