This article investigates the utility of a chaîne opératoire approach centered on technologies of ceramic production for identifying Inca mitmaqkuna archaeologically. Although early documents suggest that the Inca program of resettlement (mitmaq) was massive in scale, archaeologists have had minimal success in identifying such relocated populations. Here we test a novel approach that focuses on technologies of production and associated tool assemblages used within different communities of practice. Previous studies indicate that the ethnic Cañari of southern Ecuador used a distinctive method of pottery manufacture involving a specific chaîne opératoire and a unique set of production-related tools. According to early sources, the Inca deported Cañari peoples to various sectors of Tawantinsuyu. In this article, we investigate the contemporary manufacturing style of ceramics from the Ancash region of north-central Peru—an area where Cañari mitmaqkuna were purportedly resettled—to determine whether distinctive communities of practice potentially representing relocated communities might be visible. The results of this study suggest that it is possible to identify connections among distant communities of practice via a focus on craft production technologies that, in certain historical contexts, may be construed as evidence for the presence of resettled populations.

For many years, the existence of ancient human settlements in the Amazon was deemed impossible, particularly those as old as 12,000 BP as found in Pedra Pintada Cave in Monte Alegre, in the state of Pará, by Anna Roosevelt and colleagues in the 1990s and by Edithe Pereira's team in 2014. In this article, we present the results of the technological analyses of the bifacial tools found in the cave, focusing on raw materials, techniques, shaping and retouching methods, and technical procedures. The analyses indicate careful knapping, with no mistakes, in hundreds of flakes in the shaping and retouching phases, as well as fragmented tools with flaws. Whenever possible, we compare the results to the data published by Roosevelt and colleagues in 1996 from the same site.

Perishable artifacts are invaluable tools for reconstructing past lifeways of hunter-gatherers, and when preserved in arid settings, they can inform on dynamic interactions between communities and the environment. Many such materials were recovered from early archaeological surveys in Utah and Nevada but were largely excluded from contemporary analyses because of small sample sizes, their fragmentary nature, and insecure proveniences. This synchronic reanalysis of cordage and coiled basketry from 10 late Holocene sites in the Great Salt Lake Desert utilizes newer approaches to perishables analysis so as to collect data more conducive to statistical comparisons of subsistence and craft traditions absent from earlier Great Basin studies. Regional trends of conformity of fine cordage contrasted with a diversity of basketry manufacture suggest contemporaneous social stressors directing the production of materials and two potentially gendered subclasses of utilitarian objects. Feminine and masculine perishable crafts in the Bonneville Basin follow separate manufacturing traditions, observable despite small sample sizes and poor dating of these curated collections.

The Northern European Mesolithic is well known for the manufacture of composite tools and weapons for specialised purposes. A composite implement recovered from the Early Holocene site of Krzyż Wielkopolski 7 in Poland, dated to the Preboreal/Boreal transition, raises questions about expediency versus efficiency in the fabrication of these artefacts. Here, the authors characterise its materials and production: a bone splinter mounted on a shaft of pine wood, secured with bast ligatures coated in birch bark tar. While the manufacture of the implement's individual components can be characterised as ‘expedient’, the finished implement is, however, complex, efficient and durable.

The area of the Atures Rapids in the Middle Orinoco River (Venezuela), where multiple Indigenous communities gathered to trade goods, has been identified as a prominent center of commerce since early colonial times. However, the exchange activities taking place there between local and nonlocal actors before European colonization are poorly understood, based only on the ethnohistoric record. This article presents an archaeometric analysis of stone beads and ceramic roller stamps, items previously associated with trade practices, from two recently excavated sites in the region, Picure (AD 1030–1480) and Rabo de Cochino (AD 1000–1440); it assesses their provenance, production, and value. We propose that Picure was a site of a bead-manufacturing workshop and a place where roller stamps were exchanged. The stamps were acquired and produced by different potting groups. Analysis of the chaîne opératoire and production techniques shows processes of adaptation and emulation associated with the multiple, multiethnic communities during the period from AD 1000 to 1480. Both beads and stamps are linked to identity regalia that were likely used as part of ceremonies taking place in the area of the Rapids, as indicated by the numerous and monumental petroglyphs found on the islands.

Early craft specialisation provides insights into the emergence of social complexity. Textile production also offers a lens through which specialisation can be recognised. Here, the authors present a detailed contextual and technological analysis of a large assemblage of textile-production tools from Tianluoshan, a waterlogged Middle Neolithic site in the Yangzi Valley, China. Using the chaîne opératoire approach, tools are identified, their roles in the production process explained and their significance explored. The results trace the production of textiles from spinning through loom weaving to fabric construction with needles. The use of a variety of fibre-based plants is suggested and tentative evidence for the early use of ground looms explored.

Ancient art is typically studied in terms of its aesthetic or historical value. This article presents an alternative approach, examining ancient Egyptian wall reliefs from a chaîne opératoire perspective. The reliefs assessed here adorn the walls of the Chapel of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari in Thebes. The analysis reveals, for the first time, the sequence of the artists’ work, from the initial preparation of the wall surface to the master sculptor's final touches. This enables a reconstruction of the ergonomic organisation of the work, distinguishing the contributions of individual hands and revealing often intangible phenomena, such as master-apprentice interactions. A similar approach may be useful when examining carved reliefs in other parts of the world.

The shell-midden site of Riņņukalns in northern Latvia offers a rare opportunity to study long-term trends in ceramic production and function at a European hunter-fisher-gatherer site. Riņņukalns was occupied from the sixth millennium BC, with the midden developing from the later fourth millennium. Here, the authors discuss the chaîne opératoire and function of the Riņņukalns material, showing that pottery was used in both the pre-midden and midden phases primarily to cook aquatic and porcine resources. The technology used to produce these cooking vessels, however, changed over time, with new firing techniques associated with a shift to the use of shell temper. The results have implications for understanding prehistoric technology and subsistence in other parts of the world.

Bronze Age agro-pastoralist populations with economies and materials that are generally consistent with the Andronovo Culture—but with localised variations—are known throughout the mountains bordering the Eastern Eurasian Steppe. Recently, evidence for this tradition has also been found in north-west Xinjiang, China, although many questions remain about the production, use and significance of ceramics here. The authors’ analyses of a sample of pottery from sites across the Bortala Valley permit the reconstruction of the ceramic chaîne opératoire and offer two distinct stories: one of cultural connectivity with regional networks of Eurasian pastoralists, and another about self-expression through small-scale local ceramic production.

This article starts from the observation that the social persona of ‘specialist’ is an important analytical unit in archaeology, typically to model social (craft) organization from a Marxist perspective. This has caused this concept to solidify around economic rather than material concerns. I argue that the ‘specialist’ has become too much an ideational concept that is no longer accurately rooted in archaeological artefacts. Hence, through a brief exploration of Early Bronze Age axes, my aim is to highlight technical skill and use this to reveal different levels of material specialization. On this basis, I suggest moving beyond the umbrella term of ‘specialist’ and using four, more precise analytical units that are better equipped to accommodate the qualitative diversity of material cultures: the amateur, showing basic knowledge but little refinement; the craftsperson, producing well-made practical objects; the master, striving for perfection and setting the norm; and the virtuoso, taking risks in creating original and unique products.

Sai Island, in the Nile in northern Sudan, has a series of settlement sites spanning the entire period from the eighth millennium BC through to the Eighteenth Dynasty of the Egyptian New Kingdom. This long sequence provides an excellent opportunity to study continuity and discontinuity in long-term pottery traditions. Ceramics from the varying cultural phases of the occupation reflect changing dynamics between broader regional social identities, notably Kerma to the south and Egypt to the north. Combining studies of petrography with trace element composition and chaîne opératoire analysis, the authors present the first diachronic study of ceramic manufacture throughout the extended cultural history of Nubia, highlighting the varying manifestations of change and continuity.

This article focuses on the production of bone tools during the seventh millennium cal BC. A large number of fishhooks and waste from fishhook production have been found at the sites of Sævarhelleren and Viste cave, in western Norway. The data have been studied by means of the chaîne opératoire concept, meaning that the artefacts are described and analysed in order to identify the different steps in the production process and to characterize the technology in a comparative northern European perspective. The result shows that bone tools and fishhooks were crafted in a similar way at these two sites, with techniques that were mastered by all makers, and in close relation to stone tool production. When compared to other contemporaneous sites, the technology resembles the Mesolithic bone technology of north-eastern Europe. It thus contradicts the hypothesis of a strong connection between western Norway and the Maglemose cultural group in southern Scandinavia and northern Germany.

Refitting flakes to cores is a well-developed way to investigate how stone tools were made. Here the author takes on the formidable task of refitting the stone blocks of menhirs, orthostats and megalithic tombs to their quarries. The results are impressive: the order of erection in a row of menhirs, the method of construction in a passage grave and the monumental chronology of a region are just three of the rewards of this promising new method.

The silex blond or honey-coloured (Bédoulien) flints which originate in the Vaucluse are distributed over a wide area of the south of France and beyond. Examination of the features of cores and blades shows that a variety of supply systems were in use: in some cases the raw material was transported as blades, in others as heated preforms to make it easier to knap. Different places were targeted with different products. The paper is dedicated to Patricia Phillips who beat a path through to this more sophisticated, more diverse Neolithic world.