How to Cite

Ballmer, Ariane and Neumann, Daniel (Eds.): Imitations, Simulations, Mock-ups and Illusions: Special Variants and Interpretations in Material Culture: Case Studies from Prehistoric Europe, Heidelberg: Propylaeum, 2024. https://doi.org/10.11588/propylaeum.1445

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Identifiers

https://doi.org/10.11588/propylaeum.1445
ISBN 978-3-96929-350-8 (PDF)

Published

08/08/2024

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Authors

Ariane Ballmer (Ed.), Daniel Neumann (Ed.)

Imitations, Simulations, Mock-ups and Illusions: Special Variants and Interpretations in Material Culture

Case Studies from Prehistoric Europe

This book deals with artefacts that imitate other objects, without serving the same purpose as the originals. As imitations, simulations, mock-ups and illusions, they draw attention to themselves through their appearance and qualities, but also through their mise-en-place – they deceive, pretend and distract, but also provoke second looks. As it will turn out these special objects hold the potential to unfold tense metaphorical dynamics.
The essays in this book aim to elucidate this phenomenon, explore its diverse material manifestations and question the social function(s) of these artefacts. The case studies range from the Neolithic to the Early Iron Age, featuring material scattered throughout Europe, from the French Atlantic coast to Northern Europe, all the way to Southeastern Europe and the Aegean.

Ariane Ballmer is an independent researcher based in Switzerland, specialising in European Prehistoric Archaeology. She received her PhD from the University of Zurich in 2012, with a thesis on the Bronze Age ritual landscape in the Swiss Alps. Subsequently, she worked as a researcher and lecturer at the École Normale Supérieure, and the Universities of Heidelberg and Bern. Ariane Ballmer’s main fields of interest are settlement archaeology, social and ritual archaeology, and human–environment relations.

Daniel Neumann received his doctorate from the Free University of Berlin. As research associate at the Eurasia Department and the Romano-Germanic Commission of the German Archaeological Institute he conducted research and published widely on selective depositions, settlements and fortifications during the Metal Ages in Central and Southeastern Europe and the Caucasus. Since 2018, he is a curator at the Lower Saxony State Museum Hanover. Thus, his focus has expanded to the Iron Age to the Early Middle Ages of Northwestern Europe.

Chapters

Table of Contents
Pages
PDF
Titelei
Dedication
Ariane Ballmer, Daniel Neumann
Preface
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Ariane Ballmer, Daniel Neumann
Skeuomorphs in Ritual Practice: Material Reality and Theoretical Approaches
An Introduction to the Book
1-24
Serge Cassen, Valentin Grimaud
The Form of an Axe: The Process of Reconnaissance and of Misapprehending an Image within the Neolithic Iconographic Repertoire
25-64
Christina Marangou
Originals and Copies: From Imitation to Miniaturization (Neolithic Period to Early Bronze Age)
65-100
Luc Amkreutz, David Fontijn
Size Matters: The Ommerschans Hoard and Some Thoughts on the Aggrandized Dirks of the Plougrescant-Ommerschans Type
101-118
Flemming Kaul, Karin Margarita Frei, Samantha S. Reiter
Razors, Bronze Age Transformations, Long Distance Exchange and Guest-Friendship
119-152
Gadea Cabanillas de la Torre, José Gomez de Soto
Useless Objects from Another Time: Early Iron Age Bronze Socketed Axe Hoards in Northwestern France
153-183

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