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Ancient Technological Diffusion and Comparative Development: The Case of Pottery

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Abstract

We explore the long-term economic and institutional consequences of an early exposure to a fundamental technological innovation in human history, pottery. Using a data set on radiocarbon-dated pottery discoveries, we show that regions that were ex-posed to pottery earlier have been subsequently characterized by higher historical population density and by an earlier development of complex political organizations. These results hold after controlling for the timing of the Neolithic transition, bio-geographic variables, and migratory distance from East Africa. We argue that the dual role of pottery, both as a cooking and fermentation tool that improved nutritional efficiency and as a storage technology that enabled surplus management, shifted Malthusian constraints and contributed to the emergence of social stratification, institutional complexity, and early state formation. Classification-JEL: O11; O33; O47; N00.

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  • Marcello D'Amato & Francesco Flaviano Russo, 2025. "Ancient Technological Diffusion and Comparative Development: The Case of Pottery," CSEF Working Papers 759, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy.
    • Handle: RePEc:sef:csefwp:759
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    1. Mélanie Salque & Peter I. Bogucki & Joanna Pyzel & Iwona Sobkowiak-Tabaka & Ryszard Grygiel & Marzena Szmyt & Richard P. Evershed, 2013. "Earliest evidence for cheese making in the sixth millennium bc in northern Europe," Nature, Nature, vol. 493(7433), pages 522-525, January.
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    JEL classification:

    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence
    • N00 - Economic History - - General - - - General

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