Why the Neolithic is (r)evolutionary

Abstract

In this article, the authors use the question of whether the Neolithic should be maintained as an analytic category to argue that such a paradigmatic view of history is possible and useful only when we drastically redefine the role that technics play in archaeological narratives of the past. Using Simondon’s and Leroi-Gourhan’s theories of technology, they argue that analysis should move away from categorizations based on concrete objects and instead frame itself through the exploration of technical ensembles. They suggest that the operational solidarity of pottery-, bread- and mudbrick-making constructs the Neolithic as a technical interface in which a complex network of synergies and radial properties is played out, allowing the mapping of the Neolithic, not by object appearances and/or densities, but by points of convergence between technical regimes that redefine the modes of being in the world by providing the conditions under which new ‘objects’ become possible.