The Eurasian Steppe in the Bronze Age: complex approaches to the study of
sites
Organisers: Oleg Mochalov and Pavel Kouznetsov
The term "Eurasian steppe" traditionally refers to the broad valleys and plains that make up the region between the Southern Siberia and Altay in the East and the lower Danube in the West. The forest zone borders this region to the north, while the Caspian and Black Sea coasts, Mongolia make up the southern border. This region, including such famous rivers as the Volga, Don, Dnieper and Ural, was occupied by different stock-breeding groups throughout the whole Bronze Age. Unfortunately, the eastern part of the European Steppe is often not considered to be part of the whole, as is attested by the fact that this easternmost region is generally not included in Western European and American maps of Europe. The "European steppe" is also made up of the transitional forest-steppe zone. While the groups that inhabited the forest-steppe were closer to the steppe groups culturally, they interacted with other groups as well. The forest-steppe zone, mixing steppe and forest landscapes, was a region where steppe stock breeders and local forest tribes interacted with one another, creating unique and rich cultures that reflected this contact such as the yamnaya, poltavkinskaya, katakombnaya, abashevskaya, potapovskaya, srubnaya, andronovskaya, okunevskaya culture groups.
The forest-steppe zone and the northern steppe are of particular interest to researchers, because it is the forest-steppe that is the nexus for interaction of different emerging groups during the Bronze Age. Thus, this session will be interested in questions concerning the climate, ecology and economy of northern steppe and forest-steppe. The session will also focus on new methods and techniques that are being used to understand this region better archaeologically, and on the results of recent excavations in European Steppe.
Only papers that describe and discuss results of research that either changes current perceptions of the region or integrates several new scientific methods will be accepted for presentation. Some papers will focus on the problems of Middle and Late Bronze Age in general, and on the origin of Late Bronze Age in Eastern European steppe and forest-steppe, in particular. Many papers will present the results of collaborative projects of scholars from many countries of the world concerning archaeology, physical anthropology, paleoecology and geoarchaeology. The chronology of the cultures and their economies will also be of particular interest.
If you are interested in submitting a paper for this session please contact:
Oleg Mochalov and Pavel Kouznetsov (Russia, Samara)
Email: mochal@hippo.ru
Cannon foundries and cannon founding
Organisers: Marco Milanese & Dr. Gabriele Gattiglia
Archaeological data about cannon casting are rare and valuable for analysing this technological process. The session aims to collect papers about archaeological researches on foundry buildings and technology of cannon-founding; and also to examine the different operation applied in the manufacture of bronze and iron guns to give a picture of the studies in this particular archaeological field.
If you are interested in submitting a paper for this session please contact:
Marco Milanese, Department of History, University of Sassari Viale Umberto
52 07100 Sassari, Italy
Email: mmilanese@tiscali.it; Phone: +39 079/2065230; Fax: +39 079/2065218
or
Dr. Gabriele Gattiglia, University of Pisa
Email: g.gattiglia@tiscali.it; Phone: +39 3355367516
The Aegean Bronze Age in the wider European context
Organiser: Helène Whittaker von Hofsten
The Greek Mainland is both part of the Eastern Mediterranean and of the European continent. On the whole, Aegean archaeologists have been most interested in exploring connections with the Near East. Correspondingly, it would seem that the Greek Bronze Age plays a fairly marginal role in general discussions about the European Bronze Age. The purpose of this session is to discuss the Greek Bronze Age and Greek Bronze Age archaeology from a European perspective.
Of relevance to this session are papers which deal with topics related to:
Papers which deal with different research traditions and highlight differences in methodological and theoretical approaches to comparable material would be of particular interest.
If you are interested in submitting a paper for this session please contact:
Helène Whittaker von Hofsten, University of Tromsø, Norway
Email: helene.hofsten@hum.uit.no
Developing best practice for archaeology in spatial planning
Organiser: Dr John Williams
Increasingly the provisions of "Valetta" and other conventions relating to the historic environment and also those of environmental legislation are being recognised and implemented. Standards, however, may vary. Spatial planning thus has a key role to play in providing for the protection and management of the historic environment. The proposed session will examine emerging best practice in taking forward the integration of archaeology within spatial planning. A number of initiatives being progressed through the Planarch and Planarch 2 projects will be examined including:
The session will provide an opportunity for discussing how archaeologists can work effectively within spatial planning.
Further papers are sought relating to all aspects of the above areas of activity.
If you are interested in submitting a paper for this session please contact:
Dr John Williams, Head of Heritage Conservation, Kent County Council,
England
Email: John.williams@kent.gov.uk
Folk beliefs and practise in medieval lives
Organisers: Ann-Britt Falk & Maria Kyritz
The session is aimed at exploring the impact of folk beliefs in daily life.
The medieval concept of the world included more than just the single voice of the Christian church and the cosmology of the time did not only contain heaven and hell but was also loaded with supernatural beings and practices related to them.
One issue is the medieval reception of landscape where pre-historic monuments and places were of great importance for the people living among them. While the church tried to control the inner zone by christianising monuments and places, the diabolised monuments of the outer zone still functioned as landmarks in the perception of space and time. Permanent pagan monuments like burial mounds were not only visible in the landscape but also vital in the reshaping of the concept of the world.
Another issue to be discussed is folk believes seen as a dynamic tradition where there is no clear boundary between paganism and Christianity.
Folk beliefs were present in almost every aspect of daily life. A lot of rituals performed in housework probably had a pre-Christian origin. Some pagan rituals were adopted and modified to embrace Christian concepts, others simply continued through time in what had now become a Christian society. Some of these rituals can be traced in the archaeological records, but are difficult to interpret since they can be part of either a Christian or heathen context.
The same ambiguity can be seen in medieval art, were many motifs might be explained in terms of both Christian and pre-Christian religion.
If you are interested in submitting a paper for this session please contact:
Ann-Britt Falk, Department for archaeology and ancient history, University
of Lund, Sweden
Email: ann-britt.falk@malmo.se
Maria Kyritz, Archaeokonsult, Aachen, Germany
Liminal landscapes - beyond the concepts of 'marginality' and 'periphery'
Organisers: Eva Svensson, Kathrine Stene & Ingunn Holm
This session and the following round-table focus on liminal landscapes, landscapes outside what archaeologists traditionally define as central areas. Liminal landscapes are often considered as marginal and peripheral, a fact that too easily colour the study of the archaeological material of these areas. These landscapes are often viewed as passive in relation to an active centre, and thus considered marginal also from a social perspective. Due to such perceptions archaeological projects on liminal landscapes risk being marginalised both in academic research and within the cultural heritage management.
In contrast to what is traditionally recognised as central areas, i.e. champion agricultural areas, liminal landscapes are set in rougher topographical environments e.g. mountains, forests, heathlands, wetlands and coastal areas. Such environments are, in modern society, often mistaken for nature and not recognised as complex and varied cultural landscapes created in a dialogue involving human strategies and topographical frameworks. This misconception contributes to the devaluation of the historical importance of the liminal landscapes.
This session and the following round-table will focus on aspects of various liminal landscapes; the dynamics of land use in older times, the understanding and experience of the landscapes both in older times and by modern society and how to upgrade the importance of liminal landscapes on the agendas both within cultural heritage management and environmental preservation.
If you are interested in submitting a paper for this session please contact:
Dr Eva Svensson, Institute of Archaeology & Ancient History, Lund
University, Sweden
Email: Eva.Svensson@ark.lu.se
Kathrine Stene, Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo, Norway
Email: kathrine.stene@khm.uio.no
Dr Ingunn Holm, Department of Archaeology, University of Bergen, Norway
Email: Ingunn.Holm@ark.uib.no
Visual entries to past environments
Organisers: Liisa Seppänen & Mervi Suhonen
Visualization is a tool both for interpretative process of archaeological data and presentation of results. How to use this tool in an innovative and scientifically responsible way? By making elements of three-dimensional presentations perceptible we aim at opening the interpretative process behind them for critical reviewing and further development.
The session proceeds from practical examples that can be models and illustrations of public or private buildings, interiors, yards, rural and urban milieus and presentations of different time levels of the same area. The papers should include a short presentation of a reconstruction as well as critical viewpoints concerning its details and processing.
The 3D environment can be approached both from practical and mental viewpoints. Members of the past society saw and used the common environment in different ways. Whose view do we try to catch when producing the past?
The process of reconstructing and visualizing can be used as a method for interpretation. How do we take advantage of this possibility today and for what purposes could it be applied in the future? The session seeks for development of documentation practices in the field and tools for processing the data. Encouraging examples, fresh ideas and plans as well as unsuccessful experiments are welcome.
If you are interested in submitting a paper for this session please contact:
Liisa Seppänen, University of Turku, Finland
Email: liseppa@utu.fi
Mervi Suhonen, University of Turku, Finland
Email: mesuho@utu.fi
The Atlantic approach to coastal interactions in the first millennia BC
- AD
Session Organisers: Eileen Wilkes & John Collis
Waterborne transport was, from prehistory until the modern era, the fastest and most efficient means of moving goods and travelling. This session will examine how the use of waterborne craft influenced social and economic interactions in the first millennium BC and AD, concentrating on the Atlantic coast, but also with reference to the interface with Mediterranean networks and the extent of interaction between the two areas. Atlantic seaboard contacts are inferred by the distribution of goods along the coasts and between the continent and Britain. The session will explore whether and how links and networks utilised in later prehistory continued into the Roman period, as well as the type of vessel available, the variety and distribution of goods, the ports and harbours of the coastal and riverine network, and how these elements are being investigated in archaeology today. The variety of papers is united by the theme of 'interactions across water'.
If you are interested in submitting a paper for this session please contact:
Dr Eileen Wilkes, University of Wales, Lampeter
Email: e.wilkes@lamp.ac.uk
Between antiquaries and archaeologists: the European pioneers
Organisers: Teresa Júdice Gamito and Ana Cristina Martins, Portugal
The 19th century was no doubt one of the most important periods in the history of Mankind opening to the western societies large areas and regions geographically distant. Of course this process did not happen out of nothing or in an isolated form but was the product of a serial of events and interests that took place earlier. Among them we have to mention the Enlightenment interest and development as well as the Antiquarian movement of the precedent centuries.
Important to stress the rationalist and positivist way of thinking, then enlarged to all forms of knowledge, and the opposite movement of romanticism. The antiquarian interests and curiosity were always present but the need to more precise data prevailed and active discussions were installed all over the western known world.
The need to compare and study the different archaeological sites; to find out the similarities and dissimilarities of all regions; to check the research approaches other archaeologists were using; to collect and keep in large museums the evidence of past societies became an actual obsession to every researcher involved.
Therefore, we invite all those doing research on the history of archaeology, on the development of a science nowadays autonomous on its own, to present papers that will illustrate the first steps of its pioneers, either in an Antiquarian or Archaeologist point of view, and their contribution for the development of research. Although we would privilege the role developed by individuals we would also praise the importance of special collections, museums and institutions, either at an international, national or regional level.
What is most important is their actual contribution for the development of archaeological science.
If you are interested in submitting a paper for this session please contact:
Teresa Júdice Gamito
Email: tgamito@ualg.pt
Landscape ideologies
Organisers: Elisabeth Jerem, Hungary & Thomas Meier, Germany
In 2000 the countries of the EU have agreed on the European Landscape Convention, which today is basis of almost any landscape action in the European Union. As archaeology and heritage management are more and more discovering "landscape" as a subject of interest the ELC is of growing importance to their daily work. They are busily engaging in its transformation into national law and local implementation.
However, the ELC is the negotiated product of a "landscape"-model, based on the
very specific constructs and ideologies of modern Europe. Analyzing these basics
will be a vital issue to clarify our future strategies of action in concrete
landscape research and heritage management.
As guidelines for comparative analysis we suggest the following questions:
We are inviting proposals of papers mainly on a comparative European level.
In the first instance titles and abstracts should be submitted to Thomas
Meier
Email: thomas.meier@vfpa.fak12.uni-muenchen.de
Handling the Body - problematizing the introduction of cremation burial customs and the parallel use of inhumation burials during the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age periods in Europe
Organisers: Camilla Forsman & Helena Victor
This regular session will be problematizing the introduction of cremation burial customs and the parallel use of inhumation burials during the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age periods in Europe. There seems to be a regional diversity in the introduction of the cremation burial traditions in different parts of Europe, but also similarities. In Continental Europe the cremation burials in a more developed form first seems to appear within Bohemia, Czechoslovakia and middle Germany. Early cremation burial practices (2100-1800 BC) has recently been observed in Central Sweden, suggesting a development similar to the Continental European. The session seeks to bring forth a discussion where this process can be put in a social and ritual context in a wider perspective. For example, the process of the introduction of cremations will be dealt with in relation to the continuous parallel use of inhumation burials. One aspect that needs to be enlightened is the hybrid forms where both burnt and unburnt bones are mixed in the same deposition, sometimes even in the handling of the same body. Both cremated and unburnt bodies display being treated in various ways. Some questions that may arise are; what does the use of two parallel burial customs mean? Are they a reflection of a social hierarchy? Or should the differences been seen as solitary ritual? What factors make one burial custom become predominant in a society? Archaeological examples from all of Europe are requested to bring forward a better understanding of the phenomenon.
Anyone interested in presenting a paper or a poster in the session, please contact:
Camilla Forsman, Societas Archaeologica Upsaliensis, Uppsala, Sweden
Email: camilla.forsman@sau.se
Helena Victor, Societas Archaeologica Upsaliensis, Uppsala, Sweden
Email: helena.victor@sau.se
Medieval Rural Settlement Studies: Pushing the Boundaries
Organiser: Discovery Programme, Ireland
This session is devoted to considering innovative ways in which the medieval rural landscape is being studied around Europe by archaeologists today. Papers are invited that set out the traditional approaches which have been followed in their respective geographic and temporal study areas, and then develop the current research in terms of the range of sources to hand, the techniques deployed to extract data from such sources, and the intellectual framework within which the research is being pursued. Key topics that may address broader concerns, which in turn can fuel a meaningful discussion, include communications, land and sea, rural-urban relations, and cultural interaction. It is so often the case that scholars work within a chronological vacuum, to say nothing of disciplinary isolation. It is hoped that by drawing on studies from across the medieval timeline, and by seeking innovative approaches, it may become possible to realize the degree to which rural settlement studies reveal continuities as well as discontinuities.
Anyone interested in presenting a paper or a poster in the session, please contact:
Niall Brady, Discovery Programme, 34 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin 2, Ireland.
Email: niall@discoveryprogramme.ie
Emerging Technologies for the Research and Dissemination of Cultural Heritage - The Epoch showcases
Organisers: Sorin Hermon and Franco Niccolucci
Introduction to Epoch
EPOCH (contract number IST-2002-507382) is a network of about 80 European cultural institutions joining their efforts to improve the quality and effectiveness of the use of Information and Communication Technology for Cultural Heritage. Participants include university departments, research centres, heritage institutions, such as museums or national heritage agencies, and commercial enterprises, across Europe and overseas. The overall objective of the network is to provide a clear organisational and disciplinary framework for increasing the effectiveness of work at the interface between technology and the Cultural Heritage of human experience represented in monuments, sites and museums. This framework encompasses all the various work processes and flows of information from archaeological discovery to education and dissemination. Epoch is investing considerable effort in the dissemination and communication of Cultural Heritage to the public and the scientific community by means of the new available technologies in the modern information society
. In order to express the potential for applying new technologies to the research and dissemination of Cultural Heritage, Epoch has created eight showcases, covering most of the stages of the research pipeline (from data acquisition, to data management and investigation to dissemination and communication of results), in order to stimulate the imagination and provide experience of current results and developments in ICT technologies to CH. These showcases provide practical and appealing demonstrations of integrated technology, highlight its concepts and advantages, stimulate a creative adoption of that technology, and provoke feedback from the CH domain, from user to decision maker.
If you are interested in submitting a paper for this session please contact:
Sorin Hermon, Vast Lab, PIN scrl, University of Florence
Email: sorin.hermon@pin.unifi.it
Settlement and morphology
Organisers: Tomasz Kalicki & Bartlomiej Szmoniewski
Morphology is one of the main factors of the environment. However, other factors such as hydrology, soil, vegetation etc. are strongly influenced by relief and morphogenetic processes at global, regional and local scales. Human activity has always caused morphoclimatic zones. These zones changed during the Late Glacial and the Holocene creating different environments for man. It caused a significantly different settlement pattern from Neolithic up until the present-day. Also, through the creation of new "anthropogenic" forms and processes, human activity modified the rate of natural morphogenetic processes. These interdisciplinary problems are cross-border and timeless and would therefore like to invite specialists from around Europe. The main subject of the session will be reconstruction of the relationship between morphology and location of archaeological sites and the influence of settlements on relief evolution from the Palaeolithic to Middle Ages.
Interdisciplinary studies at local and regional scales with geomorphological and archaeological data can help us to recognise human activity in different morphological regions and forms. It is very important to compare the anthropogenic activity on different mezoform such as river valleys and watershed areas and on microforms ie. slopes, terraces and flood plains.
This session will concentrate on:
If you are interested in submitting a paper for this session please contact:
Tomasz Kalicki, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization, Polish Academy of Sciences
Email: kalicki@zg.pan.krakow.pl
Bartlomiej Szmoniewski, Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences
Email: bartheque@yahoo.fr
The formation of the household in the Bronze Age - from macro to micro scale
Organisers: Kristin Oma & Kristian Kristiansen
The project "Emergence of European Communities" (hereafter EOEC) incorporates 3 field projects: Tanum in Sweden, Szazhalombatta in Hungary and Monte Polizzo on Sicily. This session presents the results from the projects and combines diverse methodological research designs with theoretical frameworks.
The main emphasis of this session is upon the formation and development of the household, applying various methods both from archaeology and science to approach the household from diverse angles. This session seeks to recognize and perceive the household as a living entity, as a place where people dwell. People and animals should be seen to be embedded in the space of the household, the household not necessarily being confined by the house. The social practice of the household is explored as situated within time-space dimensions, and is perceived as a knowledgeable process of the production of meaning. This session seeks to explore the 'active role of material culture' and through the spatial distribution of material culture it considers how senses and cultural memory may have created social meaning. The process of interaction within the household should be considered to create meaningful relations between people on both macro and micro scales, and between people and animals.
The session is also open for papers and discussions that embrace the wider topics of the EOEC.
Following up the session given by EOEC in the 10th annual EAA meeting in Lyon 2004, titled "The formation of political unities", this year's session elaborates upon the topics that were presented in Lyon. Papers will be given by senior project members and PhD students who are funded by the EU.
If you are interested in submitting a paper for this session please contact:
Kristin Oma, University of Southampton, United Kingdom
Email: ko2@soton.ac.uk
Kristian Kristiansen, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Email: k.kristiansen@archaeology.gu.se
Roads as Archaeology
Organisers: Sarah May & Sefryn Penrose
Despite the key role that the archaeology of road schemes is now playing in the discipline there has been remarkably little recent discussion of roads as subjects of archaeology themselves. Roads, tracks and routes all lead us to think on the construction and maintenance of landscapes and their political context. At the beginning of the 21st century, the political context of road construction has been explicit. The urban development of the British motorway project, or the passage of the M3 near Tara, illustrate the alignment of roads with hierarchies of power. This echoes the administerial and military role of Roman roads stitching and maintaining an empire. Of course not all roads are built by a centralising state. Wetland excavations across northwest Europe have uncovered a range of roads, tracks and other routeways that points to their complex links between people and places. The in-betweenness of roads offers the possibility of interesting archaeological journeys. This session aims to address the archaeology of roads across as wide an area and as broad a timespan as possible.
If you are interested in submitting a paper for this session please contact:
Sarah May, English Heritage, UK
Email: Sarah.may@english-heritage.org.uk
Landscapes of Bronze Age Ireland in their north-west European context
Organiser: Joanna Brück
The increase in developer-funded archaeology in Ireland over the past number of years has resulted in the discovery of a substantial number of significant Bronze Age sites. These allow us to move beyond the studies of artefact typology that have traditionally dominated the archaeology of the Irish Bronze Age and to provide a very different and more rounded image of the period. However, there have been few attempts to synthesise the results of recent excavations, and they have yet to enter general texts on Irish prehistory. As a result, our knowledge of Bronze Age settlement, for example, remains sketchy, and the wider landscape context of sites such as barrow cemeteries and hoards is poorly understood in many areas. In comparison, other parts of north-west Europe have a longer history of large-scale developer-funded projects and these have greatly enhanced understanding of Bronze Age landscapes in certain areas. This session invites contributions on recent excavations of Irish Bronze Age sites and landscapes. Synthetic or interpretative papers are particularly welcome. Papers considering the interpretation of Bronze Age landscapes in other areas of north-west Europe are also sought to provide points of departure on which discussion of the Irish material can build.
If you are interested in submitting a paper for this session please contact:
Joanna Brück,
Email: Joanna.Bruck@ucd.ie
Burial monuments as social signals
Organiser: Ladislav Smejda
This session represents a logical continuation of the presentations focused on the mortuary record which were held within the Thessaloniki and St. Petersburg EAA Annual Meetings.
This time we will aim at several aspects of monumentality inherent to funerary structures built above the ground surface, including their accessibility and visibility in the landscape. Looking at the archaeological record from this point of view we can attempt to define and interpret the varying rationale of grave markers used over millennia up to the modern times. This will include searching for their inspiration and purpose, and discussing their possible expressive attributes and symbolic meanings. Although much good work has already been done in this field, with decades of turbulent theoretical debates and paradigmatic shifts in archaeology, now is a good time to recapitulate the pros and cons of individual approaches and advocate the promising directions of future research.
The main thematic topics of this session will include:
If you are interested in submitting a paper for this session please contact:
Ladislav Smejda, University of West Bohemia, Plzen, Czech Republic
Email: smejda@kar.zcu.cz
Talking Archaeology: how archaeologists communicate
Organisers: Gabriel Cooney and Natalie Venclová
The aim of this session is to develop some of the important themes that emerged in EAA 2004 session in a related session. Communication between archaeologists in a European context should be a major concern for the profession and the EAA. If we cannot identify a common set of ideas and approaches how can we have meaningful dialogue among archaeologists or communicate with the public and decision-makers? These problems often converge when there is a public controversy, such as the impact of development on an important site or landscape or when archaeological research created within a particular framework is translated for another or wider archaeological community. Themes that have emerged to explain why we have different kinds of archaeological communities and communication within Europe include; the strength of archaeological research traditions at the level of the state or nation, the impact of different theoretical paradigms and the institutional framework and sector of the profession within which archaeologists work. It follows from this that communication among archaeologists is a problem at a number of levels. We need to explicitly recognise and value the current diversity of methods of research and interpretation in moving to identify the basis for more effective and meaningful communication.
If you are interested in submitting a paper for this session please contact:
Gabriel Cooney, Department of Archaeology, University College Dublin, Ireland
Email: Gabriel.Cooney@ucd.ie
Natalie Venclová, Institute of Archaeology, Prague, Czech Republic
Email: venclova@arup.cas.cz
Narrating the environment: linking social practice to landscape and environmental resources
Organisers: Fay Stevens, David Fontijn & Meriel McClatchie
Increased interest and improved methods in the analysis of archaeological landscapes and environmental materials throughout Europe has led to a situation where, in some areas, we are provided with high-quality spatial and temporal patterning. Despite these advances, the integration of such data into theoretical archaeological approaches does not seem to have kept pace with the accumulation of data. Indeed, the tendency to re-use outmoded datasets is representative of how archaeologists orientate their way around interpreting relationships between palaeoenvironmental evidence and human activity, highlighting the conceptual divide between archaeological practice and interpretation. We suggest that understanding of the archaeological environment requires a comprehension of how different ways of inhabiting the world became possible, whereby the values that people give to land, plants, animals and food is fundamental to the construction of social practice.
This session will explore the application of landscape and environmental analyses in the construction of social and cultural archaeological narratives. We would like to encourage papers that demonstrate how environmental data is a method of enquiry into the ways that humans bound their own biographies to that of the environmental resources around them.
From this perspective, social practice does not stand in opposition to nature, but is created in a complex network of exchanges that bind different lifeforms together in various, what has been referred to as, symbiotic relationships [Barratt 1999].
If you are interested in submitting a paper for this session please contact:
Fay Stevens, Institute of Archaeology, London, UK
Email: fay.stevens@ucl.ac.uk
Cities in Ascendancy
`Towns are like electronic transformers. They increase tension, accelerate the rhythm of exchange and constantly recharge human life' (Fernand Braudel)'
Organiser: Robina McNeil
It is perhaps obvious that towns and cities owe their existence to their location, but it is not perhaps obvious how important location and topography was to the successful city.
The session `Cities in Ascendancy' at the 2004 EAA conference in Lyon invited speakers on the Aegean Iron Age, Viking Waterford and Cork, Lyon a city of decadence through time, social gentrification of medieval towns in Denmark, Amsterdam during its age of supremacy and the Manchesters of the World to explore why these cities were so successful and analyse the impact of these towns on the then known world.
From this eclectic grouping, the importance of location, topography, access to the sea, good transport systems, excellent ports and harbours were key considerations that determined their success or otherwise. As important were excellent trading rights, the rise of the specialised civilised city with a diverse economic base and social stratification of power bases within the city. All these were highlighted as crucial factors in the rise, continued success, decline and failure of cities.
Cities in Ascendancy 2005 is a follow up to the successful 2004 session and papers are sought which look again at the archaeology of these unique constructs - papers which explore whether there are other factors and dynamics which determined how successful a city was and why cities need to go through cycles of decline in order to re-invent themselves. Comparisons should be made with at least two other towns and cities with a similar socio-economic base to identify similarities and differences and to see whether hypotheses previously proposed have a wider application and validity. Papers particularly welcomed are those which analyse, from an archaeological perspective, reasons for both cities in ascendancy and cities in decline. Papers will need to look at the wider agenda of continuity and change and consider whether towns are part agents or part generators, demonstrating both cause and effect and indeed multi-dimensional rather than simple processes of change.
Such papers should seek to analyse rather than describe why such towns are the greatest works of humanity, the products of interaction and look to see how buildings, monuments, topography, landscape character, street pattern, archaeological deposits and open spaces all might interface to produce a city in ascendancy, one of a select band of cities that have left their mark on the world.
If you are interested in submitting a paper for this session please contact:
Robina McNeil, The Field Archaeology Centre, The University of Manchester, UK
Email: robina.mcneil@manchester.ac.uk
Time and time again: notions of time in prehistory
Organisers: Gail Higginbottom & Hannah Cobb
We think time needs to be seen again. There are many ways of looking at what time is or can be and what time was for people in non-literate societies of the past. Did people think of time as a separate quality of their world, as an instance or an occasion, or even measure or divide their world according to various notions of what time was? What might these notions of time been and how were they experienced? At a minimum, previous studies seem to suggest that it involves ideas of sequence and duration (Goody 1991: 31) and/or occurrences and events, but as phenomenologists have shown us time involves Being and vice versa. Recently geography too is reassessing time, with May's and Thrift's (along with their contributors') notion of TimeSpace (May and Thrift: 2001) where activities can create time and space and who, like Lucas (2005), illustrate that time is indeed multidimensional.
This geographically and chronologically open session seeks to explore possible notions of time in prehistory, with a particular focus on how approaches to this are developing in the twenty-first century. We hope the session will address both philosophical aspects as well as those suggested by current material culture research. It will deal with the way time may have been perceived and understood. Naturally this entails a discussion of how we conceive of time and the times of the past and how we might be able to discover the notions of time in prehistory. Ultimately we hope to move towards a greater understanding of time in the lives of those that lived in the various prehistoric worlds.
If you are interested in submitting a paper for this session please contact:
Dr Gail Higginbottom, Glamorgan Gwent Archaeological Trust, Swansea, Wales
Email: gail@ggat.org.uk
Pedagogy in Archaeological Education
Organisers: Tove Hjørungdal & Åsa Gillberg, Göteborg University, Sweden;
Jean-Claude Marquet, France
The session aims to discuss a broad spectrum of pedagogical practices and ideas within as many archaeological areas as possible. It includes pedagogy in tertiary university education, as well as the education of children in schools and museums, and the public relations of heritage management.
European countries have their particular traditions of education and teaching, traditions that in various ways will be transformed through the implementation of the Bologna process. This concerns universities, and as such one side of the pedagogical coin. Another side of the pedagogical coin is the extensive practices and traditions of the archaeological education of children in e g. France, and the active public relations in e.g. England.
Focus will be on alternative, interrogating, pedagogies of learning, as different to traditional and authoritarian ways of teaching. We find student and children integrating pedagogies to be of particular interest, that is to say different ways of "learning by doing", and various methods of peer teaching. This concerns teaching practices and methods tried in educational work in the field and in museums for amateurs and school children, as well as in lecture theatres and tutorials for adult, tertiary students aiming to be professional archaeologists.
If you are interested in submitting a paper for this session please contact:
Tove Hjørungdal or Jean-Claude Marquet,
Email: tove.hjorungdal@archaeology.gu.se,
jcmarquet@wanadoo.fr
Single site GIS analyses of artefacts from settlements
Organisers: Ivan Pavlu , Petr Kvetina (both Prague)
The changing theoretical and methodological frame of the archaeology causes the discrepancies between traditional explanations of the finds and the evaluation of artefacts from a different piont of view. Recently also the formative processes of the artefactual refuse are more taken into consideration. Apart from the chronological questions, the new problems e.g. of spacial distribution are analysed. Extracting of "historical conclusions" from isolated artefacts is replaced with multidimensional analysis of artefacts on the geographical, economical and symbolical background of a culture. Methodology of GIS can be broadly used also for one site analyses. We will to critically evaluate current arguments and to extract the most acceptable explanations as an initial set of hypotheses. This will be encountered with the spatial analysis of artefactual refuse, using G1S methods within the one site geographical details, that we prefer to call archaeogeography or microgeography.
Added explanation:
We have proposed a session dealing with
GIS methods/SW but not as usually applying them to geographical (or archaeogeographical)
data but to details of artefacts from one site. It means some detailed spatial
analyses of the distribution of artefacts within one site area, e.g. based on
data from different site features.
If you are interested in submitting a paper for this session please contact:
Ivan Pavlu or Petr Kvetina,
Email: pavlu@arup.cas.cz, kvetina@arup.cas.cz
Models of archaeological organisation on highways projects
Organiser: Daire O'Rourke (Ireland)
The National Roads Authority (N.R.A.) is the State Agency with the remit to develop the national highway infrastructure in Ireland. This is the largest phase of highway development in the history of the State, at an annual budget of over €1bn. The National Roads Programme involves the building of new inter urban highways on largely Greenfield sites across the country. The majority of the schemes are Design and Build or PPP (Tolled Road) Schemes. This has had and continues to have an enormous impact on Ireland's archaeological heritage. A management structure for the archaeological component of highways in Ireland has been developed and implemented by the N.R.A. This involves the employment of 3 archaeologists in the N.R.A.'s head quarters in Dublin and the employment of 22 Project Archaeologists and Assistant Archaeologists linked to National Road Design Offices (N.R.D.O.s) nationwide. The N.R.D.O.'s in turn are linked to the local County Councils.
The Project Archaeologists are a central part of the Design Team for any new road in Ireland and are involved at every stage of the road project from planning to on site archaeological work, post excavation and publication. This involves a close working relationship with the statutory archaeological authorities in Ireland. The Project Archaeologists prepare and advise on the briefs for the planning stages of highways projects and also assist in the procurement of archaeological companies to carry out the excavation, post excavation and publication phases of the projects. All the archaeological companies employed on highways schemes in Ireland are procured using EU Procurement procedures. The Project Archaeologists oversee the archaeological work carried out and certify all costs on the highway projects in Ireland. They liase directly with the Statutory Authorities in this regard.
One of the extraordinary initiatives to come out of this management structure is the whole scale testing using non-invasive and invasive techniques of entire road schemes. This was partly initiated from a necessity to develop archaeological risk assessment strategies to allow the advance identification of the known and previously unknown archaeological heritage. Advance archaeological testing of major landscapes have been and are currently undertaken in Ireland prior to a roads contractor coming on site. This has led to large-scale use of geophysical techniques and test trenching. Now, over 95% of all archaeological investigation and excavation is carried out prior to the main roads contractor being appointed. This allows a more structured approach to the management of the mitigation of the archaeological resource. This archaeological work in advance of construction has led to an increase in the number of archaeological sites being uncovered as part of the National Roads programme in Ireland. This in itself has on occasion been a double-edged sword, and at times has led to controversy.
Therefore, we are interested in discussing the above in a session, which will be designed to take account of the varying methodologies being used by other European countries in managing the archaeological resource in advance of major highways projects. We wish to explore various other management structures and methodologies being used in other European countries. We also wish to discuss how and when archaeological work gets undertaken on major highway schemes. We would also like to discuss the pros and cons of various approaches and the varying experiences of different countries in this matter. If the topic proves fruitful, it is hoped to publish the contributions.
If you are interested in submitting a paper for this session please contact:
Daire O'Rourke, National Roads Authority
Email: dorourke@nra.ie
Putting the 'Archaeology' back into 'Archaeological Science'
Organiser: Keri Brown (University of Manchester), Tamsin O’Connell (McDonald
Institute, University of Cambridge) and Felix Riede (McDonald Institute, University
of Cambridge)
A session on scientific archaeology and its implications for archaeological interpretation.
Recent years have seen an explosion in the use of what can summarily be described as scientific (chemical, biological, etc.) approaches to archaeological problems. Whilst many of these studies have reinvigorated a number of long-standing debates, they have also resulted – as Andrew Jones has pointed out – in an increasing divergence of archaeological science from the more traditional interpretative archaeology. The emergence of two ‘cultures’, a scientific one and a broadly speaking interpretative one, both with their own agendas, meetings, vocabulary, has led many traditional archaeologists to feel suspicious of the newer breed of archaeological scientists. This general atmosphere of misunderstanding and to some degree, distrust have mitigated against the widespread use of scientific evidence in archaeological interpretations.
The session’s general aim is to introduce, explain and contextualise a wide range of scientific methods to an audience of largely non-scientists. Using case studies from Europe and possibly beyond, we would like speakers to explore the ways in which particular scientific applications and data are relevant and important to mainstream archaeological practice and interpretation, from both the scientific and interpretative archaeological perspective.
If you are interested in submitting a paper for this session please contact:
Keri Brown, Manchester, UK
Email: Keri.brown@manchester.ac.uk
Chewing It Over: New Perspectives on Food and Drink
Organiser: Sarah Ralph (UK)
Keywords: Consumption, identity, complexity
What and how we consume is socially, culturally, economically and politically motivated. The consumption of different products communicates different meanings in different societies and within different social contexts. The destruction and discard of what we consume may be considered important ways in which social groups both define and create their own social relationships and identities.
Food and drink are forms of material culture and as with all archaeological materials they cannot be divorced from the social and cultural context in which they were produced, consumed and discarded. The analysis of how food and drink is processed, prepared, consumed and discarded will aid our understanding of how individual social groups view the consumption of food and drink and the basic categories of the world in which those social groups live.
The very foundations of archaeological investigations are the residues of food preparation and the consumption of that food; animal bones, pottery, plant remains (micro and macro), landscape exploitation, settlement patterns and grave goods.
Traditionally the study of food and drink has produced work largely directed towards concerns with subsistence, production and economy. Both food and drink are deeply implicated in the politics and construction of cultural and social identity and should be viewed more than just a source of nourishment. A much broader analytical arena is required.
This session will explore this theme more widely and aims to discuss new approaches and attitudes towards food and drink in order to explore a variety of questions concerning consumption as opposed to the traditional issues of subsistence, production and economy. I would hope that this session could draw on examples from wide range of regions and different time periods in order to produce a collection of papers that reveal the diversity of research into the consumption of food and drink.
If you are interested in submitting a paper for this session please contact:
Sarah Ralph, UK
Email: sr282@cam.ac.uk
Hoards from the Neolithic to the Metal Ages in Europe: technical and codified practices
Organisers: Caroline Hamon & Bénédicte T. Quilliec (France)
Throughout Europe, from the Atlantic to the Black Sea, deposition of objects in earth or water was a frequent practice during Prehistory. While some of these hoards can easily be interpreted as funeral offerings, the signification of others is still discussed today.
The signification of hoarding (tools, weapons or ornaments) generally depends on the context of their discovery : settlements, humid areas, border areas. On a broad chronological and cultural scale, from the Neolithic to the Early Iron Age, hoards show recurrent characteristics despite their diverse expressions. Examining the contexts of these deposits, such practices appear as deliberate and as codified as funerary behaviour, with a votive or symbolic meaning. The quantity of hoards, their location and their composition (selection and number of objects) certainly correspond to specific rules and social or cultural needs. Interpretations are numerous : reserve of raw material, foundation ritual, religious, social or territorial markers of identity, sacred offerings to divinities or secular people. Nonetheless, these hypotheses are comparable from one period to another. The deposit of isolated objects and the deposit of associated objects of similar or different functions (“complex” hoards) take on various expressions, apparently specific to each context. The coherence of these archaeological assemblages lies in the codification of the arrangement of objects, which follows significant rituals. Thus, how can we interpret the repetition of deposit of objects of different nature? On the contrary, what value should be attributed to similar deposits in totally distinct contexts?
Besides, the study of objects also suggests that precise, codified acts have been carried out. Thus, the deliberate or non-deliberate breakage and even destruction of objects (lithic, metal and ceramic) are widespread. The technical signification of this practice (materials used, techniques of manufacture, superficial state of the objects) must be discussed, following detailed examination of the modes of manufacture, use, re-use and recycling of objects. The act of deposit may express the need to extract an object from its “ traditional ” life cycle, in order to preserve it or, on the contrary, to destroy it partly or entirely. The precise study of the objects themselves (just shaped out, with use-wear, completely or partially destroyed) may help us re-define the signification of this practice.
In this session, we would like specialists of different periods and fields, to confront and discuss their observations. How are the technical signification and the expression of a specific ritual linked in the deposit gesture? What correlation can be made between the state of the objects and their deposit? Criteria must be defined in order to identify neglected and abandoned objects (domestic refuse, waste from workshop) and to help interpret symbolic spaces, either territorial (borderline, “doorway”) or social (settlements). How can archaeological contexts be used to differentiate these acts of deposit and how are they expressed in specific cultural or geographical contexts? Which archaeological clues can inform about the technical practices of hoards?
If you are interested in submitting a paper for this session please contact:
Caroline Hamon & Bénédicte T. Quilliec, (France)
Email: benedicte.quilliec@mae.u-paris10.fr or b.quilliec@free.fr, caroline.hamon@mae.u-paris10.fr
Deviant burial practices in the archaeological record
Organiser: Dr Eileen Murphy (Northern Ireland)
It is recognised that certain individuals in a variety of archaeological cultures from diverse time periods and geographical locations have been accorded different treatment in burial relative to other members of society. These individuals can include criminals, women who died during childbirth, unbaptised infants, people with disabilities, and supposed revenants. Such burials can be identifiable in the archaeological record from an examination of the location and external characteristics of the grave site. Furthermore, the position of the body in addition to its association with unusual grave goods can be a further feature of deviant burials. The motivation behind these often exclusionary burial practices is also diverse and can be associated with a wide variety of different social and religious beliefs. The objective of the session is to bring together researchers who have studied abnormal burials so that a clearer understanding can be gained concerning the nature of the people involved and their burial contexts within the broader social and religious beliefs of the society from which they each originated.
If you are interested in submitting a paper for this session please contact:
Dr Eileen Murphy, (Northern Ireland)
Email: eileen.murphy@qub.ac.uk
| For information, queries and registration, please contact: Ms Gina Johnson, Meeting Administrator, EAA Cork 2005, Planning Department, Cork City Council, Navigation House, Albert Quay, Cork, Ireland. Tel: +353-21-4924713 Email: eaacork2005@corkcity.ie |