Poggio Civitate’s Etruscan Workshop: A Cross Craft Perspective

Craft production in the ancient world is frequently analyzed by specialists who concentrate on a specific material or class of artifact. This approach overlooks the strong probability that ancient production processes were interrelated through shared resources, technological knowledge, or common workspaces. In this talk, Dr. Donoghue considers these cross-craft relations within a 7th-century BCE Etruscan workshop at the site of Poggio Civitate. This structure preserves a wide variety of evidence, including artifacts related to glass, ceramic, and metal production, alongside animal butchering, bone carving, and the assembly of composite objects like furniture. Focusing on production occurring within and around this structure, the talk will demonstrate that labor within this workshop was highly specialized and was ultimately carried out by craftspeople who worked in multiple media or maintained collaborative relationships with craftspeople of other related crafts.

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