Potters’ technological choices in turbulent times: Exploring the transition from the Neolithic to the Copper Age on the Great Hungarian Plain through communities of practice and technological investment theories

Abstract

This paper explores how technology can be used to discern socio-cultural variations and how technological analyses can contribute to a better understanding of the origins and aftermaths of fundamental socio-political changes in prehistoric societies. To study pottery technology, we carried out petrographic analysis on ceramics from six Late Neolithic (ca. 5000–4500 BCE) and Early Copper Age (ca. 4500–4000 BCE) sites located within a single microregion in the Körös Basin on the Great Hungarian Plain. The communities representing two Late Neolithic cultural units (i.e., the Tisza and the Herpály) applied distinct ceramic decorations and sustained a strongly enforced socio-cultural boundary. By the Early Copper Age, dramatic changes unfolded, including the abandonment of Neolithic centers, a departure from Late Neolithic symbolic systems, and the emergence of an overall homogeneity in material culture. The petrographic analysis, however, revealed a high degree of similarity in ceramic manufacturing between the Tisza and Herpály that persisted into the Copper Age. To understand these patterns, we apply the concepts of communities and constellation of practice, alongside technological investment theory. We argue that a potting constellation of practice explains the similarities between Tisza and Herpály manufacturing practices. In addition, the ceramic technological continuity into the Copper Age, despite major socio-political turbulence, illustrates that potters continued to interact with the landscape, technology, and each other in similar ways, even as other, social aspects of the craft changed. The persistence of technological traditions suggests that internal developments rather than external factors were responsible for the profound socio-cultural transformations that occurred during the transition from the Neolithic to the Copper Age on the Great Hungarian Plain.