Imitation as a category of analysis in Classical and Iron Age ceramology

Abstract

In this paper we are committed to elevating the concept of imitation to the category of analysis, applied in principle to ceramology, but it can be extended to the general archaeological discipline as a whole; We understand that it is a matter of identifying the phenomenon and also of explaining it, since there is no doubt that imitation, as a broad concept, is one of the manifestations that remain explicit, both in cultural expansion and in ideas that are the channels more generalized in the development of societies as a whole, and in the formation of individuals as particularities. In this way, we propose to fix the concept, characterize it, detect the evidence that makes it visible to the observer, establishing analysis formats to specify it in the archaeological record, and finally, propose interpretive models that demonstrate the extraordinary versatility of this manifestation and its vast phenomenology that reaches almost any aspect of culture and its transmission.