Papers by Haris Procopiou
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), Aug 31, 2022
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), Aug 31, 2022
Journal of Lithic Studies, 2020
PlantCult Project aims to explore the role of culinary traditions and innovations through their i... more PlantCult Project aims to explore the role of culinary traditions and innovations through their impact on shaping the social landscape in ancient Europe over long time periods (from the Neolithic period to the Iron Age) and large territories. The experimental program is part of an integrated study of food products and associated equipment focusing on whether the introduction of new species or changes in social and economic organisation brought about changes in the food grinding technologies of the area. The experiments include tools operated by back and forth reciprocal motion and circular motion, and manufactured from different raw materials, with different morphologies and sizes. The tools design and the list of plant ingredients (cereals, legumes, acorns and oil-seeds) ground in the experiments are all based on the archaeological record of the studied area. In this paper we present the experimental protocol, the multi-scale methodology applied to the use-wear analysis of grinding...
Journal of Lithic Studies, 2020
The transformation of food ingredients into meals corresponds to complex choices resulting from t... more The transformation of food ingredients into meals corresponds to complex choices resulting from the interplay of environmental and cultural factors: available ingredients, technologies of transformation, cultural perceptions of food, as well as taste and food taboos. Project PLANTCULT (ERC Consolidator Grant, GA 682529) aims to investigate prehistoric culinary cultures from the Aegean to Central Europe by focusing on plant foods and associated food preparation technologies spanning the Neolithic through to the Iron Age. Our paper offers an overview of the lines of investigation pursued within the project to address plant food preparation and related stone tool technologies. The wide range of plant foods from the area under investigation (ground cereals, breads, beer, pressed grapes, split pulses, etc.) suggests great variability of culinary preparations. Yet, little is known of the transformation technologies involved (e.g., pounding, grinding, and boiling). Changes in size and shap...
by Füsun ERTUG, Ferran Antolín, Marian Berihuete-Azorín, Christoph Brombacher, Danai Chondrou, Stefanie Jacomet, Yurena Naranjo-Mayor, Renata Perego, Bigna Steiner, Michele Wollstonecroft, and Haris Procopiou
Wear, Apr 1, 2013
ABSTRACT
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, Aug 1, 2021
Abstract This study explores the characterisation of clay vases surfaces through tribological ana... more Abstract This study explores the characterisation of clay vases surfaces through tribological analysis and more precisely the relationship between surface treatments and watertightness. Different surface treatments were tested (pre-firing: smoothing with a wet hand, a wooden tool, a piece of cloth, burnishing using a pebble and a combination of a pebble and a piece of leather; and post-firing organic coatings: milk and fleece on red hot surfaces and olive and beeswax applied to the room temperature clay tablets). Surfaces were measured and characterised using a confocal rugosimeter, as well as the method of continuous wavelet transform. These multiscale analyses allowed the classification of surface treatments into four morphological groups. Furthermore, water and oil drop deposition tests allowed the characterisation of a surface’s reaction when exposed to liquid contents. These results have implications in evaluating storage and cooking performances and specific uses of clay vases in relation with organic materials. The discussion will also provide insights regarding the importance of the first use of a pottery in the chaine operatoire of manufacture.
Wear, Jul 1, 2021
Abstract Cereals and pulses have formed staple foods for the populations of the European continen... more Abstract Cereals and pulses have formed staple foods for the populations of the European continent ever since the emergence of agriculture, yet the ways in which they have been processed were by no means homogeneous in time and space. This study deals with use-wear analysis of prehistoric grinding stones from a series of Neolithic (7th-4th millennium BC) and Bronze Age (late 4th-2nd millennium BC) sites in mainland Greece focusing in particular on cereal-processing and the action of cereal dehusking. Optical observations through a stereomicroscope and a metallographic microscope have been combined with surface measurements (laser scanning confocal microscopy) and characterization (method of continuous wavelet transform and SMa coefficient that indicates the arithmetic mean value of the multi-scale decomposition of a surface). Comparison between experimental surfaces (from replicated tools used to grind various plant-foods) and archaeological ones permitted to distinguish archaeological tools used for cereal processing from those employed for processing other plant-foods. Furthermore, it was possible to determine the formation of different use-wear signatures depending on whether the cereals were processed in their husked or dehusked form. The tools used to process husked cereals produced higher SMa values compared to those related to dehusked cereals. Husks seem to function as an abrasive agent which creates less extended plateaus of more rough texture on the tools' surfaces. These results show that grinding tools may have been (occasionally) implemented in the dehusking process or that dehusking was not always conducted prior to grinding, at least in the Neolithic period, or both. Nevertheless, variations have been detected even within the same chronological period attesting to the diversity of food processing and cereal meals.
Wear, Sep 1, 2007
During the Bronze Age (3000-1000 B.C.) in Crete, period of development of luxury craft production... more During the Bronze Age (3000-1000 B.C.) in Crete, period of development of luxury craft productions, new shapes of stone vases, complex and original occurred in the workshops, implying an evolution of drilling techniques. The surface of archaeological stone vases and of conical bore cores contain the signature of the mechanisms of abrasion. But which type of abrasive, bit material and lubricant has been used by prehistoric craftsmen? In order to identify abrading techniques employed we have developed a drilling tribometer. The experimental reproduction of wear traces and their comparison with archaeological ones, permitted to reveal the use of an abrasive paste inside the tubular drill.
Wear, Apr 1, 2013
Fatimid art is known for the production of luxury artifacts, particularly rock crystal vessels. T... more Fatimid art is known for the production of luxury artifacts, particularly rock crystal vessels. The appearance in 2008 of the Francis Mills Ewer, which seemed to belong to a famous group of 6-8 rock crystal ewers attributed to Fatimid Egypt, prompted an investigation of the techniques used to carve them. A comparison of the carving technique of the Francis Mills Ewer with that of the other members of the group offers the best criterion for determining whether the new ewer belongs to this group. To this end, the traces of manufacture (mainly polishing and carving) were analysed on a group of fourteen artifacts. The topography of the surfaces has been measured with a confocal rugosimeter using silicon replicas. To identify and characterise the multi-scale wear signature and the traces left by the tools, a Fourier isotropic filtering technique was applied. Using these complementary methods, we were able to confirm that the Francis Mills Ewer belongs to the Fatimid group.
L'outillage de mouture et de broyage provenant de sites minoens de caractere et de datation v... more L'outillage de mouture et de broyage provenant de sites minoens de caractere et de datation varies (minoen moyen- minoen recent) a ete etudie. Des le depart nous avons recherche les moyens analytiques qui nous permettraient de caracteriser cet outillage. L'analyse petrographique et l'analyse technologique, l'analyse techno-morphologique, l'etude des residus et des traces d'utilisation ont ete nos moyens analytiques. L'etude petrographique nous a permis d'interpreter le choix des materiaux. Nous avons ainsi demontre que le gres constitue le materiau par excellence pour la confection de l'outillage en Crete minoenne, grâce aux avantages qu'il presente par rapport a la mise en forme et par rapport a l'usage. La lecture des traces de fabrication nous a permis de determiner les differentes strategies de mise en forme selon les contextes chrono- culturels. Pour l'ensemble des sites un savoir-faire de la part du tailleur, a ete mis en evidence. Une classification des outils selon des criteres techno-morphologiques nous a permis de mettre en evidence des comportement communs, caracteristiques du contexte chronologique et local. Afin d'elucider la fonction nous avons fait appel a differents moyens analytiques. La detection d'acides gras par analyse chimique, a mis en evidence une conservation des lipides sur les outils de transformation. D'autres methodes ont ete egalement sollicitees : l'analyse des phytolithes et des grains d'amidon. Enfin, l'etude macroscopiques et microscopique (rugosimetrie) des surfaces nous a permis de suivre le mecanisme mecanique d'usure. Les types techno-morphologiques semblent correspondre souvent a des types d'usure distincts et par consequent a des finalites differentes. Une specialisation technique de certains outils a ainsi ete demontree. L'etude de la repartition spatiale suggere que les differents types d'organisation du travail sont plutot tributaires du caractere du site que de sa datation.
L’archéologie cognitive, 2011
« La décision est un choix : le cerveau choisit ce qu’il veut croire réel » (Berthoz, 2003) De l’... more « La décision est un choix : le cerveau choisit ce qu’il veut croire réel » (Berthoz, 2003) De l’homme qui subit à l’homme qui agit Depuis le xviiie siècle les notions de choix et de décision en tant que facteurs de l’évolution humaine sont, de façon plus ou moins implicite, au cœur de réflexions philosophiques, historiques et anthropologiques. L’homme préhistorique est tantôt conçu comme un être impuissant face à une nature féroce et dominatrice qui lui impose ses contraintes et détermine se..
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), May 15, 2018
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2020
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), May 16, 2013
This paper presents applied tribological surface analysis for the study of polishing techniques f... more This paper presents applied tribological surface analysis for the study of polishing techniques for manufacturing stone celts. A comparative study of archaeological and experimental data has been conducted applying observation under low magnification with a microscope and a digital camera (microscope), interferometry and finally, a multi-scale analysis of surfaces using a mathematical tool developed in the field of tribology, the method of continuous wavelets transform (CWT). These methods of analysis have been applied to diasporite celts from late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Aegean contexts. Comparative analysis aimed more precisely at evaluating abrasives' performance, isolating their morphological signature on polished surfaces and in this way, identifying their use. The first results showed that multiscale analysis by CWT is an efficient tool and can successfully contribute at reconstituting prehistoric polishing techniques and evaluating parameters involved.
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Papers by Haris Procopiou
of the Ancient Near East
Copenhagen, 22-26 May 2023
From 1931 to 1938 a Danish team under the direction of Harald Ingholt excavated at the site of Hama in the Orontes valley, in Inland Western Syria. 63 years after the report on the pre-Hellenistic levels was published by Ejnar Fugmann in 1958, two new interrelated Hama projects were initiated in 2021. The project teams are international and interdisciplinary, with scholars from Denmark, France, Italy, the US and the UK taking part, many in both projects. One focuses on the Early Bronze IV Period (ca. 2500-2000 BCE), a time characterized by the processes of state formation and urbanization in this area. Funded by the Independent Research Fund of Denmark and directed by Mette Marie Hald of the National Museum of Denmark, this project’s basic goal is to add a completely new layer of information to the state of knowledge in an area currently inaccessible by means of the application of new approaches and scientific analyses to an old museum collection from an ordinary domestic neighbourhood. The second project, led by Georges Mouamar of the National Museum of Denmark/Institut Français du Proche Orient and funded by the Shelby White – Leon Levy Foundation, addresses a particular attribute of the excavation of Hama: the longest continuous sequence – Middle Neolithic through Iron Age 2 (ca. 6500-720 BCE) – in Inland Western Syria. This project aims to create an absolute and precise chronology, with which all other site chronological sequences in this region can be correlated, through the combination of material culture studies and archaeometric, C14, and archaeomagnetic analyses. In this workshop team members will be presenting initial results of their research.