New archaeological method finds children were skilled ceramists during the Bronze Age

Artisanal interpretation of ceramics from the Bronze Age shows that a nine-year-old child could be a highly skilled artisan. This was one of the discoveries presented in a new thesis from Lund University. The thesis explores how an artisanal perspective can contribute to archaeology by providing new insights into archaeological artefacts. "I have found that even the most simple household receptacles could involve tremendous skill. Within archaeology, experts' typological analyses have previously tended to focus on when a receptacle was made and its shape. But, how it was made, the time taken to produce it, and the skills involved, have not been evaluated before," says Katarina Botwid, who is a trained ceramist and now has a doctoral degree in Archaeology from Lund University. The artisanal interpretation method is based on the human physical ability to create.