The Value of Making
Theory and Practice in Ancient Craft Production
Edited by Helle Hochscheid Edited by Ben Russell
This volume presents new scholarship on the value and valuing of craft production in ancient societies around the Mediterranean. Ancient economic history, especially when approached archaeologically, has typically – and with good reason – focused upon the objects that were produced by craftspeople, their form and style, and their distribution. Typological approaches necessary for sorting and analysing large bodies of material evidence have also prioritized the final form of artefacts. Yet it was first and foremost the craftspeople behind these items who were responsible for an item’s functionality, its purpose, and its value, and these roles have in recent years received fresh attention in anthropological and sociological studies. The contributions gathered in this volume revolve around the role of makers, their handling of materials, and their place in networks of production and consumption, whilst at the same time remembering that craftspeople were never lone forces but depended on wider networks of supplies, colleagues, and consumers, as well as more ephemeral considerations such as aesthetics and religious value. Through this approach, the volume sheds new light not only on a range of crafts and materials from the ancient world, but also on the value of making and the making of value in ancient Mediterranean societies.
This volume presents new scholarship on the value and valuing of craft production in ancient societies around the Mediterranean. Ancient economic history, especially when approached archaeologically, has typically – and with good reason – focused upon the objects that were produced by craftspeople, their form and style, and their distribution. Typological approaches necessary for sorting and analysing large bodies of material evidence have also prioritized the final form of artefacts. Yet it was first and foremost the craftspeople behind these items who were responsible for an item’s functionality, its purpose, and its value, and these roles have in recent years received fresh attention in anthropological and sociological studies. The contributions gathered in this volume revolve around the role of makers, their handling of materials, and their place in networks of production and consumption, whilst at the same time remembering that craftspeople were never lone forces but depended on wider networks of supplies, colleagues, and consumers, as well as more ephemeral considerations such as aesthetics and religious value. Through this approach, the volume sheds new light not only on a range of crafts and materials from the ancient world, but also on the value of making and the making of value in ancient Mediterranean societies.
- Edited by Helle Hochscheid
- Edited by Ben Russell
Other Titles in this Series
Hellenistic Sealings & Archives
Proceedings of The Edfu Connection, an international conference
Volume 10
The Painted Tetrarchic Reliefs of Nicomedia
Uncovering the Colourful Life of Diocletian's Forgotten Capital
Volume 12
Zerstorte Architektur bei Pausanias
Phanomenologie, Funktionen und Verhaltnis zum zeitgenossischen Ruinendiskurs
Volume 5
Portraying the Individual in the Roman East
Local–Imperial Entanglements in Sculpture, Mosaics, and Paintings (First–Fourth Centuries AD)
Volume 18
The Sanctuary of Parthenos at Ancient Neapolis (Kavala) Volume I
Incised and Painted Ceramic Inscriptions from the Sanctuary and in Aegean Thrace
Volume 15
Funerary Representations of Palmyrene Women
From the First Century BC to the Third Century AD
Volume 3
The Sanctuary of Parthenos at Ancient Neapolis (Kavala), Volume II
Pottery, Stone Inscriptions, and Small finds
Volume 17
Die Basileia von Alexandria
Topographisch-urbanistische Untersuchungen zum ptolemaischen Konigsviertel
Volume 9
Similar Books
Caesar’s Visions and Impact on the Roman Empire
Revisiting the Archaeological and Historical Record of the 40s BC
Volume 2
Construction Processes in Historical Western Societies (5th c. BC – 10th c. AD)
Case Studies on Techniques, Models, and Costs
Contesting Labeled Identities
The Sociology of Gentilics in Biblical and Northwest Semitic Literature
Creating the Woman in Antiquity
Proceedings of the 16th Melammu Workshop, Innsbruck, 2–3 June 2022
Volume 13
Drunk the Potion, No Whit Charmed
The Doctrine of Pure and Perfect Souls from Iamblichus to Damascius
Epigraphic “Shades” from Hellenistic Thrace
Contextualizing Inscriptions in Greek from Thracian Tombs
Epiphanies of the Divine in the Septuagint and the New Testament
Fifth International Symposium of the Corpus Judaeo-Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti (CJHNT), 14-17 May 2015, Nottingham
Etruscan and Roman Hellenistic Anatomical ex votos
Reassessing Popular Religious Expressions in Central Italy
Volume 8
Gold, Silver and Glass: Power Networks, Cultural Identities, Technology Transfers and Agency across the Old World (7th Century BC – 1st Century AD)
Proceedings of a Conference Held at the British Museum, 16–18 June 2023
Invisible Labour in Antiquity
Visualizing Obscure Work in the Ancient Mediterannean and West Asia
Volume 1
Language and Power in the Roman Empire and Early India
Hierarchy, Ambiguity, and the Art of Reading the Signs in Cosmopolitan Cultures
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
Nurturing the Elite
Representations of Drinking, Eating, and Religious Vessels in Palmyrene Funerary Iconography
Volume 13
