This study investigates the effects that an encounter with a foreign object can have on local traditions. Notions of object agency and object biographies will be utilized to address what happens when people become entangled with new things: the new context can have an impact on the newly introduced object, and those newly introduced objects can similarly impact locals and their traditions. The Late Bronze Age southern Levantine site of Tel Burna will serve as a case study, where a number of imported Cypriot pithoi were found alongside locally produced pithoi. It will be demonstrated that in their new context, the Cypriot pithoi were given new meaning and function. At the same time, the imported pithoi played active roles in the local potters of Tel Burna making pithoi. However, the local pithoi resemble local storage jars, so while the potters mimicked the concept of the Cypriot pithoi, they did so according to local normative forms.

本研究调查了与异物相遇对当地传统的影响。客体代理和客体传记的概念将用于解决当人们与新事物纠缠时会发生什么：新的环境可以对新引入的客体产生影响，而那些新引入的客体同样可以影响当地人及其传统。青铜时代晚期黎凡特南部的 Tel Burna 遗址将作为一个案例研究，在那里发现了一些进口的塞浦路斯 pithoi 以及当地生产的 pithoi。这将证明，在他们的新环境中，塞浦路斯 pithoi 被赋予了新的含义和功能。与此同时，进口的 pithoi 在 Tel Burna 当地的陶工制作 pithoi 中发挥了积极作用。然而，当地的 pithoi 类似于当地的储藏罐，因此虽然陶工们模仿了塞浦路斯 pithoi 的概念，但他们是根据当地的规范形式进行的。