Beyond Design and Style: Enhancing the Material Dimension of Artefacts through Technological Complexity

Levantine ivories of the Iron Age have been the topic of much research aimed at answering some fundamental questions. The role assigned to style as the main criterion for differentiation of ivories and their place of manufacture (city-based workshops/production areas) provided an important frame of reference. But the art of crafting involves many other aspects, among which is the strict relationship between humans and artefacts. This special interaction traverses the borders of typological, stylistic, and technical aspects, because it ascribes to the artefacts a hermeneutic value no less important than that of society and individuals. Material had a special significance in the pre-industrial societies. A symbolic or even magical value could be the result of transforming and exalting the materiality of an artifact.