Creating a brand. Genesis, transformation and diffusion of Qurayyah Painted Ware

Abstract

Based on a rigorous analytical and interdisciplinary study, this article offers the first investigation of the dynamics leading to the genesis of a brand. Elaborating beyond recent contributions on the phenomenon of ancient branding in past societies, we measure different parameters to understand when and how in the Bronze Age the trajectory leading to brand-making initiated. We investigate branding not through the analysis of added markers and/or packaging but through the development of commodities manufactured with cultural-specific production modes and unmistakable visual properties. This research offers the first integrated technological, petrographic and geochemical study of Qurayyah Painted Ware (QPW) analyzing dozens of stratified pottery samples from a pottery kiln in Qurayyah (NW Arabia), a site at the heart of a remarkable and long-lasting ceramic tradition. Our analyses reveal that this bichrome painted pottery (QPW)—locally invented in the late Middle Bronze Age (MBA)—developed over centuries into a location-based, technologically consistent and aesthetically distinctive corpus. Comparative data from Tell el-Kheleifeh and Pella (both Jordan) further confirm the ‘Qurayyah-ite’ origins of QPW 1–2 and the later emergence of QPW 4 as a widespread, choice export ware. We argue that the combination of technological continuity, visual identity, and wide regional dissemination makes QPW 4 an early example of brand-making in ceramic production. This study not only redefines the origins and diffusion of QPW but also offers a framework to understand how ancient objects mediated producer-consumer relationships across time and space.