Pinning Identity on Pins? Exploring Standardization to Investigate Social Perception
SABBINI, Claudia
Those aspects of material culture that we choose to display everyday inevitably take on a form of nonverbal communication that speaks of one’s perceived identity and may permeate several layers of the objects in question: raw material, technology, manufacturing process, shape and function. How can we recognize such meaningful mediums in archaeological material culture when their social contexts of use and meaning have been lost? In this contribution we explore how standardization in shape and manufacture might be telling of such attached meaning. The case study comes from Period VII Arslantepe (Malatya, Turkey, 3900-3400 BCE) whose Hard Animal Material finds are currently under study in a technological perspective. Among the assemblage a peculiar set of points with carefully shaped heads emerges, that might be interpreted as pins; such objects exhibit standardization in both shape and manufacture while still allowing specific sets of variations. We will investigate the patterns of recurring or non-recurring features to circumscribe which aspects were likely to be perceived as a significant identity marker in the ever more complex Late Chalcolithic society.
Session 4. Crafting Identity and Clusters through Material Culture, Iconography and Texts [info]