Unit name: History of Ancient Technology

Key words: archaeology, pyrotechnology, lime plaster, pottery

       Have you ever heard of the term “pyrotechnology”? Most people have probably not. It is the collective term for technologies that utilize chemical changes caused by heating. Not only pottery, glass, and metal objects, but also building materials made of lime and gypsum are produced using pyrotechnology. Throughout the Paleolithic period of approximately 2.5 million years, people were making tools by chipping and pecking materials and changing them into different forms, and pyrotechnology was developed at the onset of the Neolithic period, approximately 10,000 years ago. The research unit: “History of Ancient Technology”, focused attention on pyrotechnology – the origin of technology that led to the development of modern steel and other industries, to take on the challenges of examining human history from the viewpoint of technological history.

Research on ancient technology using advanced technologies

Few comprehensive studies have been conducted to examine relationships among pyrotechnology-related materials because they were created in many different periods and regions. However, reviewing relationships among technologies or between conventional and new technologies based on the standpoint of pyrotechnology helps us understand these objects from different perspectives. For example, pottery – one of the oldest products of pyrotechnology, is considered to have several origins: pottery in East Asia, including Japan, and West Asia dates back to B.C. 13,000 and 7,000, respectively. In the past, the necessity of pottery and the level of technological development, as its result, in different areas and eras were considered to be influenced by different environments and ways of life. In recent years, new insights on the functions of pottery and trading activities have been obtained by conducting mass spectrometry based on advanced technologies (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Pieces of plaster (left) and restored pottery (right) found at a Neolithic site in Turkey

Making the best use of the history of the University of Tsukuba and its historical materials

Figure 2: A scene of training in former Kuzuumachi (lime kilns in the late Edo period)

Pyrotechnology is a major shift in manufacturing that occurred in prehistoric times. The University of Tsukuba has been conducting research in West, South, and Central Asia and Africa since the time the school was referred to as the Tokyo University of Education. Valuable information and materials acquired from surveys are utilized to pave the way for new historical studies. At the College of Humanities of the University of Tsukuba, research unit members serve as teaching staffs, conduct surveys of lime kilns in former Kuzuumachi – a town of lime, as part of practical training on prehistory. We continue these activities, using pyrotechnology as the keyword, to explore the history of manufacturing across different areas and periods.

Interviewed on July 2, 2014