{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,19]],"date-time":"2026-08-19T17:42:04Z","timestamp":1787161324889,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":71,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,19]],"date-time":"2026-08-19T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1787097600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100002428","name":"Austrian Science Fund","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["I6265"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["I6265"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100002428","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100003065","name":"Universit\u00e4t Wien","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["Historisch-Kulturwiss. Fakult\u00e4t"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["Historisch-Kulturwiss. Fakult\u00e4t"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100003065","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001822","name":"\u00d6sterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["OSTI000205 Holzhausen-Legat"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["OSTI000205 Holzhausen-Legat"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001822","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosone.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS One"],"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                    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 (\n                    <jats:bold>QPW<\/jats:bold>\n                    ) 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)\u2014locally invented in the late Middle Bronze Age (MBA)\u2014developed 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 \u2018Qurayyah-ite\u2019 origins of\n                    <jats:bold>QPW 1\u20132<\/jats:bold>\n                    and the later emergence of\n                    <jats:bold>QPW 4<\/jats:bold>\n                    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.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0351296","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,19]],"date-time":"2026-08-19T17:21:14Z","timestamp":1787160074000},"page":"e0351296","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Creating a brand. Genesis, transformation and diffusion of Qurayyah Painted Ware"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"21","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3105-2212","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Marta","family":"Luciani","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4594-9677","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Pamela","family":"Fragnoli","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"William D.","family":"Gilstrap","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7883-8861","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Johannes H.","family":"Sterba","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0003-3939-1731","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Doralice","family":"Klainscek","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8013-0694","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Joseph A.","family":"Greene","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Stephen","family":"Bourke","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Paul","family":"Donnelly","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"340","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,19]]},"reference":[{"key":"pone.0351296.ref001","first-page":"41","article-title":"Transitions in material culture of the 2nd millennium BCE The Middle Bronze to Late Bronze Age shift seen from northwest Arabia.","volume-title":"Material worlds Interdisciplinary approaches to contacts and exchange in the Ancient Near East","author":"M. 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