Rocks and clay: Potters technological choices within the cultural dynamics of Bronze Age Kazakhstan

Doumani Dupuy P.N. Amicone S. Frenken M. Berner J. Hermes T. Frachetti M.D. Kiyasbek G.
April 2025 Public Library of Science

PLoS ONE
2025 #20 Issue 4 April

Through regular interactions with their neighbors, diverse groups inhabiting areas along the Inner Asian Mountain Corridor during the Bronze Age formed dynamic interregional networks that saw the proliferation and persistence of shared material cultures over vast geographic areas. In this paper we advocate for ceramics analyses that combine both macro- and micro-scale technological studies alongside those of style, in order not to lose sight of the actual people who drove defining transformations in the Bronze Age. We present a petrographic study of pottery from the Zhetysu region, southeastern Kazakhstan, to examine diachronic technological traditions with a special focus on routines of selection and raw material processing. Our results demonstrate site-specific potting technologies as well as traits that transcend both time and space across episodes of high genetic turnover in the human population.

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Sociology and Anthropology Department, Nazarbayev University, Akmola Oblast, Astana, Kazakhstan
Archaeometry Research Group, Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
Institute of Archaeology, University College London, London, United Kingdom
Science and Technology in Archaeology and Culture Research Center, The Cyprus Institute, Nicosia, Cyprus
Anthropology Department, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, United States
Department of Anthropology, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, United States
Margulan Institute of Archaeology, Almaty Oblast, Almaty, Kazakhstan

Sociology and Anthropology Department
Archaeometry Research Group
Institute of Archaeology
Science and Technology in Archaeology and Culture Research Center
Anthropology Department
Department of Anthropology
Margulan Institute of Archaeology

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