Fragile Biography
The Life Cycle of Ceramics and Refuse Disposal Patterns in Late Antique and Early Medieval Palestine
By (author) I. Taxel
The study sheds light on selected material culture-related behavioral practices of the people who produced, used and manipulated ceramics during late antique and early medieval times. The research presents the local picture of pottery use-life, including prime use, reuse, repair, recycling and disposal. The reuse, repair and recycling of pottery reflect a plethora of behavioral practices, some common to the greater Mediterranean and Near Eastern world and some unique to the discussed region and periods.
This book is the first comprehensive synthesis of the life cycle of ceramics and of refuse management in ancient Palestine during the later Roman, Byzantine and Early Islamic periods (4th to 11th centuries CE). The study sheds light on selected material culture-related behavioral practices of the people who produced, used and manipulated ceramics during late antique and early medieval times. The research presents the local picture of pottery use–life, including prime use, reuse, repair, recycling and disposal. The reuse, repair and recycling of pottery reflect a plethora of behavioral practices, some common to the greater Mediterranean and Near Eastern world and some unique to the discussed region and periods. Similarly, the discussion of refuse disposal, while using selected case studies, has shown that attitudes towards the residues of people’s activity were basically similar in different regions and periods, though the ways in which refuse was managed was often dictated by specific cultural and regional circumstances. Finally, a first attempt has been made in this study to partially unveil the mental rationale behind the above-mentioned practices. The conclusion is that mere pragmatism motivated the rather frequent reuse, repair and recycling of pottery, though it also showed that this tendency became more dominant – in historical Palestine and probably elsewhere – in Late Antiquity and later.
- By (author) I. Taxel
Other Titles in this Series
Bathing Culture in Budapest
Proceedings of the International Frontinus Conference Budapest, September 8-15, 2022
Volume 50
From the Mountains to the Sea
The Roman Colonisation and Urbanisation of Central Adriatic Italy
Volume 30
SPA. Sanitas Per Aquam
Tagungsband des Internationalen Frontinus-Symposiums zur Technik und Kulturgeschichte der antiken Thermen. Aachen, 18.-22. Marz 2009
Volume 21
Political Geographies of the Bronze Age Aegean
Proceedings of the Joint Workshop by the Belgian School at Athens (EBSA) and the Netherlands Institute at Athens (NIA), May 28 to 31, 2019
Volume 43
Context and Meaning
Proceedings of the Twelfth International Conference of the Association Internationale pour la peinture Murale Antique, Athens, September 16-20, 2013
Volume 31
Shapes and Images
Studies on Attick Black Figure and Related Topics in Honour of Herman A.G. Brijder
Volume 14
Ostie, fenêtres sur cour
Le 'Caseggiato delle Taberne Finestrate': reconstruire cinq siècles de vie ostienne
Volume 44
De Aquaeductu atque Aqua Urbium Lyciae Pamphyliae Pisidiae / The Legacy of Sextus Julius Frontinus
Tagungsband des internationalen Frontinus-Symposiums. Antalya, 31. Oktober - 9. November 2014
Volume 27
Wasserwesen zur Zeit des Frontinus. Bauwerke – Technik – Kultur
Tagungsband des internationalen Frontinus-Symposiums Trier, 25. - 29. Mai 2016
Volume 32
Cultural Messages in the Graeco-Roman World
'Acta of the BABESCH 80th Anniversary Workshop Radboud University Nijmegen, September 8th 2006'
Volume 15
Tracing Technology
Forty Years of Archaeological Research at Satricum, Rome 25-28 October 2017
Volume 42
Material Aspects of Etruscan Religion
Proceedings of the International Colloquium Leiden, May 29 and 30, 2008
Volume 16
Fragile Biography
The Life Cycle of Ceramics and Refuse Disposal Patterns in Late Antique and Early Medieval Palestine
Volume 35
Centralization, Early Urbanization and Colonization in First Millennium BC Greece and Italy. Part 1
Italy
Volume 9
Early Italian Sigillata
The Chronological Framework and Trade Patterns. Proceedings of the First International ROCT-Congress, Leuven, May 7 and 8, 1999
Volume 10
Understanding Standardization and Variation in Mediterranean Ceramics
Mid 2nd to Late 1st Millennium BC
Volume 25
Agalmata. Studien zur griechisch-archaischen Bronzekunst
Die Aufsatze zur griechisch-archaischen Bronzekunst von Conrad M. Stibbe wurden zu seinem achtzigsten Geburtstag, am 7. September 2005 gesammelt und besorgt von Barbara Heldring, Paola Pelagatti, Maria Pipili, Herbert Post und De Steures
Volume 11
From Pots to People
A Ceramic Approach to the Archaeological Interpretation of Ploughsoil Assemblages in Late Roman Cyprus
Volume 17
Similar Books
A Late Antique Harrowing of Hell and Its Medieval Reception
Eusebius of Alexandria's Sermons 15 and 17 (CPG 5524; 5526) and their Latin Rewritings
Volume 99
Behind the Scenes of Medieval Roofs
An Overview of the Roofing Systems of Italian Churches
Volume 90
Caesar’s Visions and Impact on the Roman Empire
Revisiting the Archaeological and Historical Record of the 40s BC
Volume 2
Etruscan and Roman Hellenistic Anatomical ex votos
Reassessing Popular Religious Expressions in Central Italy
Volume 8
Ḫattušaš utnē išḫameški
Hittite and Other Ancient Near Eastern Studies Presented to Piotr Taracha on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday
Innovation and Medieval Communities
The Circulation of Ideas and Practices in and out of the Town (1200-1500)
Volume 63
Invisible Labour in Antiquity
Visualizing Obscure Work in the Ancient Mediterannean and West Asia
Volume 1
Late Antique villae in the Balkans (3rd–7th c. AD): Current Research Questions and Perspectives
HAEMUS Companion to the Late Antique Balkans 1
Volume 4
Medieval Debates on Foreknowledge: Future Contingents, Prophecy, and Divination
Acts of the XXVII Annual Colloquium of the SIEPM, Trento 12-15 September 2023
Volume 31
Medieval Yeghegis, Armenia
History, Archaeology, Society. Local Multiplicities and Global Connections of a Rural Centre on the Silk Road(s)
Portraying the Individual in the Roman East
Local–Imperial Entanglements in Sculpture, Mosaics, and Paintings (First–Fourth Centuries AD)
Volume 18
Power and Women in Southeast and Central Europe in Late Medieval and Early Modern Period (1300-1600)
Volume 10
Punning in Odd or Elegant Constructions in Jeremiah
The Convergence of Linguistics, Rhetoric, and Textuality in the Hebrew Text of Jeremiah
Shame in the Worlds of the Hebrew Bible and Akkadian Texts
A Linguistic Study and Its Implications
Volume 33
Telling Contexts
Archaeological and Textual Studies in Honor of Elizabeth Bloch-Smith and Mark S. Smith
