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TebeadworkshopatsiteMPS4,MilPlain,Azerbaijan...
CAUCASUS
THEBEADWORKSHOPATSITEMPS4,
MILPLAIN,AZERBAIJAN:
CRAFTSPECIALIZATIONANDTHE
MANUFACTUREOFSHELLJEWELLERY
INTHENEOLITHIC
IliaHeit
InstituteforAncientNearEasternArchaeology,FreieUniversitätBerlin
Abstract:TepaperpresentspreliminaryresultsfromastudyofshellmaterialattheNeolithic
siteofMPS4intheMilPlain,southwesternAzerbaijan.Tearchaeologicalremainsindicate
productionofadistincttypeofdiscbeadfromoneshellspeciesoftheDidacnagenus.Moreover,
theyallowacloserlookatmanufacturingtechniquesandraisequestionsaboutcrafspecialization
aswellasthepresenceofalongtraditionofshelljewelleryintheCircumcaspianregion.
Keywords:Neolithic,shellbeads,beadworkshop,crafspecialization,southernCaucasus
Personalornamentshaveuntilrecently
receivedlittleattentionfromarchae-
ologists.Instudiesandfieldreportson
prehistoricmaterial,theyareofenhidden
awayincategorieslikemiscellaneousfinds.
Tisscholarlyneglecthaslongobscuredthe
importantrolethattheseapparent“non-
utilitarian”objectsusedtoplayinprehis-
toricsocieties.Sincetheirfirstappearance
intheinitialUpperPaleolithicinEurasia
(Kuhnetalii2001;ÁlvarezFernández,
Jöris2008),probablyrelatedtothespread
ofanatomicallymodernhumans,orna-
mentshaveoccurredinalmostevery
cultureacrosstimeandspace.
Tefunctionofjewelleryislimitednot
onlytobodydecoration,asitcanalsoserve
moreutilitarianpurposeslikecounting,or
asanexchangeofvaluables(e.g.,Eichhorn
1916;Malinowski1922;Paravicini1942-
1945;Connell1977).Adorningthebody
initselfnotonlyenhancestheappearance
ofaperson,butplaysanimportant
roleinthevisualcommunicationof
socialinformation(Kuhn,Stiner2007).
Ornamentsservetoexpressaspectsofthe
wearer)sidentitytoseveralaudiences.
Jewellerycanbeusedtoexpresssocial
identityandgroupafliation,suchas
gender,
kinship,maritalstatus,orto
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PAM23/2:SpecialStudies
