Teams of researchers at Kobe University, University College London, Deakin University, etc. have quantitative differences that make it possible to identify the craftsmen who made even the standard traditional pottery, as well as the shape and craftsmen in the middle of production. It was revealed that the behavior of was clearly unique.
Human beings have handed down the culture that has been passed down since ancient times while sharing various technologies across generations.Ceramic art, for example, is one of these traditional skills.
In traditional cultural communication theory, the propagation of technology has been regarded as "imitation" or "information transmission".On the other hand, in this research, it was found that even an unknown craftsman who produces standard pottery for the masses has more than imitation in the production process.
As a research method, we first recorded images of craftsmen making traditional standard pottery in Uttar, India and Bactable, Nepal.Then, by analyzing this video recording, we examined the process of generating shapes in ceramic art production, the movement patterns of hands in the production process, and their transitions.
As a result, it was found that there is a quantitative difference that can identify the individual craftsmen who made it, despite the standard pottery distributed to the masses in the market.In addition, the process of morphogenesis in which pottery is made has a much larger variation range for each craftsman than the finished form, and each craftsman has a unique movement time series pattern that can identify an individual. Also turned out.
The results of this study show that even with traditional pottery that has been handed down from generation to generation, the process by which the shape is born and the movements of the craftsmen who make the shape are quite different, the results of this study "imitate" the tradition of culture. It suggests that each craftsman has been searching for a way to form a standard pottery independently, unlike the existing theory that has been regarded as "information transmission".In addition, the method and data may help identify archaeological relics of unknown author, whether they are by the same author or by multiple authors.
Paper information:[PLoS ONE] Traditional crafts people are not copycats: Potter idiosyncrasies in vessel morphogenesis
