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To view any of our past lectures please visit our YouTube channel.
To view any of our past lectures please visit our YouTube channel.
Society of Antiquaries of London and University of Exeter, Department of Archaeology joint seminar.
This talk is based on the speaker’s long-term study of pottery-making in the Western and Central Balkans, where a declining number of potters in five remaining centres continue to produce cooking wares in a range of fabrics for local sale. While the use of hand-wheels and open-firing techniques still predominate amongst these potters, there is significant and growing variation in both forming devices and firing methods which arguably impact on the finished products. By means of participant-observation, conversation, filmed and photographic records produced over three decades, reasons for continuity and change are explored which illuminate the concept and meaning of tradition in a contemporary society. The observable material correlates of local change/stability and regional variation are also discussed.
Richard Carlton is an archaeologist and ethnographer based in Newcastle upon Tyne where he is director of an archaeological consultancy and visiting fellow at the University of Newcastle. As well as excavating on sites of all periods in north-East England and the Borders, he has a long-term interest in the Balkans, particularly the area of former Yugoslavia, where he has researched and published on the destruction of cultural heritage during the wars of the 1990s and carried out a long-term study of pottery-making, particularly in southern Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. A current project related to this involves the production of films of potters recorded in the 1990s as well as return visits to carry out more filming through the British Museum ‘Endangered Material Knowledge Programme’ – EMKP project in 2022. You can watch it on Youtube here.
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