The Cucuteni-Tripolye culture : study in technology and the origins of complex society
Through examining the changes in the ceramic technology of Pre-Cucuteni-Tripolye (Neolithic) through Chalcolithic Cucuteni-Tripolye culture, Ellis is able to show the beginings of ranked society. In the Neolithic pottery is made by individuals or individual households. With the Chalcolithic pottery begins to be painted and the designs and shapes become more standardized through time. As up-draught kilns are used, ceramics can be consistently fired at high temperatures with a slow cool down creating stronger ceramics. Chalcolithic vessels also show evidence of being created on potter's wheels and often in separate pottery workshops. There is also a change in vessel shape and size (to large with narrow openings) which indicates more vessels were being used for food storage. All this indicates there were specialists that created the ceramics and this would only have been possible in a society that was at least begining to be stratified. Only Chalcolithic time periods were indexed for Outline of Cultural Materials (OCM) codes
Print Book, English, 1984
B.A.R., Oxford, England, 1984