The RITaK conferences 2013-2014

Globally, raw materials play a central role and are a key factor in determining the economic power and growth of modern states, confederations and coalitions. The extraction and supply of raw materials is a main driving force in global trade today, but has also profoundly influenced human economic and cultural history. In order to elucidate the importance of mineral ores in pre-modern societies, PhD students and staff at the Leibniz graduate school “Raw Materials, Innovation and Technology of Ancient Cultures” [RITaK] – a co-operation between the German Mining Museum [Deutsches Bergbau-Museum, DBM] and the Ruhr-University Bochum [RUB] – were involved in interdisciplinary research. This publication contains the results of the international RITaK end-of-project conference, held from the 27th-29th of September, as well as contributions to the RITaK workshop “Perspectives for an Economic Archaeology”, held on the 22nd and 23rd of November 2013. At a theoretical and model-building level, the first seven articles provide archaeological, sociological and economic perspectives on the diverse economic, cognitive, cultural and social feedback processes set in motion by the appropriation and use of raw materials. The following contributions focus on different archaeological and historical cultures in Europe, Central Asia and the Mediterranean area from the Neolithic to the Middle Ages. Raw material processing and preparation, metal recycling, prehistoric and historic mining, the exchange mechanisms involving raw materials and their products, as well as technology and knowledge transfer, are all covered. Together, the 23 contributions to this volume offer the possibility for intensive engagement with the theme of resources and their influence on and entanglement with human behaviour, mentalities, knowledge acquisition, technological and social developments and even the relationship between people and their environments and the human appropriation of space.