This book focuses on the characteristics and the development of the stone vessel industry in the Near East during the Iron Age and the Persian period (c. 1200 – 330 BCE).
This book focuses on the characteristics and the development of the stone vessel industry in the Near East during the Iron Age and the Persian period (c. 1200 – 330 BCE). Three main aspects of this industry are investigated. First, the technology behind the manufacture of stone vessels, the tools and techniques, and how these changed across time. Second, the mechanisms of exchange of stone vessels and how these were affected by the changing political landscape through time. Third, the consumption patterns of stone vessels in both elite and non-elite contexts, and how these patterns changed through time. The aim is to evaluate how the formation of new regional states, occurred in the Iron Age I-II, and their subsequent inclusion within large-scale empires, in the Iron Age III and Persian period, transformed the Near Eastern societies by exploring how the stone vessel industry was affected by these transformations. For the period and area under analysis, such a comprehensive study of stone vessels, covering a wide area and connecting this industry to the broader socioeconomic and political landscapes, has never been attempted before.
Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction; Chapter 2: Methodology and Data; Chapter 3: Chronological Framework and Historical Outline; Chapter 4: Raw Materials for Stone Vessels; Chapter 5: Stone Vessel Typology; Chapter 6: Stone Vessel Manufacture and Related Technologies; Chapter 7: The Mechanisms of Exchange of Stone Vessels; Chapter 8: Stone Vessel Consumption; Chapter 9: General Conclusions and Future Lines of Research; Appendix A: Catalogue; Appendix B: Bibliography
About the Author
Andrea Squitieri obtained BA (2006) and MA (2008) at the University of Torino (Italy) in Archaeology of the Near East, with a final dissertation on alabaster vessels in the Mediterranean during the 1st millennium BC. He continued his academic career at the University College, London, where he completed the PhD in 2015 with a thesis on stone vessels in the Iron Age and the Persian period. Andrea has participated in excavation projects in Turkmenistan (Parthian Nisa), Sardinia (Tharros), Syria (Tell Afis), Turkey (Tell Atchana), Israel (Tell es-Safi/Gath) and in Iraqi Kurdistan (Gird-i Bazar and Qalat-i Dinka). Since 2015, he has been a member of the Peshdar Plain Project directed by prof. K. Radner of the Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich (Germany). He is also involved in the project for the study of the stone materials from Shahr-i Sokhta (east Iran), held in the Museum of Oriental Art of Rome (Italy).
Reviews
'To his credit [the author] has successfully broken new ground in the field of research on the history and development of stone vessels. The book's historical spectrum is admirably extensive, and because of this, will undoubtedly serve as the primary reference authority for future work on the subject.'