White Painted Ware, the most identifiable of pottery types of the Middle Bronze Age on Cyprus, has been studied by scholars either with the view to creating chronological typologies or to tracing trade routes. Little attention has been paid to the technology and social organization of production of this pottery. This thesis is concerned with the potters as much as with the pottery. The production sequence is examined from clay selection through to decoration of the vessels. An attempt is made to isolate production centres with unique methods of vessel construction as well as preferences for certain shapes and decorative schemes. Using petrographic analysis, different fabrics are isolated within the ware, and these are in turn related to the groups of vessels created based on style. Similar fabrics are used in multiple sites and most sites were found to have used multiple fabrics to create pottery that is considered to be part of the White Painted ware group. Beneath the major differences in styles between sites are several minor variations in construction method and decoration that are more likely to represent choices made by individual potters or small groups of potters working together. Based on vessel shape and decoration, seven distinct production centres appear to have been manufacturing White Painted ware on Cyprus over the course of the Middle Bronze Age. These were not operating simultaneously, but appear to have been active at the time that their regions were most prosperous, linking the production and use of White Painted ware with political and economic power.

White Painted Ware, the most identifiable of pottery types of the Middle Bronze Age on Cyprus, has been studied by scholars either with the view to creating chronological typologies or to tracing trade routes. Little attention has been paid to the technology and social organization of production of this pottery. This thesis is concerned with the potters as much as with the pottery. The production sequence is examined from clay selection through to decoration of the vessels. An attempt is made to isolate production centres with unique methods of vessel construction as well as preferences for certain shapes and decorative schemes. Using petrographic analysis, different fabrics are isolated within the ware, and these are in turn related to the groups of vessels created based on style. Similar fabrics are used in multiple sites and most sites were found to have used multiple fabrics to create pottery that is considered to be part of the White Painted ware group. Beneath the major differences in styles between sites are several minor variations in construction method and decoration that are more likely to represent choices made by individual potters or small groups of potters working together. Based on vessel shape and decoration, seven distinct production centres appear to have been manufacturing White Painted ware on Cyprus over the course of the Middle Bronze Age. These were not operating simultaneously, but appear to have been active at the time that their regions were most prosperous, linking the production and use of White Painted ware with political and economic power.

Eldon unifaces are unifacially flaked stone tool artifacts that are unique to the Canadian Plains of the early-Middle Period (7,500-4,500 ya). They are unique because cortex covers the ventral side. The artifacts also have a suit of traits such as being thinned (or an attempt was made to thin), unifically flaked, and there is a preference for them to be made from large quartzite cobbles. Further morphological traits indicate that there are four related types of these tools: Classic, Corner, Side, and Amorphous; the first two are the focus of this thesis. Design theory and Châine Opératoire are used to study how the artifacts were made and used. Other geographic regions are sought for similar artifact forms: Manitoba, Eastern Woodlands /Maritimes, and British Columbia. It is the cobble spall tools from British Columbia that has the most striking similarity in morphology and manufacturing strategy. There are also important differences like in how Eldon unifaces are more heterogeneous and circumscribed to a shorter period of time than the British Columbia artifacts.<p> A morphological and usewear analysis is undertaken to ascertain the function of Classic and Corner Eldon unifaces. The morphological analysis indicates that the tools were likely used to process medium to hard materials; however, the literature is rife with contraditctions on how to relate morphology with function. This questioned the reliability of a morphological approach to function and indicated that it needed to be supported by a usewear approach. The usewear analysis supported the inferences of the tools working medium to hard materials and also indicated how the tools were used (motion). Further, the usewear and morphological analyses also indicated that the Eldon unifaces were likely hafted.

Les outils d’analyse et de modélisation manquent encore pour traiter la masse des données techniques collectées en contextes archéologiques. Une réflexion méthodologique considère conjointement les besoins des technologues dans la reconstitution de chaînes opératoires et les exigences des méthodes statistiques. Elle mène à la présentation d’une fonction de partitionnement de chaînes opératoires : PACO. Il s’agit d’un procédé automatisé sous le logiciel R, qui rend les analyses plus rigoureuses et plus rapides, mais également plus souples dans leur adaptation aux différents environnements chrono-culturels. Son fonctionnement, basé sur une règle simple, est accessible à tous.Les intérêts de cet outil sont illustrés à partir d’un cas d’étude original. Les techniques de production céramique sont identifiées sur seize habitats et trois nécropoles de la vallée du Rhin supérieur et environs proches, entre le Xe et le VIIIe siècles av. J.-C. Les chaînes opératoires et les traditions techniques, héritées et transmises, sont reconstituées. Cela mène à un essai de représentation de réseaux d’interactions entre communautés ayant un fondement social et spatial. Les lieux et contextes de la production sont investigués à partir d’une relecture des rapports de fouille et d’une observation des pâtes céramiques. Les avantages utilitaires des différentes manières de faire et la co-représentation des traditions techniques au sein des assemblages céramiques sont enfin considérés ; cela amène à discuter la complémentarité et la concurrence des productions à l’aube de l’âge du Fer. / Mining and modeling tools are still missing to process the huge technical datasets collected in archaeological contexts. A methodology considered here takes into account both the needs of technologists reconstructing chaînes opératoires and statistical requirements. It leads to the presentation of a function partitioning chaînes opératoires : PACO. This is an automated process using the R statistical software which makes the analyses more rigorous and faster, and also more flexible while adapting to various chrono-cultural contexts. PACO is based on one simple rule and is understandable by everyone.The advantages of this tool are illustrated by an innovative case study. Pottery making techniques are identified on 16 habitation and 3 funerary sites of the upper Rhine Valley and surroundings, which date from the 10th to the 8th centuries B.C. Chaînes opératoires and technical traditions, which are inherited and transmitted, are reconstructed. This has led to an attempt at representing the networks of interplays between communities defined on a social and spatial basis. Places and conditions of pottery making are investigated through a re-reading of excavation reports and ceramic paste examination. Functional benefits of the different technical traditions and the co-representation of these traditions within ceramic assemblages are finally examined; this is an additional approach to consider complementary and competing productions at the dawn of the Iron Age.

Egtvedflickans bärmölska – om bryggprocessen för fermenterade blanddrycker under sydskandinavisk äldre bronsålder. The Braggot of the Egtved Girl- the brewing process of Early Bronze Age mixed fermented beverages in South Scandinavia. Abstract The residues of an alcoholic drink containing honey, wheat, myrica gale and berries in the oak log coffin of the Egtved barrow from the Early Bronze Age in Denmark is an example of prehistoric European mixed fermented beverages. Drawing analog inference from archaeological, historic and ethnographic sources by method of Chaine Operatoire this thesis constructs a schematic model of the brewing process of this drink and classify it as an ancient braggot. Keywords: Chaine Operatoire, ancient beer, analogy, mead, nordic grog, boiling stones.