Ways of identifying the occurrence and scale of specialized production in past societies fall into four main categories: archaeological context, object studies, observation or experimentation, and the use of documents or art.
Archaeological Context
This refers to the examination of those areas of an archaeological site where production took place. Determining the location of production is complicated by differential preservation, especially of organic materials, and is directly affected by the methods chosen to excavate the site, but when successful, this approach is one of the most productive. The association of tools, production facilities such as kilns, raw materials, waste from the manufacturing processes, and objects in the process of being manufactured are some of the things that the excavator looks for and are among the best kinds of evidence with which to address issues of intensity, scale, and location. The example of Chan Chan discussed above provides an excellent illustration of the value of excavation strategies designed to recover information from multiple locations within a site. Excavation of both the large elite compounds and the smaller household areas made it possible to identify the occurrence of two different contexts of production.
Studying Objects
Studying the objects themselves is probably the most widely employed approach because it may be applied to items in museum collections or otherwise not excavated by the analyst directly. Studies of objects may consider their formal or decorative properties, such as design elements or their execution, to try to identify stylistic clusters that may indicate production by the same group of producers. Such inferences must be confirmed by archaeological data from sites in the proposed region, however, since alternative explanations are possible. Techniques of manufacture, such as the use of molds, are also of interest for the light they shed on the technological aspects of production and the organization of production.
Object studies may also employ scientific techniques such as petrography, neutron activation analysis, or X-ray fluorescence to determine the chemical composition of raw materials. Analysis of the trace elements present in clay or obsidian, for example, allows the archaeologist to group together objects on the basis of shared features of their raw materials (see Chemical Analysis Techniques). Although these techniques do not by themselves tell one where the sources are located, they may show that certain styles or types of pottery were made from the same or different kinds of clay. This in turn has been used to make inferences about where objects were produced. Such information may be combined with other kinds of evidence to develop models of the scale or organization of production. Research on metalworking traditions has discerned the composition of different alloys and the kinds of manufacturing techniques employed.
Observation and Experimentation
Observation or experimentation provide a different means to consider the issue. Archaeologists have observed contemporary specialists or engaged in experiments to replicate ancient technologies. These studies have been extremely productive in working out both the technological and social aspects of craft specialization because of the information they generate regarding how much time is required, how many people needed, what kinds of skills are involved, and how new craft specialists are trained. Thus a great deal of social information may be acquired that would not otherwise be recoverable from the object itself. When taking an experimental approach, it is crucial to recreate the conditions of production, including the kinds of tools and facilities used, the raw materials and how they are processed, and the end product as closely as possible based on evidence from archaeological contexts or other sources of information. Observation of craft production or experimental reconstruction under controlled conditions often yield unexpected insight into the complexity of preindustrial or nonmechanized technologies as well as the degree to which craft specialists understand the properties of the materials with which they worked.
Written and Visual Sources of Information
Finally, when available, written documents or art may provide information about craft specialization in a specific historical and cultural context. These kinds of sources have been particularly helpful in overcoming the limitations of the archaeological record in many parts of the world. Specialized production is not limited to such durable materials as clay, stone, or metal but manufacture of those materials is often what leaves the most extensive traces. Visual representations of society and written texts expand the range of kinds of crafts practiced while providing information about the social relations of production and the cultural beliefs that develop around the productive process.
World History
