Ancient Technological Diffusion and Comparative Development: The Case of Pottery

Marcello D'Amato () and Francesco Flaviano Russo ()
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Marcello D'Amato: University of Naples Suor Orsola Benincasa and CSEF., https://csef.it/people/marcello-damato/
Francesco Flaviano Russo: Università di Napoli Federico II and CSEF, https://csef.it/people/francesco-flaviano-russo/

CSEF Working Papers from Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy

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.

Keywords: Neolithic; Pottery Antiquity; Population, State. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-09-05
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