Christina Tsoraki
Biographic Data
| ID | 763954 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Christina Tsoraki |
| GIVEN NAMES | Christina |
| FAMILY NAME | Tsoraki |
| SIGNATURE | TSORAKI C |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Leicester |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9282-0847 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 36 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
‘A Life Proper to Matter’: Re-Animating Museum Collections Through New Materialism and Microwear
This paper combines microwear analysis with new materialism to invigorate our understanding of past material worlds at multiple scales of analysis. Just as the development of new biomolecular approaches at scale has revealed an archive for research, so a combination of critical theoretical approaches and specific empirical analyses can do the same for objects, including those that would be considered to lack traditional ideas of ‘good context’. T…
Microwear and Reflectance Transformation Imaging Data of Iconic Viking-Age Anthropomorphic Figures: A Body-Politics Dataset
The dataset consists of microwear analysis and Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) datafiles of ten iconic Viking-Age anthropomorphic artefacts (c. 750–1050 CE) from the collections of the Swedish Historical Museum in Stockholm. The objects, anthropomorphic silver and bronze miniatures, were recorded in September 2023 as part of the ERC Starting Grant BODY-POLITICS. The key objective was to empirically interrogate the engagements the objects…
Viking body-making: New evidence for intra-action with iconic Viking anthropomorphic 'art
In Viking archaeology, the study of miniature figurines cast in silver and bronze provides a platform for debates on ritual and mythology, yet much of this discourse focuses on their appearance. Here, the authors use microwear and Reflective Transformation Imaging to survey the physical evidence of complex relational dynamics between 10 anthropomorphic artefacts from Viking Age Sweden and the human bodies they connected with. Through such analyse…
From Typology and Biography to Multiplicity: Bracers as ‘Process Objects
In this article we put forward an alternative account of the famous wristguards, or bracers, of the European Early Bronze Age. Combining new materialism with empirical microwear analysis, we study 15 examples from Britain in detail and suggest a different way of conceptualizing these objects. Rather than demanding they have a singular function, we treat these objects as ‘multiplicities’ and as always in process. This, in turn, has significant imp…
Materials in movement: Gold and stone in process in the Upton Lovell G2a burial
Excavated over two centuries ago, the Upton Lovell G2a 'Wessex Culture' burial has held a prominent place in research on Bronze Age Britain. In particular, was it the grave of a 'shaman' or a metalworker? We take a new approach to the grave goods, employing microwear analysis and scanning electron microscopy to map a history of interactions between people and materials, identifying evidence for the presence of Bronze Age gold on five artefacts, f…
Beaker and Early Bronze Age Tin Exploitation in Cornwall: Cassiterite Processing Identified through Microwear and pXRF Analyses
The appearance of Beaker pottery in Britain and Ireland during the twenty-fifth century bc marks a significant archaeological horizon, being synchronous with the first metal artefacts. The adoption of arsenical copper, mostly from Ireland, was followed by that of tin-bronze around 2200 bc . However, whilst the copper mine of Ross Island in Ireland is securely dated to the Early Bronze Age, and further such mines in the UK have been dated to the E…
Influence of grinding on the preservation of starch grains from rice
China is a major centre for rice domestication, where starch grain analysis has been widely applied to archaeological grinding tools to gain information about plant use by ancient Chinese societies. However, few rice starch grains have been identified to date. To understand this apparent scarcity of starch grains from rice, dry‐ and wet‐grinding experiments with stone tools were carried out on four types of cereals: rice ( Oryza sativa L.), foxta…
Plant Foods and Different Uses of Grinding Tools at the Neolithic Site of Tanghu in Central China
In the central plain of China, grinding tools are a common category of artefacts at sites attributed to the Peiligang Culture (c. 9000-7000 BP). This paper focuses on the grinding tool assemblage from the site of Tanghu, the largest Peiligang Culture settlement yet discovered. The results from the microwear and residue analyses both suggest that cereals were the primary plant material processed with the grinding tools. Other plants, including aco…
Pigment Use at Neolithic Çatalhöyük
The Neolithic settlement of Çatalhöyük offers an exceptional dataset for studying pigment usage over one-thousand years of the existence of the settlement. The inhabitants produced a rich palette of colors, with pigments applied to objects, in architectural paintings, and for treatment of the dead. This article discusses evidence of pigments at Neolithic Çatalhöyük based on data collected during the twenty-five years of research under the directo…
Making marks meaningful: New Materialism and the Microwear Assemblage
In this paper we explore how positioning microwear analysis within new materialism and assemblage theory allows us to develop new ways of thinking about meaning in the past. By mapping the detailed histories of an object’s making and use, we suggest that we can open up an understanding of marks as forms of material meanings. These material meanings operate as intensive events that fold together present and absent materials, as well as a range of …
New insights into the grinding tools used by the earliest farmers in the central plain of China
An analysis of modified human teeth at Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Turkey
Cereal processing technique inferred from use-wear analysis at the Neolithic site of Jiahu, Central China
At Home in the Neolithic: UnderstandingDiversity in Neolithic Houses and Households
In the Editorial for the special edition on Neolithic Housesholds, we introduce the history of house and household studies in European Neolithic Archaeology and outline the papers in this collection
Aesthetic, Social, and Material Networks: A Perspective from the Flint Daggers at Çatalhöyük, Turkey
The Neolithic period bore witness to the emergence of novel engagements between humans and the material world. In the Middle East, these interactions were important components of broader social and ritual developments which came about with the rise of sedentary communities. In this paper, we examine the significance of these processes as represented by elaborate flint daggers at the site of Çatalhöyük in Central Anatolia. Detailed analyses of the…
‘Shiny and colourful’: Raw material selection and the production of edge tools in Late Neolithic Makriyalos, Greece
Unravelling ground stone life histories> the spatial organization of stone tools and human activities at LN Makriyalos, Greece
Unlike previous studies of ground stone technology in the Greek Neolithic, this paper follows a more contextualised approach by looking at contexts of deposition of ground stone from Late Neolithic Makriyalos, Northern Greece. The patterns attested in the distribution of ground stone objects between domestic and communal areas will be discussed in terms of the spatial and social contexts of tool use, curation and deposition, contributing to wider…
Making marks meaningful: New Materialism and the Microwear Assemblage
In this paper we explore how positioning microwear analysis within new materialism and assemblage theory allows us to develop new ways of thinking about meaning in the past. By mapping the detailed histories of an object’s making and use, we suggest that we can open up an understanding of marks as forms of material meanings. These material meanings operate as intensive events that fold together present and absent materials, as well as a range of …
Beaker and Early Bronze Age Tin Exploitation in Cornwall: Cassiterite Processing Identified through Microwear and pXRF Analyses
The appearance of Beaker pottery in Britain and Ireland during the twenty-fifth century bc marks a significant archaeological horizon, being synchronous with the first metal artefacts. The adoption of arsenical copper, mostly from Ireland, was followed by that of tin-bronze around 2200 bc . However, whilst the copper mine of Ross Island in Ireland is securely dated to the Early Bronze Age, and further such mines in the UK have been dated to the E…
Plant Foods and Different Uses of Grinding Tools at the Neolithic Site of Tanghu in Central China
In the central plain of China, grinding tools are a common category of artefacts at sites attributed to the Peiligang Culture (c. 9000-7000 BP). This paper focuses on the grinding tool assemblage from the site of Tanghu, the largest Peiligang Culture settlement yet discovered. The results from the microwear and residue analyses both suggest that cereals were the primary plant material processed with the grinding tools. Other plants, including aco…
Unravelling ground stone life histories> the spatial organization of stone tools and human activities at LN Makriyalos, Greece
Unlike previous studies of ground stone technology in the Greek Neolithic, this paper follows a more contextualised approach by looking at contexts of deposition of ground stone from Late Neolithic Makriyalos, Northern Greece. The patterns attested in the distribution of ground stone objects between domestic and communal areas will be discussed in terms of the spatial and social contexts of tool use, curation and deposition, contributing to wider…
Materials in movement: Gold and stone in process in the Upton Lovell G2a burial
Excavated over two centuries ago, the Upton Lovell G2a 'Wessex Culture' burial has held a prominent place in research on Bronze Age Britain. In particular, was it the grave of a 'shaman' or a metalworker? We take a new approach to the grave goods, employing microwear analysis and scanning electron microscopy to map a history of interactions between people and materials, identifying evidence for the presence of Bronze Age gold on five artefacts, f…
Influence of grinding on the preservation of starch grains from rice
China is a major centre for rice domestication, where starch grain analysis has been widely applied to archaeological grinding tools to gain information about plant use by ancient Chinese societies. However, few rice starch grains have been identified to date. To understand this apparent scarcity of starch grains from rice, dry‐ and wet‐grinding experiments with stone tools were carried out on four types of cereals: rice ( Oryza sativa L.), foxta…
Pigment Use at Neolithic Çatalhöyük
The Neolithic settlement of Çatalhöyük offers an exceptional dataset for studying pigment usage over one-thousand years of the existence of the settlement. The inhabitants produced a rich palette of colors, with pigments applied to objects, in architectural paintings, and for treatment of the dead. This article discusses evidence of pigments at Neolithic Çatalhöyük based on data collected during the twenty-five years of research under the directo…
An analysis of modified human teeth at Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Turkey
Cereal processing technique inferred from use-wear analysis at the Neolithic site of Jiahu, Central China
At Home in the Neolithic: UnderstandingDiversity in Neolithic Houses and Households
In the Editorial for the special edition on Neolithic Housesholds, we introduce the history of house and household studies in European Neolithic Archaeology and outline the papers in this collection
Aesthetic, Social, and Material Networks: A Perspective from the Flint Daggers at Çatalhöyük, Turkey
The Neolithic period bore witness to the emergence of novel engagements between humans and the material world. In the Middle East, these interactions were important components of broader social and ritual developments which came about with the rise of sedentary communities. In this paper, we examine the significance of these processes as represented by elaborate flint daggers at the site of Çatalhöyük in Central Anatolia. Detailed analyses of the…
From Typology and Biography to Multiplicity: Bracers as ‘Process Objects
In this article we put forward an alternative account of the famous wristguards, or bracers, of the European Early Bronze Age. Combining new materialism with empirical microwear analysis, we study 15 examples from Britain in detail and suggest a different way of conceptualizing these objects. Rather than demanding they have a singular function, we treat these objects as ‘multiplicities’ and as always in process. This, in turn, has significant imp…
Unravelling ground stone life histories> the spatial organization of stone tools and human activities at LN Makriyalos, Greece
Unlike previous studies of ground stone technology in the Greek Neolithic, this paper follows a more contextualised approach by looking at contexts of deposition of ground stone from Late Neolithic Makriyalos, Northern Greece. The patterns attested in the distribution of ground stone objects between domestic and communal areas will be discussed in terms of the spatial and social contexts of tool use, curation and deposition, contributing to wider…
‘Shiny and colourful’: Raw material selection and the production of edge tools in Late Neolithic Makriyalos, Greece
At Home in the Neolithic: UnderstandingDiversity in Neolithic Houses and Households
In the Editorial for the special edition on Neolithic Housesholds, we introduce the history of house and household studies in European Neolithic Archaeology and outline the papers in this collection
Aesthetic, Social, and Material Networks: A Perspective from the Flint Daggers at Çatalhöyük, Turkey
The Neolithic period bore witness to the emergence of novel engagements between humans and the material world. In the Middle East, these interactions were important components of broader social and ritual developments which came about with the rise of sedentary communities. In this paper, we examine the significance of these processes as represented by elaborate flint daggers at the site of Çatalhöyük in Central Anatolia. Detailed analyses of the…
Cereal processing technique inferred from use-wear analysis at the Neolithic site of Jiahu, Central China
New insights into the grinding tools used by the earliest farmers in the central plain of China
An analysis of modified human teeth at Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Turkey
Influence of grinding on the preservation of starch grains from rice
China is a major centre for rice domestication, where starch grain analysis has been widely applied to archaeological grinding tools to gain information about plant use by ancient Chinese societies. However, few rice starch grains have been identified to date. To understand this apparent scarcity of starch grains from rice, dry‐ and wet‐grinding experiments with stone tools were carried out on four types of cereals: rice ( Oryza sativa L.), foxta…
Plant Foods and Different Uses of Grinding Tools at the Neolithic Site of Tanghu in Central China
In the central plain of China, grinding tools are a common category of artefacts at sites attributed to the Peiligang Culture (c. 9000-7000 BP). This paper focuses on the grinding tool assemblage from the site of Tanghu, the largest Peiligang Culture settlement yet discovered. The results from the microwear and residue analyses both suggest that cereals were the primary plant material processed with the grinding tools. Other plants, including aco…
Pigment Use at Neolithic Çatalhöyük
The Neolithic settlement of Çatalhöyük offers an exceptional dataset for studying pigment usage over one-thousand years of the existence of the settlement. The inhabitants produced a rich palette of colors, with pigments applied to objects, in architectural paintings, and for treatment of the dead. This article discusses evidence of pigments at Neolithic Çatalhöyük based on data collected during the twenty-five years of research under the directo…
Making marks meaningful: New Materialism and the Microwear Assemblage
In this paper we explore how positioning microwear analysis within new materialism and assemblage theory allows us to develop new ways of thinking about meaning in the past. By mapping the detailed histories of an object’s making and use, we suggest that we can open up an understanding of marks as forms of material meanings. These material meanings operate as intensive events that fold together present and absent materials, as well as a range of …
Beaker and Early Bronze Age Tin Exploitation in Cornwall: Cassiterite Processing Identified through Microwear and pXRF Analyses
The appearance of Beaker pottery in Britain and Ireland during the twenty-fifth century bc marks a significant archaeological horizon, being synchronous with the first metal artefacts. The adoption of arsenical copper, mostly from Ireland, was followed by that of tin-bronze around 2200 bc . However, whilst the copper mine of Ross Island in Ireland is securely dated to the Early Bronze Age, and further such mines in the UK have been dated to the E…
From Typology and Biography to Multiplicity: Bracers as ‘Process Objects
In this article we put forward an alternative account of the famous wristguards, or bracers, of the European Early Bronze Age. Combining new materialism with empirical microwear analysis, we study 15 examples from Britain in detail and suggest a different way of conceptualizing these objects. Rather than demanding they have a singular function, we treat these objects as ‘multiplicities’ and as always in process. This, in turn, has significant imp…
Materials in movement: Gold and stone in process in the Upton Lovell G2a burial
Excavated over two centuries ago, the Upton Lovell G2a 'Wessex Culture' burial has held a prominent place in research on Bronze Age Britain. In particular, was it the grave of a 'shaman' or a metalworker? We take a new approach to the grave goods, employing microwear analysis and scanning electron microscopy to map a history of interactions between people and materials, identifying evidence for the presence of Bronze Age gold on five artefacts, f…
Microwear and Reflectance Transformation Imaging Data of Iconic Viking-Age Anthropomorphic Figures: A Body-Politics Dataset
The dataset consists of microwear analysis and Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) datafiles of ten iconic Viking-Age anthropomorphic artefacts (c. 750–1050 CE) from the collections of the Swedish Historical Museum in Stockholm. The objects, anthropomorphic silver and bronze miniatures, were recorded in September 2023 as part of the ERC Starting Grant BODY-POLITICS. The key objective was to empirically interrogate the engagements the objects…
Viking body-making: New evidence for intra-action with iconic Viking anthropomorphic 'art
In Viking archaeology, the study of miniature figurines cast in silver and bronze provides a platform for debates on ritual and mythology, yet much of this discourse focuses on their appearance. Here, the authors use microwear and Reflective Transformation Imaging to survey the physical evidence of complex relational dynamics between 10 anthropomorphic artefacts from Viking Age Sweden and the human bodies they connected with. Through such analyse…
‘A Life Proper to Matter’: Re-Animating Museum Collections Through New Materialism and Microwear
This paper combines microwear analysis with new materialism to invigorate our understanding of past material worlds at multiple scales of analysis. Just as the development of new biomolecular approaches at scale has revealed an archive for research, so a combination of critical theoretical approaches and specific empirical analyses can do the same for objects, including those that would be considered to lack traditional ideas of ‘good context’. T…
Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (15 works) · Archaeology (10 works) · History (9 works) · Geography (7 works) · Art (6 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (6 works) · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies (5 works) · History (5 works) · Materials Science (5 works) · Metallurgy (5 works)