Society, Practice, Innovation: A Case Study from Noricum

The aim of the SPIN project is to assess the emergence of pottery wheel-throwing and potters skill in 100 BC 400 AD Eastern Alps, that would become the Roman province Noricum.

Adopting a novel method to identify continuous and divergent learning trajectories, the transmission of technological knowledge will be elucidated, while also considering Roman expansion that had an impact on the scale and organisation of pottery production.

As an important hub for trade networks, Noricum is an excellent case study to understand how and why wheel-throwing can be differently adopted by craft communities and how important social interactions are in the assimilation of the new technique.

The earliest stratigraphic contexts in Noricum comprise both handmade and wheel-thrown pottery, yet the implications of such co-existing divergent technological traditions remain poorly understood. Why did some communities adopt the wheel-throwing technique, and why did others reject it?

The SPIN project combines archaeological approaches with aspects of social anthropology relating to potters skill, together with a host of archaeological science techniques, including OM, XRF, XRPD, isotope analysis and SEM.

It also incorporates, in an innovative manner, SANS analysis, experimental replication, as well as Digital Humanities (e.g., GIS and SNA), to gain insight in the scale and output of production and to assess the impact of expanding Roman culture on workshop location and organisation.

By distinguishing distinct learning traditions, the project holds the key to understanding the norms and traditions that regulated ancient craft communities.

This permits ground-breaking insights that challenge apparent generalisations about the adoption of pottery wheel-throwing, particularly regarding underlying social networks among craft communities, and it will highlight social interactions between them and other communities in Noricum.