A Taste for Green
A global perspective on ancient jade, turquoise and variscite exchange
Published on 31. December 2019
Book
Hardback
192 pages
978-1-78925-274-3 (ISBN)
Description
Often along vast expanses, ancient societies traded certain commodities that were considered valuable either for functional or symbolic reasons - or, rather, a mixture of both factors. A Taste for Green addresses latest research into the acquisition of jade, turquoise or variscite, all of which share a characteristic greenish colour and an engaging appearance once they are polished in the shape of axes or assorted adornments. Papers explore how, in addition to constituting economic transactions, the transfess of these materials were also statements of social liaisons, personal capacities, and relation to places or to unseen forces.
The volume centres on two study areas, Western Europe and Mexico/Southwest US, which are far apart not just in geographical terms but also with regard to their chronology and socioeconomic features. While some North and Mesoamerican groups range from relatively complex farming societies up to state-like organisations during the 1st and 2nd millennia AD, the European counterparts are comparatively simpler polities spanning the 5th-3rd millennia BC. By contrasting the archaeological evidence from diverse areas we may gain insights into the role that production/movement of these green stones played in their respective political and ritual economies. Also, we think it useful to compare the scientific approaches applied to this question in different parts of the globe, specially Asia.
The volume centres on two study areas, Western Europe and Mexico/Southwest US, which are far apart not just in geographical terms but also with regard to their chronology and socioeconomic features. While some North and Mesoamerican groups range from relatively complex farming societies up to state-like organisations during the 1st and 2nd millennia AD, the European counterparts are comparatively simpler polities spanning the 5th-3rd millennia BC. By contrasting the archaeological evidence from diverse areas we may gain insights into the role that production/movement of these green stones played in their respective political and ritual economies. Also, we think it useful to compare the scientific approaches applied to this question in different parts of the globe, specially Asia.
Reviews / Votes
The nine interesting case studies gathered in this volume amply demonstrate distinctive human responses to green stone objects that extend across vast geographical areas and long periods of time. * Antiquity *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
b/w and colour
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 170 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-78925-274-3 (9781789252743)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Rodriguez-Rellan Carlos Rodriguez-Rellan
Taste for Green
A global perspective on ancient jade, turquoise and variscite exchange
E-Book
02/2020
Oxbow Books
€32.99
Available for download
Rodriguez-Rellan Carlos Rodriguez-Rellan | Nelson Ben A. Nelson | Fabregas Valcarce Ramon Fabregas Valcarce
Taste for Green
A global perspective on ancient jade, turquoise and variscite exchange
E-Book
02/2020
OXBOW BOOKS
€32.99
Available for download
Persons
Carlos Rodriguez-Rellan obtained his PhD at the Universidad de Santiago de Compostela where he is a post-doctoral researcher specialising in lithic technologies, experimental archaeology and late prehistoric rock art. Ben A. Nelson is professor of anthropology at Arizona State University. His research focuses on cycles of social complexity and connectivity among the ancient cultures of northwestern Mexico and the American Southwest, especially from A.D. 200-1540, on human roles in and responses to the desertification of grasslands in those regions and on relating archaeology to indigenous cultures of the present day. Ramon Fabregas Valcarce is professor of Prehistory at the Universidad de Santiago de Compostela and is a specialist in the lithic industry of the late prehistory of Northwestern Iberia.
Content
Contributors
Foreword
1. Production marks on turquoise objects and lapidary technology at Chaco Canyon: an experimental archaeology approach
Emiliano Ricardo Melgar Tisoc and Frances Joan Mathien
2. The green stone as a reason for the colonization of the Bolanos Canyon in Western Mexico Ma. Teresa Cabrero Garcia
3. Green stone industry in central Jalisco, Mexico Martha Lorenza Lopez Mestas Camberos, Jasinto Robles Camacho and Ricardo Sanchez Hernandez
4. Green beads during late prehistory in the north-east Iberian Peninsula: social dynamics in a production and consumption context Josep Bosch, Anna Gomez, Silvia Calvo and Miquel Molist
5. From the green belt: an appraisal on the circulation of Western Iberian variscite Carlos Rodriguez-Rellan , Ramon Fabregas Valcarce and Antonio Faustino Carvalho
6. ---Fifty shades of green: the irresistible attraction, use and significance of jadeitite and other green Alpine rock types in Neolithic Europe Alison Sheridan, Pierre Petrequin, Anne-Marie Petrequin, Serge Cassen, Michel Errera, Estelle Gauthier and Frederic Prodeo
7. Spaces and signs for the transfer of Jade and Callais in the Neolithic of Western Europe Serge Cassen, Pierre Petrequin, Guirec Querre, Valentin Grimaud and Carlos Rodriguez-Rellan
8. Axes from the sky Richard Bradley and Aaron Watson
9. The finest green: the Iron Age quartz prase monocrystal from the Palacio III megalithic complex (Seville, Spain) Leonardo Garcia Sanjuan, Jose Antonio Lozano Rodriguez, Timoteo Rivera Jimenez, Miguel Calvo Rebollar, Francisco Martinez-Sevilla, David W. Wheatley, Carlos Rodriguez-Rellan, Cristobal Verdugo Escamilla and Laszlo Halmos
Foreword
1. Production marks on turquoise objects and lapidary technology at Chaco Canyon: an experimental archaeology approach
Emiliano Ricardo Melgar Tisoc and Frances Joan Mathien
2. The green stone as a reason for the colonization of the Bolanos Canyon in Western Mexico Ma. Teresa Cabrero Garcia
3. Green stone industry in central Jalisco, Mexico Martha Lorenza Lopez Mestas Camberos, Jasinto Robles Camacho and Ricardo Sanchez Hernandez
4. Green beads during late prehistory in the north-east Iberian Peninsula: social dynamics in a production and consumption context Josep Bosch, Anna Gomez, Silvia Calvo and Miquel Molist
5. From the green belt: an appraisal on the circulation of Western Iberian variscite Carlos Rodriguez-Rellan , Ramon Fabregas Valcarce and Antonio Faustino Carvalho
6. ---Fifty shades of green: the irresistible attraction, use and significance of jadeitite and other green Alpine rock types in Neolithic Europe Alison Sheridan, Pierre Petrequin, Anne-Marie Petrequin, Serge Cassen, Michel Errera, Estelle Gauthier and Frederic Prodeo
7. Spaces and signs for the transfer of Jade and Callais in the Neolithic of Western Europe Serge Cassen, Pierre Petrequin, Guirec Querre, Valentin Grimaud and Carlos Rodriguez-Rellan
8. Axes from the sky Richard Bradley and Aaron Watson
9. The finest green: the Iron Age quartz prase monocrystal from the Palacio III megalithic complex (Seville, Spain) Leonardo Garcia Sanjuan, Jose Antonio Lozano Rodriguez, Timoteo Rivera Jimenez, Miguel Calvo Rebollar, Francisco Martinez-Sevilla, David W. Wheatley, Carlos Rodriguez-Rellan, Cristobal Verdugo Escamilla and Laszlo Halmos