Did brands exist before modern society, in non-capitalistic economies? An international team led by Marta Luciani of the University of Vienna has provided unexpected discoveries about trade during the Bronze Age: yes, brands did indeed exist 3,200 years ago. Findings in the oasis of Qurayyah in Northwestern Arabia offer unprecedented insights into the production of a two-color painted pottery. The researchers demonstrated that the vessels were so distinctive, appealing and sought-after that for all purposes they must be considered a 'brand'. The results were recently published in the journal PLOS One. The team included members of M.I.T., the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East, OeAI/OeAW, TU Wien and University of Sydney with the support of the Heritage Commission of the Saudi Ministry of Culture.

An international team led by Marta Luciani from the University of Vienna in collaboration with Pamela Fragnoli (OeAI/OeAW) and Johannes H. Sterba (TU Wien) analyzed several dozen Bronze Age pottery vessels from the oasis of Qurayyah in Northwestern Arabia. The researchers were able to dispel old misconceptions about the famous 'Midianite Pottery' and for the first time prove that the pottery's origin was in fact the oasis of Qurayyah.

"Our discovery sheds light on how even in the arid environment of desert oases, where essential resources such as clay, water and fuel were scarce, local communities already in the Bronze Age were far from marginal but participated in wider networks of technological know-how shared with neighboring regions, such as the Southern Levant and Syria. Oasis-dwellers were resourceful and inventive enough to create their own ceramic repertoire: to cherish at home and eventually export abroad", says study lead Marta Luciani from the Department of Prehistoric and Historical Archaeology of the University of Vienna.

Criteria for identifying antique brands have been developed

Key to this pioneering research was determining the criteria necessary to identify ancient brands: visual identity, material consistency, technological continuity, centralized production, export circulation, local imitation, intentional commercial scope and cultural reputation.

"Thus our study's implications stretch beyond archaeology and the long-term relationship between humans and natural resources in climatically extreme regions into fields such as the economic mechanisms mediating producer-consumer relationships across time and space", adds Luciani, archaeologist and team leader at the Human Evolution and Archaeological Science (HEAS) network at the University of Vienna.

"Decisive for this first-time discovery was our interdisciplinary and multi-scalar approach, combining examination of stratified material, vessel-shaping technology, petrographic analysis of ceramic thin sections under the polarizing microscope" explains Pamela Fragnoli, Head of the Ceramic Lab of the Austrian Archaeological Institute at the Austrian Academy of Science (OeAI/OeAW), "cross-checked with chemical fingerprinting of the vessels' composition, down their trace elements obtained via Neutron Activation Analysis" adds Johannes H. Sterba, Head of the Center for Labelling and Isotope Production at the TU Wien.

Doralice Klainscek, PhD candidate at the University of Vienna and study co-author, specifies: "The first set of Qurayyah Painted Ware was produced 3,600 years ago. Our most striking discovery was ascertaining that painted pottery production continued, by constantly evolving (Fig. 2). Four centuries on, ca. 3,200 years ago they manufactured a flourishing repertoire of painted animals and human rituals (Fig. 3): this became the brand that was exported over hundreds of kilometers north to the Southern Levant, to sites like Tell el-Kheleifeh and even the Timna sanctuary of the Egyptian goddess Hathor, and south to North Arabia. But Qurayyah's potting tradition did not stop and continued to be based in the oasis for another thousand years well into the final Iron Age".

Summary:

• An interdisciplinary approach to analyze antique vessels found in the oasis of Qurayyah in Northwestern Arabia offers unprecedented insights into brand making and trade in the Bronze age.
• The researchers concluded that the painted pottery (formerly known as 'Midianite Pottery') was so distinctive, appealing and sought-after that for all purposes it must be considered a 'brand'.
• Identifying the following criteria: visual identity, material consistency, technological continuity, centralized production, export circulation, local imitation, intentional commercial scope and cultural reputation allowed the scholars to demonstrate how an ancient brand was created.
• The study's implications stretch beyond archaeology into fields such as the economic mechanisms mediating producer-consumer relationships.

About the study:

The study evolved from the Austrian Science Fund FWF project 'ANAPAN. A new approach to the pottery of Arabia and its neighbors', Project number I06562, with Prof. Dr. Marta Luciani as principal investigator. Together with Ahmed Abualhassan of the Heritage Commission (HC) of the Saudi Ministry of Culture, she directs the Qurayyah Joint Archaeological Project. The HC facilitated all necessary sampling procedures. Further co-authors are: Dr. Pamela Fragnoli, Head of the Ceramic Lab of the Austrian Archaeological Institute at the Austrian Academy of Science, PD Dr. Johannes H. Sterba, Head of the Center for Labelling and Isotope Production at the TU Wien, Dr. Joseph A. Greene of the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East, Dr. William D. Gilstrap, Senior Scientist at the Center for Materials Research in Archaeology and Ethnology at M.I.T., Dr. Stephen Bourke and Dr. Paul Donnelly, both of the University of Sydney and Doralice Klainscek, PhD candidate within the ANAPAN Project.

About the University of Vienna:

At the University of Vienna, curiosity has been the core principle of academic life for more than 650 years. For over 650 years the University of Vienna has stood for education, research and innovation. Today, it is ranked among the top 100 and thus the top four per cent of all universities worldwide and is globally connected. With degree programmes covering over 180 disciplines, and more than 10,000 employees we are one of the largest academic institutions in Europe. Here, people from a broad spectrum of disciplines come together to carry out research at the highest level and develop solutions for current and future challenges. Its students and graduates develop reflected and sustainable solutions to complex challenges using innovative spirit and curiosity.