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The activities associated with palaces provide clues to understanding the strategies leaders in prehistoric polities used to accrue power. Controlling craft specialists who make prestige goods is one such tactic. Many models presume preciosities were distributed to build alliances or for exchange; however, some objects may be imbued with sacred power. These singular goods would have a different distribution than prestige goods. The relations of production may also differ; elites, rather than attached specialists, may have produced singular objects as an empowering strategy. I propose that some elites in the Wari Empire (600–1000 ce) made elaborate pottery, some of which were sacred goods essential for the performance of rituals, in order to exclude others from this important source of power. To support this hypothesis, I describe the regional distribution of decorated pottery, the manner of its deposition, and evidence that elites created ceramic vessels in a Wari provincial palace at Cerro Baúl, Peru. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transition to a cast iron industry was essential to the development of ancient China. Previous studies, however, did not address precisely how this process occurred and how the preexisting bronze industry could have served as the foundation for the transition. This paper develops a framework focusing on three parameters—techniques, assemblages of final products, and production organization—to investigate the mechanism of the transition to cast iron. Results of two case studies indicate that the three parameters do not demonstrate dramatic changes between the two industries. Also, cast iron and bronze foundry workers were not segregated; they often worked side by side at the same foundry. Very likely, the cast iron foundry workers adopted and adjusted the original bronze production techniques and, consequently, maintained the preexisting organization. This study illustrates how cast iron manufacturing developed based on the indigenous bronze production in the Central Plains of China, and aims more broadly to contribute to the discussion of technological transitions in archaeological contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropological approaches to understanding regional household economic strategies in complex societies have been poorly theorized and modeled. This paper contributes to theoretical development in this area by describing a model based on intensification and diversification. Then, the model is evaluated using systematic archaeological, historical, and ethnographic data from five premodern/early modern states (Mesoamerica, England, Mediterranean Europe, China, and Thailand). The results indicate that peasant households made decisions regarding agricultural intensification and craft specialization that match theoretical expectations based on a rational-choice approach. Cross-culturally, the outcome of these choices has been the development of a spatial division of labor with agricultural intensification in areas of prime arable land and a mix of extensive agriculture and craft specialization in marginal areas, under specific demand conditions. This model provides an alternative to the traditional approaches of neoevolutionism and the Asiatic mode of production (e.g., Marx, Polanyi, Sahlins). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]