To browse Academia. The article examines the social and economic organization surrounding stone axe production and distribution in the western Mediterranean, emphasizing a shift from a petrographic focus to an evaluation of environmental and social factors. It discusses how the characteristics of rocks used and the methods of distribution reflect underlying economic and ideological constructs, drawing on value theory from classical to modern economics. The findings highlight the regional variations in resource accessibility and the implications for the understanding of prehistoric societies.
A Re- Construction from the Archaeological Record, Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, Log in with Facebook Log in with Google. Remember me on this computer. Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link. Need an account? Click here to sign up. Social and economic organization of stone axe production and distribution in the western Mediterranean Roberto Risch.
Stone axes from Orkney: their style and deposition Ann Clarke Interlude 9 Chapter 20 Neolithic ground axe-heads and monuments in Wessex David Field Chapter 21 The twentieth-century polished stone axeheads of New Guinea: why study them? This paper argues that a dialectical approach to the concept of value, seen as a consequence of the interplay between material constraints, social institutions and individual strategy, is essential for our understanding of prehistoric value systems.
With this argument established, the paper goes on to analyse the social value of stone axes on the Northern margins of the Western Mediterranean. The growing number of petrographic and archaeological studies undertaken during the last decade or so, mean that we can to begin to define the spatial and temporal patterns of axe production and circulation from the Alps to the Sierra Nevada during the 6th to 3rd millennia BCE.
This suggests that next to regional supply strategies, long distance exchange networks developed and became the target of political control at particular times and places.
