TITLE

GS-5 Metal Ages

Key Words

Chalcolithic/Aeneolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Ages

Abstract

The invention of metalworking was a turning point in human prehistory that changed the course of societies forever. The harnessing of fire to work metals by means of human ingenuity, or as some would say, by feats of heroes and gods, set in motion a chain of events that altered the trajectory of human progress. The pace of transformation in human societies has accelerated ever since, and despite the many advancements and innovations of the modern world, the impact of the Metal Ages remains undeniable. To this day, their legacy continues to shape the way we live and the world we inhabit.

This general session is run jointly by the organizers of the UISPP World Congress in Timisoara and the UISPP’s ‘Metal Ages in Europe and the Mediterranean’ Commission. It provides a platform for meaningful discussion and the exchange of new ideas regarding the transformative journey of humanity, dating back to the time when fire and metal were first combined to create a new world, one of tools and weapons, but also of ornaments and symbols. Join us as we delve into the rich history of the Metal Ages and its impact on societies, from the first sparks of innovation to the eve of history.

This session, welcoming experts working on any aspect of the archaeology of the Metal Ages from around the globe, will explore a diverse range of topics spanning from technology to theory. Whether you are presenting cutting-edge research or building upon existing knowledge, it provides a valuable opportunity to exchange ideas and advance the field.

Any paper or poster relating to the Metal Ages (Chalcolithic/Aeneolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages), that does not fit into any of the thematic sessions, can still be accommodated in this general session.

Main Organiser

Dan Ștefan¹

Co-Organiser

Dirk Brandherm²

Affiliation

1. National Museum of Eastern Carpathians, Sfântu Gheorghe, Romania, danstefan00@gmail.com
2. Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK, d.brandherm@qub.ac.uk

TITLE

GS-7 Archaeological Theory and Practice

Key Words

Archaeological theory, established theories, deep learning, artificial intelligence, aDNA

Abstract

The field of archaeology lacks a single unified theoretical framework, but this is both its weakness and its strength. Instead, it is a pluralistic and eclectic field, with archaeologists using multiple and conflicting theories and methods in their work. The lack of a single theory reflects the complexity of the questions archaeology seeks to answer and the need to examine the material remains of the past from various perspectives.

This session is a platform for discussion, where new perspectives on established theories and innovative methods for studying archaeology will be presented and discussed among the authors. The focus is on exchanging ideas and fostering communication.

The session will encompass a diverse range of topics. The following list is merely a guideline and not exhaustive.

Established theories. Still relevant today?

• The importance of considering the social, economic, and symbolic dimensions of material culture in interpreting past societies.
• The use of quantitative methods to understand cultural processes and patterns. Systematic investigations of the empirical data.
• Statistical reasoning in archaeology.
• Multidimensional data analysis 50 years after
• Interpretation of data within its cultural context and recognizes the role of the archaeologist as an agent in the production of knowledge about the past.
• Understand the role of economic and social structures in shaping human behaviour and cultural change.
• The role of objects and material culture in shaping human behaviour and cultural meaning.

Archaeology on the eve of AI

• Deep Learning and the brain we would like to have. Should we be enthusiastic, or should we be afraid?
• Neural networks, the next step for big data in archaeology?
• Even more adrenaline? From deep learning (eg feature recognition in big data) to non-human-like intelligent machines (decision trees and rule-based independent systems for processing and interpreting the past)?

A spectre is haunting archaeology – aDNA. Do some studies about ancient DNA have the potential to give birth to a new Cultural-Historical Archaeology?

Main Organiser

Dan Ștefan¹

Co-Organiser

François Djindjian² 

Affiliation

1. National Museum of Eastern Carpathians, Sfântu Gheorghe, Romania
2. Université de Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris, France

TITLE

S1-1 Untold stories. "Marginal" scholars and/or intellectual movements in the history of archaeology

Key Words

History of archaeology, scholars, marginality

Abstract

Boucher de Perthes, Pigorini, Montelius, Childe....our histories of archaeology are dominated by this giants of the discipline and from their main intellectual affiliations (evolutionism, cultural-historical approach, New Archaeology and so on). Ezra Zubrow in a paper on the international trends of theoretical archaeology (Norwegian Archaeological Review 1980) wrote that the ship of archaeology doesn't need only helmsmen but also good sailors. The session is devoted to the life and works of these "minor" scholars or to the less debated theoretical movements in our discipline.

Main Organiser

Alessandro Guidi¹

Affiliation:

1. Roma Tre University, Rome, Italy

TITLE

S1-2 History of the History of Archaeology: between Archaeologists' and Historians' Concerns. Figures, Trends, and Perspectives

Key Words

history of archaeology, history of science, historiography

Abstract

Since several decades, historians and sociologists of science scrutinize the history of science as a practice. Loren R. Graham et al., for example, investigated the “Functions and Uses of Disciplinary Histories” in their eponymous edited book (1983). Writing the history of archaeological research, and prehistoric archaeology in particular, has a long history too. It raised the interest of several archaeologists in the early 20th century, such as James Reid Moir, in his paper about the “Position of Prehistoric Research in England” (1917), and Léon Aufrère, with his “Essay on the first discoveries by Boucher de Perthes and the origins of primitive archaeology” (1936, in French). This long-term concern of archaeologists for the writing of the history of their field has continuous occurrences until today, as illustrated by Glyn Daniels' introduction on the “Necessity for an Historical Approach to Archaeology” (1981), Douglas R. Givens' “Short History of the Bulletin of the History of Archaeology” (2002), and Tim Murray's paper addressing “Why the History of Archaeology is Essential to Theoretical Archaeology” (2013). These few references demonstrate, first, the relevance of investigating who are the writers of disciplinary histories and what are the uses of these histories and, second, archaeologists' concern to this regard. This session is intended to strengthen these studies from the case of archaeology. Proposals may relate to, but are not limited to, these topics:

• the status of the history of archaeology as a discipline, sub-discipline, informal network, etc.
• publishing aspects of in the history of archaeology: bibliometrical studies, history of related publishing houses or journals, etc.;
• biographical case-studies about prominent or poorly-known historians of archaeology;
• tension between the global and national dimensions in the practice of history of archaeology; * styles and theoretical trends in the history of archaeology;
• past and current places of the history of archaeology in university trainings in archaeology; etc.

Main Organiser

Sébastien Plutniak¹

Affiliation

1. CITERES, University of Tours, France

TITLE

S2-1 Interdisciplinary studies on earthen architecture

Key Words

earthen construction, microarchaeology, domestic/monumental space, ethnoarchaeology, technology, environment, sustainability, non-Western standards

Abstract

The aim of this session is to increase interdisciplinarity in the analysis of earthen construction in archaeology, private or public, modest or monumental. We look for examples not only from archaeology (building sequence and systems), but also from micromorphology (of soils, surfaces and building materials), palaeobotany, analytical techniques in physics and chemistry, studies of mechanical properties, etc. We will also draw upon ethnographic studies of traditional vernacular earthen architecture, to observe the viability and survival of some techniques and structures, with the purpose of comparing and understanding architectural solutions that we find archaeologically. An interdisciplinary approach will help us to interpret both the technological knowledge and the motivations of pre- and protohistoric societies that built with earth in different ecological and cultural environments. An interdisciplinary approach is particularly relevant, as recurrently archaeological and ethnographical studies have shown the existence of architectural solutions, in terms of technology or spatial logic, considered inappropriate according to modern construction standards and conventions. With all these examples, we aim to highlight the importance of earthen architecture at the global level, to approach the differences between vernacular and monumental architecture in their cultural setting, past and present, as well as to understand the construction processes at archaeological sites.

Main Organiser

Marta Mateu¹

Co-Organiser

Annick Daneels²

Affiliation

1. Catalan Institute of Classical Archaeology (ICAC), Tarragona, Spain
2. Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico

TITLE

S2-2 Open-air, open issues: processes, preservation and potential of open-air prehistoric archaeological contexts in arid lands

Key Words

Arid lands; prehistory; open-air contexts; territorial investigation; site preservation

Abstract

Arid lands are characterized by eroded landscapes where Quaternary archaeological archives are overly rare. The construction of long multiproxy sequences has traditionally seen strong investments in caves and shelters, privileged contexts for the preservation of sedimentary successions with organic and inorganic remains as paleoenvironmental and cultural proxies. This caused a severe bias for the understanding of regional land use strategies and paleoenvironmental evolution in open-air palimpsests, especially in areas where the record is mostly made of deflated surfaces and incoherent sediments. Nevertheless, open-air sites bear potential for revealing archaeological horizons and associated palaeoenvironmental records even in poorly preserved landscapes. Their identification, analysis and interpretation, however, requires ad-hoc strategies for addressing peculiar patterns of formation processes and preservation constraints. The session prompts discussion on the approaches to open-air stratified contexts in arid lands, in particular by tackling issues like the relationship between the physical and environmental features of the areas being investigated and preservation potential; the role and interdependence of remote sensing and field research; the most effective methodologies for intensive investigation and excavation; the contribution provided by such contexts for territorial analyses; the means to mitigate environmental and human threats also for dissemination purposes.

Main Organiser

Martina Di Matteo¹

Co-Organisers

Emanuele Cancellieri¹

Stefano Costanzo²

Rocco Rotunno¹

Affiliation

Department of Ancient World Studies Sapienza University of Rome, Italy

Department of Asia, Africa and Mediterraneo, Università degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale”, Italy

TITLE

S3-1 Using Past Landscapes for Sustainable Futures: Contributions from archaeological and archaeogeographical landscape research to planning practices and environmental issues

Key Words

Landscape ; Sustainibility ; Planning ; Heritages ; Environment

Abstract

Over time, the choices and actions of past societies have shaped the environments we inhabit today. Consequently, we have inherited landscapes that are full of legacies which offer potential but also pose severe constraints or risks to planning projects or simply to day-life (for example floods because of former river embankment). Only by collecting information and gathering knowledge about the history of our landscapes and the organization of our environments can we avoid making wrong or unnecessary planning decisions in the future? For years, archeologists and archaeogeographers have studied how landscapes have been shaped in distinct socio-cultural and environmental contexts. They have demonstrated that it is possible to recognize and analyze the heritages which shape the places we inhabit and give areas their identity from different perspectives. Landscape research therefore represents a powerful and diverse scientific contribution to questions and concerns addressed to contemporary planners: adaptation of environments and landscapes to climate change, prevention of water-related risks, sustainable land (-use), urban, and environmental planning strategies, landscape and heritage enhancement, etc. Ultimately, landscape research enables the production of narratives that help decision-makers to understand how much legacies of the past contextualize the present and guide the future. The objective of such narratives is not to argue that each heritage must be preserved. Rather, explaining how landscape and environmental memories and heritage function can help to formulate informed, balanced, and responsible decisions and guidelines that are based on evidence and understanding of the temporal dynamics of landscape formation to generate tomorrow’s resilient, equitable, and ultimately sustainable landscapes. This session aims to bring together landscape researchers from various countries to compare methods, results, observations, and share experiences about the contributions their work (can) make(s) to the concerns of sustainable planning. We would particularly like to explore (asserting) the relevance of knowledge and knowledge transfers about past landscapes to better address planning challenges in the present. Presentations that combine several disciplines (e.g. archaeology, landscape architecture, ecology, urban studies, planning, agronomy, environmental studies, geography, and anthropology) will be encouraged.

Organiser

Philippe FAJON¹

Co-Organiser

Magali WATTEAUX²

Affiliation:

1. Ministère de la Culture, France
2. Université Rennes 2, France

TITLE

S4-1 What’s new in (Paleo)anthropology? – Methodology, concepts and discoveries

Key Words

Anthropology, Paleoanthropology, Bioarchaeology, Methodological approaches, funerary practices, ancient DNA, forensic anthropology

Abstract

The study of the biological aspect of past populations is in constant development and implementation, through the improvement, application, or adaptation of methodologies and most of all by the discovery of new human remains. It is worst noticing that, in recent decades, technological advances in biological anthropology have allowed us to clear some aspects of human evolution and migration. In this context, the UISPP commission “Biological Anthropology” proposes a session that embraces all the anthropological fields of study to maximize the participation of anthropologists from different horizons to stimulate debates and arouse curiosity. In this broad range of topics, a special focus will be given to anthropological studies of Europe’s prehistoric populations and migrations from the first peopling until the most recent time. In this sense, we highly encourage graduate students and junior researchers to present their current research to update the anthropologists’ community about what is going on in the anthropological sciences.

Main Organiser

Julie Arnaud¹

Co-Organisers

Dominique Grimaud-Hervé²

Carlos Lorenzo³

Antonio Profico⁴

Affiliation

1. Università di Ferrara, Italy
2. Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France
3. Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain
4. Università di Pisa, Italy

TITLE

S4-2 Looking through the keyhole: molecular archaeology in Balkan prehistory and protohistory

Key Words

stable and radiogenic isotopes, radiocarbon, ancient DNA, residual analysis, ZooMS, XRF

Abstract

The molecular analysis of archaeological remains has got a lot of attention during the last decade. 14C dating is the best-known technique, the first that allowed obtaining an absolute chronology of the archaeological remains. Further on, the analysis of stable isotopes has made it possible to get closer to the ways of life in prehistory and protohistory, both in terms of diets and mobility, and to gain a deeper understanding of the ecosystems of the past. Another major contribution in the last years came from the analysis of food residues in ceramics, which are highly contributing to reconstructing the diets of the past and so, the relationship of ancient human populations with food resources. The development of ZooMS (zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry) has provided a new technique for species identification based on collagen fingerprint, which is especially helpful when working with highly fragmented and/or altered remains, which cannot be classified based on morphological analysis. Besides proteins, the analysis of ancient DNA has truly revolutionised the study of archaeology. The development of new DNA extraction and sequencing techniques has made it possible to obtain complete genomes from prehistoric remains, which are crucial to understanding key events in past human populations, such as the nature of the transition from Mesolithic to Neolithic societies, or the physical aspect of people that lived thousands of years ago. Regarding the inorganic archaeological remains, radiogenic isotopes or XRF (X-ray fluorescence), allow tracking of the raw materials sources of metallic, stone or ceramic artefacts. The Balkans is strategically located as a natural passage between Anatolia, Europe and the Eurasian steppe. This strategic location gives it a particular interest in terms of how and when new populations have arrived in the area, what innovations in animal and plant management, or objects and materials they have brought, or whether local humans have been mixed or replaced. Our session deliberately focuses on molecular techniques on organic or inorganic remains collected from Southeaster Europe archaeological sites. We invite papers related to aDNA, stable and radiogenic isotopes, 14C, residual analysis, ZooMS, XRF, or other molecular methods, to set up the molecular profiles of prehistoric and protohistoric humans, artefacts or ecofacts from the targeted area.

Main Organiser

Ana García-Vázquez¹

Co-Organisers

Robert Tykot²

Gloria González-Fortes³

Cǎtǎlin Lazar¹

Affiliation

1. ArchaeoScience Division, Research Institute of the University of Bucharest (ICUB), University of Bucharest, Romania
2. Departament of Anthropology, University of South Florida, USA
3. University Institute of Geology (IUX), University of A Coruña, Spain

TITLE

S5-1 Understanding connections between mines and other archaeological contexts

Key Words

Flint mining in Pre- and Protohistoric Times, flint, mines distribution

Abstract

Understanding connections between mines and other archaeological contexts, procurement of flint, radiolarite and other extracted raw materials was an important economic asset and played a significant socio-cultural role amongst Pre- and Protohistoric societies. The attractiveness of raw and processed material from subterranean resources is illustrated by their long distance distribution, along with the variety of archaeological contexts they are recovered from, including settlements, burials, pits, caches, enclosures, etc.

How to interpret the discovery of those elements within various archaeological contexts and sites? Moreover, how could the discoveries of domestic or mortuary items in the vicinity of the mining site allow archaeologists to identify and characterize the communities involved in the extraction or processing of raw materials? Regarding the two previous topics, how to use the local and distribution data to interpret the social, cultural, economic, or territorial landscape of past societies without an overreliance on comparative ethnography?

The organizers wish to broaden the discussed topics to all types of knappable rocks and very early metal (i.e.: copper) during Pre- and Protohistory dependent that:

• The focus is put on the identification of communities involved in the extraction and/or processing of underground resources.
• The focus is put on the interpretation of the same category of artefacts found in various contexts.

Main Organiser

Jean-Philippe COLLIN¹

Co-organisers

Dagmara H. WERRA²

Jon BACZKOWSKI³

Affiliation:

1. Université Libre de Bruxelles, CReA-Patrimoine, UMR 8215 Trajectoires, Belgium
2. Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
3. Institute of Archaeology, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń, Poland

TITLE

S6-1 Smoothing, Smoothed and Smoothers

Key Words

technology, osseous technology, usewear, functional analysis, bone tools

Abstract

The terms smoothing, smoothed and smoother are applied to various traces, activities and tools observed and reconstructed in archaeological research. Smoothing may be understood as an activity by which a medium is transformed as a result of decrease or homogenization of surface roughness, and smoothed is often used as a descriptor to refer to such transformation. In addition, smoothers are one typological category of bone tools that exhibit distinct morphological traits linked to the act of smoothing. However, these ideas are seemingly over entangled. Is a smoother a tool which is used for smoothing another medium such as animal skin and ceramic, or is it distinguished only based on its smoothed characteristic? Does a smoother have to be smoothed prior to its utilization for smoothing, or is that feature a result of the smoothing actions or activities? Furthermore, which tool categories are involved with smoothing action and how can we define them? In this session, we would like to explore how these terms are currently defined and disentangle their use pattern to better understand how and why smoothing was achieved, how smoothed objects were transformed, and how the category of smoothers may be understood with a focus on techniques and function. Contributions can include work on osseous tools as well as other objects such as ceramics, ground stone tools and grinding implements, to explore a holistic approach to the subject on a micro- and macro-scale.

Main Organiser

Keiko Kitagawa¹

Co-organiser:

Robin Andrews²

Affiliation:

1. Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
2. University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

TITLE

S6-2 Traceology and its interdisciplinary approach to the analysis of wear traces and residues for understanding the evolution of human capacities

Key Words

Traceology, use-wear analysis, residue analysis, human behaviour, prehistoric technology

Abstract

Traceology is one of the fields in archaeology that has been designed in an interdisciplinary way. With the interplay of microscopic, experimental, and ethnographic methods, it attempted since its inception in the 1930s to go beyond a solely typological approach to prehistoric artefacts and to give tools made of stone, bone and antler, hitherto regarded predominantly as "index fossils" for a relative chronology, an active role in the reconstruction and assessment of human behaviour, cognition and evolution. Traceology and the study of prehistoric tool functions and technologies is a rather complex task which requires the transdisciplinary interaction of different methods and fields in addition to the archaeological approach, such as microscopy, fracture mechanics, materials science, tribology, chemistry, environmental sciences, ethnography, and experimental archaeology, among others. Traceology is an encompassing research system based on a detailed data and information pool that enables the analyst to identify and interpret wear patterns, residues, and other surface alterations on artefacts. This ‘traceological reference collection’ is mainly supplied by experiments using tool replicas that imitate prehistoric working activities as realistically as possible as well as execute mechanical, automated processes under defined and monitored parameters.

Complemented by archaeological accounts, ethnographic observations and technical knowledge, this experimental framework is crucial for the reconstruction of prehistoric tool uses and human behavioural responses to changing environments. Although traceological analysis appears to be a straightforward method, its usefulness for the recognition of past human behaviour and human-environment interaction still depends on the understanding of tool use and mechanical processes as well as the research experience of the analyst. Optical microscopy using reflected-light and stereomicroscopes continues to be the methodological backbone of Traceology. In addition, technological innovations in microscopy and material analysis have been introduced in recent years, attempting to overcome specific problems and to achieve better results, among them scanning electron microscopy, laser or white light confocal microscopy, X-ray microanalysis, vibrational techniques as Raman and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, GC-tandem MS, and more to use-wear and residue analysis.

The UISPP Commission A17, 'Functional Studies of Prehistoric Artifacts and their Socio-economical Meaning', invites traceologists and archaeologists who work in the interdisciplinary field of microwear and residue analysis to present their latest research and the application of new techniques and instruments to contribute to the methodological debate, and to bring prehistoric tool uses in context with technological advancement, subsistence strategies and adaptation to different environments.

Main Organiser

Alfred Pawlik¹

Co-Organisers

Riczar Fuentes¹

Natalia Skakun²

Vera Terekhina²

Belén Márquez³

Andreu Ollé⁴

Laura Longo⁵

Affiliation:

1. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ateneo de Manila University, Quezon City, Philippines
2. Institute for the Material Culture History, Russian Academy of Sciences, St.Petersburg
3. Museo Arqueológico Regional de la Comunidad de Madrid, Spain
4. Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social / Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Spain
5. DAIS, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Italy

TITLE

S7-1 Archaeometry of prehistoric and protohistoric stone, metal, ceramics and glass

Key Words

archaeometry, stone, metal, ceramics, glass, pigments

Abstract

The UISPP Commission for archaeometry presents a proposal for a session covering all aspects of analytical approaches applied to the study of archaeological finds of stone, metal, ceramics and glass. Materials of all periods from Prehistory to the medieval protohistoric cultures and civilizations will be taken into consideration. Special attention will be given to the quality of analytical performances. Special cases on how general problems concerning the various materials can be solved by applying diverse analytical methodologies, case studies on ancient quarries, the production of stone artifacts from various contexts, researches on mining, analyses of smelting remains, metal finds, metal workshop remains, ceramics of all kinds and periods, and researches on glass production, glass workshops, glass/glazed objects, coloring of glass/glaze and pigment will be collected and presented in different sections. A further aim of this session is to share the latest results and experiences that can provide useful information, the comparison of several methods and technologies, and the possibilities of standardization of test and database protocols.

Main Organiser

Béla Török¹

Co-Organisers

Alessandra Giumlia-Mair²

Mohammadamin Emami³

Affiliation

1. Institute of Metallurgy, University of Miskolc, Hungary
2. AGM-Archeoanalisi, Merano, Bolzano, Italy
3. Department of Conservation of Cultural Properties and Archaeometry, Art University of Isfahan, Iran

TITLE

S8-1 Lower Palaeolithic all around the world: only Oldowan and Acheulean?

Key Words

Lower Palaeolithic, Cultures

Abstract

The Lower Paleolithic, while covering an extremely long-time span and large areas in Africa and Eurasia, is usually reduced to two main cultures: Oldowan and Acheulean (Mode 1 and Mode 2). Moreover, most of the features characterizing the Oldowan persist unchanged during the Acheulean. From a chronological point of view, the pathways appear to be heterogeneous for both cultures, and from a paleoanthropological point of view, multiple hominins are associated with similar cultures, and different cultures are associated with the same hominin. In such a fragmented context and, for some periods and geographic areas, often supported by a limited number of archaeological sites, can we define the Oldowan and Acheulean as cultural traditions or techno-complexes? Furthermore, if we define culture as "the complex of manifestations of the material, social, and spiritual life of a population" to what extent can we consider lithic industries to reflect the "complex of manifestations of material life"?

The session "LOWER PALAEOLITHIC ALL AROUND THE WORLD: ONLY OLDOWAN AND ACHEULEAN?" aims to highlight the different aspects of the Lower Paleolithic lithic complexes, highlighting all the peculiarities and peculiarities that characterized a very long-time span (about 3 million years).

Main Organiser:

Marta Arzarello¹

Co-Organiser:

Marie-Hélène Moncel²

Affiliation:

1. Università di Ferrara, Italy
2. Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle de Paris, France

TITLE

S8-2 Lithic-based approaches to understand site formation processes, economy, and technological behaviours during Palaeolithic

Key Words

Lithic technology, Use-wear analysis, Taphonomy, Raw materials provisioning, Palaeolithic

Abstract

The aim of the session is to present interdisciplinary and comprehensive studies of Palaeolithic lithic assemblages. The results obtained from different disciplines focusing on lithics allow to have a quite clear image of the modalities of site frequentation, of the exploitation of the natural environment, of the activities completed in the site and of the post depositional processes that affected the lithic assemblage. The identification of the supply areas of lithic raw materials (both primary and secondary deposits) is a key element to determine land mobility and to eventually distinguish between short-range movements linked to subsistence activities during the periods of site frequentation, and long-range movements eventually linked to seasonal displacements. The technological study gives many information concerning the aims of lithic production, the technological investment, the presence in the assemblage of tecno-typological categories eventually referring to the production and use of mobile toolkits, the use of technological expedient or adaptation to the raw materials available, etc. Functional studies are fundamental to recognize the activities carried out during the human frequentation of a site and strongly contribute to the general interpretation of a Palaeolithic context. Finally, the identification, through an accurate taphonomic study, of the post depositional processes that affected a lithic assemblage is pivotal to gain a reliable interpretation of the site under study. Through the different contributions, this section wants to emphasize how an interdisciplinary approach to lithic studies leads to understand the variability of settlement dynamics and technological organization and can strongly contribute to the identification and better definition of site formation processes.

Main Organiser

Gabriele L.F. Berruti¹

Co-Organiser

Sara Daffara¹

Correspondence email:

1. Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Università degli Studi di Ferrara, Italy

TITLE

S8-3 “Simple but not simplistic”: Discussion on Bipolar Technology from different perspectives

Key Words

Bipolar technique, lithic, ethnography, ethnoarchaeology, Pleistocene

Abstract

Erret Callahan (1987) defined bipolar reduction as a type of rectilinear knapping involving a core between a hammer and an anvil, with the force oriented directly into the anvil rather than obliquely away from it. Bipolar knapping has been reported as a reduction or retouch strategy in different parts of the world from the Early Stone Age up to the 20th century. Even if in the last two decades its definition, description, and the confusion with wedges and chisels have attracted debate on lithic analyses, its identification, either as a knapping method or a knapping technique, still poses difficulties and is a source of controversy amongst many lithic analysts. In lithic technology studies, bipolar knapping has often been associated with a lack of ability in the knapping capabilities of hominins. Following this pejorative vision of this type of knapping, bipolar knapping has sometimes been associated with females or children by those that consider it as a simplistic way of knapping with low skill requirements. However, ethnographic studies, past and present, are helping to break down this negative perception of bipolar technology. Between the 1970s and 1980s, important ethnographic studies were conducted in North America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania that clearly demonstrated the complexity and variability of this type of lithic strategy and dismantled disparaging views and simplistic gender and age associations. The different types of applications of this knapping method or technique have already proved that it is not as simple a strategy as one might think, and it can even demand a notable knowledge of raw materials and rock mechanics. Some analysts have suggested that the lack of predetermination needed and ease involved in producing bipolar blanks is an indicator of an intelligent expedient lithic strategy to get the most out of raw materials. Thus, as Callahan proposed decades ago, it is simple but not simplistic. Besides the technological interpretation of this type of reduction, consideration should also be given to the social and cultural aspects associated with it, attested in many ethnographic works. In light of all of these aspects and issues, the bipolar technique still offers a set of unresolved controversies for Pleistocene and Holocene archaeology. Numerous experiments have been conducted in the last two decades towards the identification of this type of reduction and to clarify the confusion with intermediate pieces. Perhaps the challenge in the coming years is to decipher the variability associated with it and the economic and social implications of this technological choice. In short, the variation associated with bipolar reduction still has to be described and unpacked. Our session focuses on the bipolar technique in archaeological contexts incorporating lithic technology, ethnographic perspectives through archaeological analysis, methodological studies, and experimental work. Our aim is to evaluate and discuss the concept of bipolar knapping with regard to multiple approaches. In our session, all avenues within the framework of the bipolar phenomenon will be considered.

Reference

Callahan, E., 1987. An Evaluation of the Lithic Technology in Middle Sweden During the Mesolithic and Neolithic. Aun 8. Societas Archaeologica Upsaliensis. Uppsala, Sweden. 72 pp. 97 figs. ISBN 91-506-0623-9.

Main Organiser

Görkem Cenk Yeşilova¹

Co-Organiser

Paloma de la Peña²

Andreu Ollé¹

Josep Maria Vergès¹

Shixia Yang³

Affiliation:

1. Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES-CERCA); Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Dept. d’Història i Història de l’Art, Tarragona, Spain
2. Departamento de Prehistoria y Arqueología, Universidad de Granada, Spain; McDonald Institute of Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom; Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
3. Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; Center for Excellence in Life and Palaeoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.

TITLE

S8-4 Stone Age engineering techniques and their implication for understanding Neanderthals and early Homo sapiens

Key Words

Stone heat treatment; Adhesive making; reddening of ochre; Cognitive archaeology; Archaeometry

Abstract

Research into human uniqueness is gaining increasing importance in prehistoric archaeology. Arguably the most striking behaviour unique to early and modern humans is that they used fire to transform the properties of materials. In archaeology, these processes are sometimes termed “engineering” or “transformative techniques” because they aim at producing materials with altered properties. Early engineering may even have been the key factor that separated early humans, such as Neanderthals and early Homo sapiens, from other hominins. However, research on such techniques is still rare and only sporadic data on isolated artefacts are known. This scarcity is rooted in the analytical difficulties imposed by the material leftovers associated with transformative techniques. This session will host talks and presentations of new findings related to such techniques. The three best-known Stone Age transformative techniques, stone heat treatment; glue making; and colour enhancement of pigments, constitute the main focus of the session. But the session is open to presentations on all kinds of engineering techniques in the world and from different periods. This large-scale approach may provide a comprehensive dataset on how these techniques were invented and conducted, discuss new analytical tools and allow to understand the role of technical processes for cultural evolution.

Main Organiser

Patrick Schmidt¹

Affiliation:

1. Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, University of Tübingen, Germany

TITLE

S8-5 Shape and Beats: Combining technology and computational shape analysis of studying the variability of Large Cutting Tools

Key Words

Middle Pleistocene, Acheulean, Large Cutting Tools, Handaxes, Technology, Geometric Morphometric, Shape, Variability

ABSTRACT

The emergence of the Acheulean is one of the major transitions in human evolution and the appearance of its iconic large cutting tools such as handaxes and cleavers, is considered as reflecting a major revolution in many cognitive and behavioural aspects of Early Pleistocene hominins. Nevertheless, the different criteria on which their typological classification is based remain vague and have varied substantially with time and between the different schools corresponding to the significant morphological variability exhibited by these tools across time and space.

Shape is recognised as one of the most important attributes of stone tools, forming the basis for typological, technological and functional reasoning. Nevertheless, its 3-dimensional, complex and irregular nature renders its quantitative description and analysis challenging and non-trivial. In the last decades, the proliferation of 3D digital scanning technologies supported a new computational approach to the analysis of archaeological artefacts. This, in turn, gave rise to numerous methods and tools which now allow to quantitatively characterise, analyse and compare assemblages of stone tools in terms of their shapes.

This session aims to provide a venue for presenting recent studies of Large Cutting Tools applying a combination of classical lithic technology with a computational approach to shape analysis, to discuss:

1. the concept of variability, searching for its sources, limits and consequences;
2. the pros and cons inherent to the use of new avant-garde techniques in the study of the Middle Pleistocene industries;
3. best practice in the combination of qualitative and quantitative research approaches, such as technological and computational shape analysis of stone tools.

Main Organiser

Paula García-Medrano¹

Co-Organisers

Gadi Herzlinger²

Marie-Hélène Moncel³

Affiliation

1. Institut Català de Paleocologia Humana i Evolució Social, Tarragona, Spain
2. Institut of Archaeology. Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
3. Departement Homme et Environnement. Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France

TITLE

S8-6 Discontinuity, Recycling and Unclassified pieces within knapping processes during the Lower and Middle Paleolithic.

Key Words

Knapping processes – Chaînes opératoires – Mobility – Lower Palaeolithic - Middle Paleolithic - Recycling

Abstract

The fragmented character of lithic reduction processes during the Lower and Middle Paleolithic is attested on numerous sites, especially for this latter period (Turq et al., 2013). The presence of discontinuous knapping processes in the archaeological record may be induced by mobility patterns, but not only. In the same way, some pieces can fulfill several functions, whether for economic or cultural purposes. This session aims to discuss on which forms the discontinuity exists in the lithic record and their possible causes, in various geographical contexts. We wish to make a particular focus on the artefact which does not always match into a single box (tool/core, core/hammer etc.). In that context this session aims also to discuss recycling phenomenon and secondary uses of artefacts. The idea is to think about the lithic assemblage sometimes outside a strict typology corresponding to prehistorians and not to prehistoric populations. These issues can be addressed through raw materials management (spatio-temporal and techno-economical processes; import, discard and export events), reduction sequences organization (management of chaînes opératoires within a site -simple, ramified etc.) or tool-use (techno-functional studies). The presentations from this session will help us to consider some of the adaptive choices made by hominins, and to determine which part is cultural, functional or economic.

Main Organiser

Cyrielle Mathias¹

Co-Organisers

Laurence Bourguignon²

María Gema Chacón³

Affiliation:

1. Tel-Aviv University-UMR 7194 HNHP
2. INRAP - UMR 7041 ArScAn AnTET
3. IPHES - URV - UMR 7194 HNHP

TITLE

S8-7 Characterizing changing technology, subsistence and settlement dynamics of the Middle Stone Age and Middle Paleolithic

Abstract

The Middle Stone Age (MSA) and Middle Paleolithic correspond to the time in which modern humans evolved in Africa and began to disperse across Eurasia. While some researchers highlight the differences between late archaic and early modern hominins, other emphasize the broad similarities in their technological adaptations, subsistence strategies and settlement dynamics. This session addresses regional and site-specific case studies to examine and contextualize cultural change and variability during the late Middle and Late Pleistocene, when modern and archaic humans coexisted, at times interbred and likely exchanged knowledge and ideas along the changing interfaces of their territories. The session asks what, if any meaningful differences in technology, subsistence and settlement dynamics distinguished the diverse populations that inhabited the regions of Africa and Eurasia by inviting research to present informative regional and site-based case studies that highlight cultural stasis, continuity as well as subtle and more radical change on different temporal and spatial scale. Papers highlighting new approaches for examining the causes and consequences of social-economic change during the MSA and Middle Paleolithic are particularly welcome.

Main Organiser

Nicholas J. Conard¹

Co-Organiser

1. Gema Chacón²

Affiliation:

1. Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Germany
2. IPHES - URV - UMR 7194 HNHP

TITLE

S8-8 Multidisciplinary data for updating interpretations of discoidal technology in the framework of late Pleistocene hominin behavior

Key Words

Discoid; Lithic technology; Mousterian; Integrated approach; Neanderthal; Modern Humans; Techno-complex

Abstract

Questions of behavioral complexity amongst Neanderthals and other Late Pleistocene hominins have been the subject of a decades-long debate, constantly informed and revised following new discoveries or the application of novel or cutting-edge methodological approaches. One of the most typical technological expressions of this period is the Discoid method, whose presence for some distinguishes a clear Middle Palaeolithic techno-complex. However, while discoidal technology is now generally well defined, the behavioral and techno-economic dynamics as well as ecological circumstances underlying the development and spread of this technology remain less well understood. Especially prevalent during the late Middle Palaeolithic, discoidal technology is found across western and southern Europe. It can be exclusive in some assemblages or co-occur with other methods, namely Levallois, or be associated with bifacial shaping. Products typical of discoidal reduction are now equally well-defined, although data concerning their function, transformation, transport or potential hafting remains limited. Furthermore, chronological aspects and subsistence data are still patchy and geographically biased, especially in some areas of southern Europe and the Balkans, where discoidal technology is well attested. Thirty-years after E. Boëda (1993) first defined the discoid concept in the context of Middle Palaeolithic assemblages, and 20 years on from the papers included in the volume edited by Peresani (2003), which aimed to refine the definition of discoidal technology and explore its technological and chrono-cultural variability, it is time for a multidisciplinary update of discoidal technology. The goal of this session is to bring together researchers working in Palaeolithic contexts where discoidal technology is present, either exclusively or associated with other reduction methods. Understanding the nature, distribution and spread of this production method is key to addressing techno-economic and functional questions as well as exploring social aspects, including cultural transmission and learning. Increasing contextual information, especially social and functional elements, is needed to reconstruct multiple aspects of ancient human behaviour. As such, this session should interest researchers focusing on multiple aspects of discoidal lithic technology, including use-wear analysis, subsistence practices, raw material transfers and cultural transmission.

Main Organiser

Davide Delpiano¹

Co-Organisers

Brad Gravina^2,3

Marco Peresani^1,4

Affiliation

1. Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Sezione di Scienze Preistoriche e Antropologiche, Università degli Studi di Ferrara, Corso Ercole I d’Este, 32, 44121, Ferrara, Italy
2. Musée National de Préhistoire, 1 rue du Musée, 24620 Les Eyzies, France
3. PACEA, UMR 5199, CNRS, Université de Bordeaux, Ministère de la Culture, F-33600 Pessac, France
4. Istituto di Ingegneria Ambientale e Geoingegneria, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Piazza della Scienza 1, 20126 Milano, Italy

TITLE

S8-9 Late Quaternary rhinoceroses and associated fauna in geological or archaeological context in Europe.

Key words

Rhinoceroses, human-animal relation, environment, Paleolithic

Abstract

The session will focus on reviewing the current state of knowledge regarding fossil rhinoceroses (Stephanorhinus hemitoechus, Stephanorhinus kirchbergensis, Coelodonta antiquitatis) in Europe and Asia from the Late Pleistocene and the early/mid-Holocene (MIS 5e–MIS 1). Evidence of the presence of rhinoceroses should be presented in terms of their response to palaeoenvironmental changes, and of the geological or archaeological context in which their remains were found. We are thus looking for contributions dealing with potential morphotypes that have arisen in response to environmental variability, and geographic or chronological patterns in specific countries or European region, using morphometry and dating respectively as methodological approaches. Submissions demonstrating human impact on these rhinoceros species, especially with regard to extinction, will be highly appreciated. In turn, results of genetic studies showing genetic diversity within the species and estimated population size will also greatly enhance the discussion about fossil rhinoceroses.

Main Organiser

Kamilla Pawłowska¹

Co-Organiser

Luca Pandolfi²

Affiliation

1. Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań
2. Università della Basilicata

TITLE

S9-1 Middle Paleolithic bifaces from the Caucasus to the Rhine

Key Words

Middle Paleolithic, bifacial tools

Abstract

It was in 1967 when Gerhard Bosinski published his first extensive summary on Middle Palaeolithic bifaces in Central Europe: Die mittelpaläolitischen Funde im Westlichen Mitteleuropa, proposing the spatial and chronological division of the identified types of asymmetric bifaces. For the last 55 years, the proposed divisions have been challenged with different approaches and methods. Geometric-morphometric approaches and statistical analyses gave a better insight into the coherence of the assemblages as well as their crucial traits. Use-wear analyses, including the controlled experiments, let us better understand the functional aspect of the bifaces. Raw material analyses let us understand some aspects of typological diversity. The technological and techno-functional approach gave ground for identifying the general structure of the tools as well as understanding their chaîne opératoire process. Besides the considerable potential of the mentioned methods, the in-depth nature of the analytical procedures prevails from obtaining generalised views on the given topic. Therefore, 55 years later, we can get into the individual biographies of single bifacial artefacts, but we still miss the generalised view of their geographical diversity in Central and Southern Europe. By organising the session, we aim to discuss the current state of the art towards the geographical diversity of the Middle Palaeolithic bifaces from the Caucasus to the Rhine. We would like to invite all papers presenting the specific assemblages but also those trying to find more general trends between sites and regions. We invite papers on Middle Palaeolithic bifacial tools analyses from multiple perspectives, including use-wear analyses and typological and technological approaches. We are open to papers related to the specific sites and methods and those focussed on general questions, including the terminology or typological divisions.

Main Organiser

Árpád Ringer

Co-Organiser

Małgorzata Kot

Affiliation:

1. University of Miskolc, Hungary
2. University of Warsaw, Poland

TITLE

S10-1 Archaeology in Banat

Key Words

Banat, Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age, Latène

Abstract

The archaeological research of the Banat region refers to a long tradition. Early milestones of publication, already around 1900, were the works of Felix Milleker and Gyula Kisléghi Nagy. Due to the First World War, the geographical Banat was divided into the present-day countries of Romania, Serbia and Hungary. Nevertheless, substantial archaeological work was carried out in the interwar period and during the socialist era. It was only with the opening of the political borders after the fall of communism in 1989, however, that completely new opportunities for large-scale cross-border research arose. Due to the geographical position of the Banat, it is a transit-region for peoples and cultures, and is extremely rich in prehistoric remains, starting with important Middle Palaeolithic sites. Along the Danube-corridor and its tributary rivers, one important immigration route of modern humans into Europe during the Upper Palaeolithic is attested, delivering important Aurignacian sites and early remains of modern humans. In the early Holocene, Mesolithic hunter-gatherers populated this region, constructing settlements like Lepinski Vir. From the beginning of sedentariness, the first Neolithic settlements appear in flood-free areas, which were also visited repeatedly in later times, either to resettle or to bury the dead. Numerous burial mounds are still visible landmarks in the flat landscape. In close proximity to the ore deposits of the Balkan-Carpathian region, very early finds of copper and gold objects are also evident in the Banat. The burials of the Copper Age are conspicuously richly furnished. During the Bronze Age, large-scale fortifications were built in the landscape, which are among the largest in European prehistory. These form important focal points in archaeological research. With a separate session, we want to outline the state of research in this European area. Where does archaeological research stand now and what are the future perspectives of research in this region?

Main Organiser

Andrei Bălărie¹

Co-Organisers

Ewa Dutkiewicz²

Andrei Georgescu¹

Bernhard Heeb²

Raiko Krauß³

Correspondence email:

1. Muzeul Național al Banatului, Timişoara, Romania
2. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Germany
3. Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Germany

TITLE

S10-2 Current research on the Upper Palaeolithic of Eurasia

Key Words

Upper Palaeolithic, Eurasia, new discoveries, archaeological excavations, chronology, climate, environment, technical behavior, artistic manifestations

Abstract

New discoveries and the large number of recent research results on the Upper Palaeolithic in Eurasia demand an integrated approach that allows correlation and comparison of data over large areas. Substantial contributions have been made regarding multiple aspects, e.g chronology and dynamics of occupations, climate, environment, technical behaviour, artistic manifestations, etc., and all of these require a framework for updating and discussing new information. This session aims to integrate and synthesize the last results of archaeological excavations in reference sites, recently discovered sites, scientific advances, datings, models and interpretations that are contributing to go further with our knowledge of the Eurasian Upper Palaeolithic. Furthermore, regional syntheses and comparisons between sites are welcome. The session will be organized within Commission 8 «Upper Palaeolithic of Eurasia» of the UISPP.

Main Organizer:

Elena-Cristina Nițu¹

Co-Organisers:

Roxana Dobrescu²

Marco Peresani³ 

Konstantin N. Gavrilov⁴

Paul B. Pettitt⁵

Marcel Otte⁶

Ovidiu Cîrstina¹

Affiliation

1. “Princely Court” National Museum Târgovişte, Dâmboviţa County, Romania
2. “Vasile Pârvan” Institute of Archaeology, Romanian Academy, Bucharest, Romania
3. University of Ferrara, Department of Humanities, Section of Prehistoric and Anthropological Sciences, Ferrara, Italy
4. Institute of Archaeology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
5. Durham University, Department of Archaeology, United Kingdom.
6. Professeur émérite de Préhistoire, Université de Liège; Président de la Commission «Paléolithique Supérieur d’Eurasie », UISPP

 TITLE

Upper Paleolithic portable art in Europe

Key Words

Upper Paleolithic, portable art, Europe, symbolic behavior, technology, use-wear analysis, synthesis.

Abstract

Comprising a wide variety of forms and being made of diverse raw materials (stone, bone, antler, ivory, clay), the importance of art objects in understanding the origin of symbolic behavior and the evolution of the cognitive abilities of hunter-gatherer communities is highly recognized. In the last decades, the number of discoveries has increased, which allowed the filling of some gaps in areas where they were not frequent. In addition, artefacts from older collections, thanks to new study techniques such as high-resolution microscopy, benefited from fresh approaches. Because dating techniques and analysis methods have considerably evolved, besides the description of objects, in the frame of this session we will also focus on interdisciplinary contributions. To have a broader view of symbolic behavior, synthesis studies focused on different regions, chronological contexts or diverse categories of objects are welcome.

Main Organiser:

Lioudmila Iakovleva¹

Co-Organizers:

Martin Oliva²,

Elena-Cristina Nițu³,

Sergey Lev⁴

Affiliation

1. Institute of Archaeology, National Academy of Science of Ukraine, Kiev and CNRS UMR7041 ARscan;
2. Institute of Archaeology, Czech Academy of Science, Prague, Czech Republic;
3. “Princely Court” National Museum Târgovişte, Dâmboviţa County, Romania;
4. Institute of Archaeology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia;

TITLE

S11-1 Continuity, variations, and replacement? Lithic techno-functional traditions and population movements during the Final Palaeolithic in Northern Eurasia

Key Words

Late Glacial, lithic technology, functional studies, tradition, genetic flow

Abstract

The cyclic glaciations of the Northern Hemisphere resulted in a number of dramatic climatic changes that significantly impacted human occupations in the Northern part of Eurasia. It was only around the onset of the Late Glacial (Greenland Interstadial 1; ca. 15000 BP) that groups of hunter-gatherers began to continuously inhabit extensive regions of the North European Plain. People living in such a dynamic environment adapt and develop different strategies to survive, i.e. subsistence, mobility, and social. These subsistence strategies had very different environmental and geographic ranges varying from reindeer hunting in tundra conditions to elk and small fauna hunting in birch forests. As far as we know, all of the hunter-gatherer societies during the Late Glacial in northern Europe used lithic tools as part of their toolkits, and these were produced using techniques displaying not only cross-cultural but also regional differences within the same culture. The session aims to contribute to the ongoing discussion of continuity and change within the techno-functional traditions of Late Glacial Northern Eurasian communities in relation to recent palaeo-genetic studies. We are especially interested in: • Final Palaeolithic lithic techno-functional diversity and traditions • the relationship between cultural and genetic continuity, modification, and replacement • the scale and resolution of integration of assemblage, site, or region with other datasets (genetics, isotopes, dating, etc.).

Main Organiser

Iwona Sobkowiak-Tabaka¹

Co-Organisers

Katsuhiro Sano²

William Mills³

Katarzyna Pyżewicz⁴

Mara-Julia Weber³

Affiliation

1. Faculty of Archaeology, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland
2. Center for Northeast Asian Studies, Tohoku University, Japan
3. Stiftung Schleswig-Holsteinische Landesmuseen, Schleswig, Germany
4. Faculty of Archaeology, Warsaw University, Warsaw, Poland

TITLE

S12-1 Chalcolithisation

KEY WORDS

Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Chalcolithization, metallurgy, social hierarchies, fortifications, exchanges, sanctuaries, trajectories, concepts, chronology, Mediterranean, Europe

ABSTRACT

While the term still sometimes designates the development of copper metallurgy alone, it is most often associated with a much broader phenomenon of significant changes in Neolithic societies in terms of the development of social hierarchies, fortifications, trade networks, sanctuaries etc. between the 5th and the 3rd millennium according to the regions of Europe and the Mediterranean. Today, however, this Chalcolithisation does not seem to correspond to a stage of systematic evolution. It would rather be scenarios, different and more or less rapid trajectories depending on the regions, their history, their relationships. At the same time, Neolithic archeology is increasingly pushing back the dating of certain practices in certain regions. The proposed session aims to explore what is called Chalcolithisation in different regions and to compare the concepts to collectively draw some lessons.

Main Organiser

Olivier Lemercier¹

Affiliation

1. Université Paul Valéry – Montpellier 3, UMR 5140 ASM, LabEx Archimede, France

TITLE

S12-2 Dynamics of Neolithisation in the Banat and Neighboring Areas

Abstract

The central geographical position of the Banat region between Central and South-Eastern Europe, about halfway between the Black Sea and the Adriatic, makes it an important area across European cultural history. The very flat landscape framed by mountains is characterised by meandering river courses and very fertile soils, which were an important resource for the oldest farmers in Europe. The Banat is of great importance for the spread of the Neolithic from Anatolia and the Aegean to Central Europe. The Balkan type Old Neolithic was already able to spread into this area by the end of the 7th millennium BC. After that, the process of further expansion into Northern Europe stagnated for half a millennium. The reasons for this were certainly manifold and are to be understood as a creative process. At the end of this development stands the genesis of the Linearbandkeramik (LBK), which enabled the Neolithic to spread as far as the Paris Basin and the Ukrainian steppes, and in the north almost to the southern edge of the Baltic Sea. Parallel to this expansion to the north, we record social differentiations in Southeast Europe that culminate in the formation of the Vinča cultural phenomenon. In recent years, interdisciplinary archaeological research has added various facets to the picture of the spread of the Neolithic in the Banat. Genetic studies on human and animal remains of the period shed new light on the actors in this process. New sets of radiocarbon dates obtained in recent years and advances in statistical modelling of data including information from archaeolgical contexts, offer for the first time precise information of the temporal dynamics of Neolithisation. This session provides a forum for current research on the Neolithic in the Banat and neighbouring regions.

Main Organizer:

Raiko Krauß¹

Co-Organisers:

Nenad Tasić²

Dan Ciobotaru³ 

Affiliation

1. “Eberhard Karls” University of Tübingen, Germany.
2. University of Belgrade, Republic of Serbia.
3. National Museum of the Banat, Timişoara, Romania.

TITLE

S12-3 Cucuteni-Trypillia in context: interdisciplinary approaches to the chalcolithic lifeways

Abstract

The Cucuteni-Trypillia cultural complex represents the north-eastern outskirts of ‘Old Europe’. The expand of these cultural traditions from Olt, Siret, Prut and Dniester river valleys to the north and east, up to the eastern bank of Dnipro, reflects the dynamics of agrarian colonization of the Eastern Europe. Extending the earlier note of Volodymyr Kruts, a few thousand sites dated in the range of c. 5000-3000 BC, including the widely known ‘mega-sites’ or ‘giant-settlements’ – the largest settlements of Prehistoric Europe, became a laboratory for testing various demographic, economic and socio-political models. Success of these studies is made possible by integrating data from different fields of science and developing interdisciplinary approaches.

This session aims to discuss the current advances in interdisciplinary studies of the Cucuteni-Trypillia sites and their contribution to our understanding of the Chalcolithic lifeways. Contributions integrating data and ideas from different fields are highly welcome!

Main Organizer:

Constantin Preoteasa¹ 

Co-Organisers:

Aleksandr Diachenko²

Affiliation

1. Neamț National Museum Complex, Cucuteni Culture International Research Centre, Cucuteni Eneolithic Art Museum „Gheorghe Dumitroaia”, Piatra-Neamț, Romania.
2. National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Archaeology, Kyiv, Ukraine.

TITLE

S13-1 Violence and society in the Metal Ages. An interdisciplinary overview of the emergence of warrior societies between human, social and natural sciences

Key Words

Warrior societies, metal ages, human sciences, social sciences, natural sciences

Abstract

From later prehistoric societies, organized violence between human groups not only evidences new intergroup relationship dynamics, but also marked changes in the social structure, peopling strategy, land occupation, technology and symbolic expressions of new beliefs within human groups. In the Chalcolithic, and the Bronze and Iron Ages, with the emergence of social ranking and the expansion of a new set of tasks and individuals dedicated to combat, emerging ruling elites develop new profiles, social functions and ideological systems; with the need to consolidate power over a territory and defend it, new forms of settlement and hierarchization between settlements are born; with the refinement of metallurgical techniques a specialization in the production of weapons has a large development; with the need to look for an ideology that justifies the power of the new ruling classes, a new symbolism pervades funerary objects, mobile and rock art, as well as sites and landscapes design. Within these dynamics aims at contributions primarily addressing the following questions: 1) relations between endogenous and intercultural processes; 2) processual differences across different but interrelated regions; 3) to what extend did those processes take place in a uniform or diverse way among human societies in different moments and with different social structures (from more simple to, complex, chiefdoms or other, models)? The thematic session primarily addresses site/region based research, namely recent projects, engaging strong interdisciplinary teams, in light of the integration of the humanities and social sciences, also the natural and hard sciences. Contributions from the world of archaeology, anthropology, sociology and sciences applied to archaeology such as geographic information and archaeometry are welcome.

Main Organiser:

Fernando Coimbra¹

Co-Organisers:

Davide Delfino²

Luixz Oosterbeek³

Affiliation:

1. Museum of Prehistoric Art of Mação, Polytechnic Institute of Tomar, Geosciences Centre of Coimbra University, Coimbra, Portugal
2. Geociences Centre of University of Coimbra- Land and Memory Institute; Ministry of Culture/Regional Direction of Museum for Molise, Portugal
3. Museum of Prehistoric Art of Mação, Polytechnic Institute of Tomar, Geosciences Centre of Coimbra University, Portugal

TITLE

S13-2 Interdisciplinarity in Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeometallurgy

Key Words

Interdisciplinarity, Archaeometallurgy, mines, workshops, metals, objects, dates

Abstract

Archaeometallurgy is one of the fields that has best benefited from interdisciplinarity. Research aimed at studying the origin of metals, the identification of old mines, the dating of ancient extractions, the circulation of metallic materials and the identification of the techniques used and that of production workshops have thus use of various tools and methods borrowed from other sciences. In addition to field archaeology, these studies require cross-cutting approaches that draw on space archaeology, cultural archaeology, experimental archaeology, elementary and isotopic chemistry or even the analysis of artifact manufacturing stigmas, on a macroscopic and microscopic scale. Thus, the joint work of archaeologists, geologists, geochemists, geophysicists, statisticians, geomaticians has proved fertile in developing new approaches for the study of mining and metal remains. The objective of this session is to show fruitful collaborations of various specialties in this particular and pilot field of interdisciplinarity in Prehistory and Protohistory.

Main Organisers

Romain Bussone¹

Co-Organisers

Olivier Lemercier¹

Franck Suméra²

Affiliation

1. Université Paul Valéry – Montpellier 3, UMR 5140 ASM, LabEx Archimede, France
2. Aix Marseille Université, CNRS, Ministère de la Culture, CCJ, Aix-en-Provence, France.

TITLE

S13-3 Crafts and Craftsmanship in the Metal Ages

KEY WORDS

Metal Ages, crafts, craftsmanship, transformation and development, metallurgy, chronology, technology, archaeometry

ABSTRACT

André Leroi-Gourhan used to say that “civilization stands on the craftsman”. Through time, crafts and craftsmanship have always been an essential part of human life and the foundation of civilizations. They offer us a view of the technological and artistic level of each society and give us the opportunity to understand their social organization. For this session, we would like to invite scholars dealing with craftsmanship to share their research. Aiming to discover other traditions and create discussion around the topic, the session will cover a broad geographical and chronological range from the Mediterranean to Northern Europe and from the Copper Age to the Roman period. The session will be divided into three different themes. The first theme will address traditional archaeological studies, such as chronological issues or technological as well as artistic aspects. The second theme will focus on archaeometric aspects. The scope of processed materials to be considered is deliberately broad and can include: metal, ceramics, stone, glass, wood, amber, etc. Another key intention is to focus on natural resources and their availability, such as material deposits or resources needed for craftsmanship, but also the ecological relations with the environment. The third theme will focus on getting a more comprehensive picture of craftsmanship and its impact on the organisation of societies. This can include questions such as the place of craftsmen in society, the identification of social groups but also operational sequences, or the functioning of trade networks. The main goals of the session are to present new research data on chronological, technological, and artistic aspects as well as facilitating a forum for comparisons between Mediterranean and continental European craftsmanship. Along with the research on natural resources and social and economic backgrounds, the focus will be on the transformation and development of crafts and craftsmanship through the Metal Ages.

Main Organiser

Florian Mauthner¹

Co-Organisers

Linda Boutoille²

Heide Wrobel Nørgaard³

Lucia Ruano⁴

Affiliation

1. ASIST & Burgmuseum Archeo Norico, Austria
2. Queens University Belfast, Northern Ireland
3. Moesgaard Museum, Denmark
4. Complutense University Madrid, Spain

TITLE

S13-4 Plant species included in the diet of Bronze Age communities in the Carphatian Basin

Key Words

plant species, cultivation, diet, Bronze Age, Carhathian Basins

Abstract

In this section we propose to debate which were the plant species discovered by researchers in the archaeological sites belonging to the Bronze Age in the area of the Carpathian basin. Plant species perform a crucial role in the economic life of past civilizations due to the importance of human dietary needs. As revealed by archaeobotanical analyses, there were changes in the diet of communities during the Bronze Age. Several cereal species go secondary, while others become intensely cultivated. However, these changes do not appear suddenly, but gradually, so that only from the middle Bronze Age can we speak about an obvious change of the cultivated species. Due to the remarkable advances of the Bronze Age societies and spectacular transformation of the way of life, the specialists dealing with this period name it: The first golden age of Europe. But if we talk in terms of diet, archaeobotanists call the change in the evolution of the food as the Third food revolution because the new species included in the human daily diet from Bronze Age changed remarkable the way of alimentation of those societies.

Main Organiser

Beatrice Ciuta¹

Correspondence email:

1. „1 Decembrie 1918” University, Alba Iulia, Romania

TITLE

S13-5 Archaeology of food during Bronze and Iron Age in Europe and Mediterranean area

KEY WORDS

human diet, Bronze Age, Iron Age, archaeology, Europe

ABSTRACT

In this section we aim to approach a very important topic in our evolution as a species: food. Over time, a series of methods and disciplines have tried to contribute to the elucidation of this subject. Therefore, any research issue that can provide information and data related to food production and consumption during Bronze and Iron Age finds its place in the Archaeology of Food section. We will address topics regarding the plant exploitation, animal husbandry and any modern investigation that have contributed to the elucidation of these themes.

Main Organiser

Beatrice Ciuta¹

Co-Organiser

Georgeta El Susi²

Affiliation

1. “1 Decembrie 1918” University, Alba Iulia, Romania
2. Institute of Archaeology and Art History, Cluj Napoca, Romania

TITLE

S14-2 Ethnographic analogy and the African Middle Stone Age archaeological record: re-assessing potentials and pitfalls

Key Words

Ethnography; Pleistocene; Early Stone Age; Middle Stone Age; Africa

Abstract

Ever since the concept of a deep human past rose to widespread scientific acceptance in the 1800s, ethnographic and anthropological data have been considered important tools for understanding and interpreting the prehistoric archaeological record. Severe criticism of the fallacious and dangerous belief of modern hunter-gatherers as “human living fossils” – an idea particularly prevalent in the early 20th Century – was levelled against this approach, from which emerged the more mature consideration of ethnographic data as a potentially powerful source of testable hypotheses, when considered with appropriate caution.

In Africa, the 1960s-1970s witnessed intense debate over the relevance of ethnographic observations and models to the Early Stone Age (ESA), the settled result being that the earliest archaeological traces, especially those predating c.1.8 Ma, are better understood through reference to primate rather than modern human analogues. As it was recognized in the 1980s that the Middle Stone Age (MSA) record (c.0.4 – 0.04Ma) is the source of the behaviour of Homo sapiens and its immediate precursors, ethnographic parallels found an important new niche. With current archaeological evidence now pushing back the appearance of some characteristic MSA behaviours into the late Acheulean/Early Pleistocene, it is worth revisiting where the potentials and limits of ethnographic approaches to the African Stone Age lie.

This session explores the limits and potentials of ethnographic analogy for understanding and interpreting African Stone Age archaeological contexts and early human behaviours, including how these approaches have been conceived of and applied differently in the last few decades. How far back in time can ethnographic observations and datasets be meaningfully applied in Africa? Does the applicability of ethnographic analogy vary between social, economic, and technological spheres of Early and Middle Stone Age behaviours? And, how does ecology impact the applicability of modern observations? We welcome papers focusing on the interpretation of multi-stranded archaeological datasets, lithic and organic technologies, wider socio-cultural and economic factors, and site formation processes - among others – and particularly encourage case studies highlighting the power and potential pitfalls of ethnographic data use in the African ESA-MSA.

Main Organiser

Marianna Fusco¹

Co-Organisers

Nicholas Taylor²

Affiliation

1. Sapienza University of Rome, Italy; University Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain
2. Turkana Basin Institute, Nairobi, Kenya; Turkana University College Lodwar

TITLE

Mortuary Practices and Human Sacrifice in Prehistory and Protohistory in Eurasia

KEY WORDS

Funerary monuments, social identities, religious beliefs, cultural strategies, human sacrifice

Abstract

The study of mortuary practices and of human sacrifices provides valuable insights into the social, cultural, and religious beliefs of past societies since the beginning of the humankind. Funerary monuments and the vestiges which can be linked with the practice of human sacrifice may reveal aspects concerning the social structure and religious beliefs of communities, but also the cultural strategies and agency of individuals or groups, applied in shaping their identity or enforcing power relations.

During the session, we will examine a wide range of funerary discoveries - from the period of 5th - 1st millennia BC - and across the vast territory between the Pacific and the Atlantic. The discussion will highlight both common and unique aspects of mortuary beliefs, practices, and mentalities among the civilizations of Eurasia during this time period. In addition to classical approaches, the session will examine the role of human sacrifices in relation to mortuary practices and how these were used to express religious beliefs and cultural customs. Our goal is to deepen our understanding of the intricate relationships between society, religion, and culture through the study of mortuary practices and human sacrifices.

Topics of the proposed communication and of the expected discussion may include, but are not limited to:

• The role of mortuary practices and human sacrifice in constructing social identities and power relations,
• The significance of mortuary rituals and human sacrifice in religious beliefs and practices,
• The examination of specific regions and cultures in prehistory and protohistory in Eurasia where human sacrifice was practiced,
• The impact of environmental and ecological factors on mortuary practices and human sacrifice,
• Revisits and reinterpretations of seminal old funerary and human sacrifices findings in search of new light on the ways in which individuals and communities exercised agency in the past, providing a deeper understanding of the complex relationships between society, religion, and culture.

Authors who wish to present findings on funerary monuments and/or evidence of human sacrifices from other geographical regions (Africa, Americas, Asia-Pacific) are encouraged to approach their topics through a comparative study with similar discoveries from Eurasia.

Main Organiser

Valeriu Sîrbu¹

Co-Organisers

Cristian Schuster¹

Dan Ștefan²

Maria-Magdalena Ștefan³

Călin Șuteu⁴

Affiliation

1.”Vasile Pârvan” Institute of Archaeology Bucharest (Romania)

2. National Museum of Eastern Carpathians, Sfântu Gheorghe, Romania
3. National History Museum, Bucharest, Romania
4. ”1 Decembrie 1918” University, Alba Iulia, Romania.

TITLE

S15-2 Re-Examining Mortuary Practices and Human Sacrifice through Interdisciplinary Advances

KEY WORDS

Mortuary archaeology; sacrifices; interdisciplinarity; cross-disciplinary developments.

Abstract

The field of mortuary archaeology has a long and rich history, with many studies focused on understanding the social, cultural, and religious aspects of death and disposal of the dead. However, recent interdisciplinary advances, particularly in the fields of biology, ancient DNA (aDNA), isotope analysis, statistical reasoning, remote sensing and artificial intelligence, have opened up new avenues of inquiry and revealed new perspectives on our understanding of mortuary archaeology and sacrifices.

In this session, we would like to bring together archaeologists and experts from various disciplines, including anthropology, history, and science, to explore the latest developments in interdisciplinary research and to re-examine our understanding of mortuary archaeology and sacrifices.

The following list serves as a suggestion for the topics covered in the communications and discussions, not as a limiting factor.

• The use of ancient DNA analysis to identify human remains and trace population movements.
• The application of isotope analysis in reconstructing diets and mobility patterns.
• The integration of statistical reasoning to improve our understanding of mortuary practices, sacrifices, and rituals.
• The utilization of remote sensing techniques for 3D reconstruction, augmented reality and precise recording of funerary and sacrificial contexts.
• The potential impact of artificial intelligence on revolutionizing our approach to mortuary archaeology.

This session aims to promote interdisciplinary dialogue and inspire new ideas for future research in the field. Additionally, we propose to explore how our understanding of social, cultural, and religious beliefs and practices surrounding death and the afterlife evolves in the context of the technologically developing world.

We strongly encourage authors to investigate exciting new topics that are inspired by the recent cross-disciplinary advances.

Main Organiser

Dan Ștefan ¹

Co-Organisers

Valeriu Sîrbu²

Maria-Magdalena Ștefan³

Affiliation

1. National Museum of Eastern Carpathians, Sfântu Gheorghe, Romania
2. ”Vasile Pârvan” Institute of Archaeology Bucharest (Romania)
3. National History Museum, Bucharest, Romania

TITLE

S15-3 Contextualising the Prehistoric Exploitation and Exchange of Minerals in Southeast and Central Europe

Key Words

Mining and use, salt, amber, non-ferrous metals, cultural impact, metal ages

Abstract

During Later Prehistory, some minerals like salt, non-ferrous metals and amber, previously little known and of minor significancy, have become of great symbolic and/or material value. Central and South-Eastern Europe are quite rich in the sources of these minerals, which are unevenly distributed both in the region and around the world. Archaeological research has shown a consistent exploitation and use of these minerals from the Neolithic to the Early Iron Age. Moreover, the activity of some production centres was quite complex, large-scaled and aimed at long-distance exchange.

On the one hand, the high complexity and large scale of production and consumption required considerable material and logistical resources, as well as high social complexity and the capacity to control resources and organize production chains and exchange networks. On the other hand, such production and exchange must have needed high-potential receivers, able to give in return for the goods received some benefits, be it various goods, services, protection or patronage, etc.

Of course, the contexts were different in each case, and so the activities were different and followed different trajectories. Nevertheless, the procurement, handling and transformation of mineral resources will always draw economic and social consequences. They are dependent on socio-economic, technological and environmental context, on the power bodies, and, in some cases, on the religious background.

The aim of the session is to debate the available and predictable data that can shed light on the economic, social, political, and religious background to the exploitation, use, and trade of valuable minerals and their derivatives during Later Prehistory. The organizers would be pleased if the session could provide an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary framework for the debates focused on the mentioned themes. Approaches regarding the following topics are particularly welcome:

- provenance of the mineral resources;

- the landscape of salt occurrences;

- paleomineralogy, mining and paleometalurgy;

- geoarchaeology;

- ethnogeology;

- paleoeconomics;

- paleoreligion;

- paleosociology.

Main Organiser

Valerii Kavruk¹

Co-Organiser

Roxana Munteanu²

Affiliation

1. National Museum of Eastern Carpathians, Sfântu Gheorghe, Romania
2. Buzău County Museum, Buzău, Romania

TITLE

S16-1 Coastal, Underwater and Wetland Archeology

Key Words

Coastal Archaeology; Underwater Archaeology; Wetland Archaeology; Recent Prehistory; Protohistory; Ancient Prehistory;

Abstract

Environmental and climate changes, Work Methodologies, Registration Techniques, Case Studies of Sites, Management and Sustainability in the relationship with the public, Preservation and Enhancement, Conservation of objects, environments and structures. All these themes are considered relevant in the understanding of the occupation of the human past in regions or coastal zones, in the understanding human relationship with these areas, their resources and explorations, as well as with the current sites that, due to environmental or climatic changes, are now found in humid or submerged environments. This reflection is relevant for a careful look at the past, but also for finding strategies that will allow us to trace a path of study, interpretation, management and future experience.

Main Organiser

Alexandra Figueiredo¹

Affiliation:

1. University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

TITLE

S17-1 Multi-faceted Pyroarchaeology: from environmental to cultural proxies

Key Words

Pyroarchaeology, Pyrotechnology, Archaeological Sciences, Experimental Archaeology, Ethnoarchaeology

Abstract

As fire is multi-functional, pyroarchaeology is multi-faceted. Pyroarchaeological research encompasses both natural as well as archaeological fire, while we recognise the latter and its traces as artifacts. The field relies on a large variety of methods to obtain environmental and behavioral proxies informing us on technology, diet, cultural activities and settlement patterns. For example, occupation intensity or fuel choice are some of the proxies that can be obtained by studying fire and their residues. Their analysis can reveal cultural choices or environmental restrictions and variability. This session will be open to contributions from the multiple disciplines concerned with the study of ancient fire, whether these studies provide behavioral or environmental information, or focus on the evolution of different uses of fire, from the origins of fire use to its application in more complex technological innovations. The session is not limited to the analysis of archaeological materials; experimental approaches and contributions from ethnography or ethnoarchaeology are also welcome. We also welcome contributions on pyrotechnology and its cognitive, cultural and social implications; the multiplication of the uses of fire with time comes with a growing impact of fire as part of the human technical repertoire. We encourage the presentation of papers about new approaches to overcome the difficulties related to the characterization of ancient anthropogenic fires.

Main Organiser

Mareike C Stahlschmidt¹

Co-Organisers

Christoper E. Miller²

Ségolène Vandevelde³

Carolina Mallol⁴

Affiliation:

1. University of Vienna, Austria
2. University of Tübingen, Germany
3. Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, Canada
4. La Laguna University, Spain

TITLE

S17-2 Studies on diachronic and synchronic fire use patterns

Key Words

pyroarchaeology, fire use, spatial distribution, temporality, synchronicity or diachronicity of fire events

Abstract

Investigating the use of fire in the deep past can be approached through a combination of geoarchaeological and multidisciplinary methods, including the examination of archaeological hearths and combustion residues. Analyses of fuel and hearth types can provide insights into past fire use, while the study of combustion residues at different scales can shed light on both the nature of activities that took place on the occupation surfaces marked by hearths and their temporality. Archaeological combustion residues such as charcoal, micro-charcoal, and soot can be used to study the use of fire over time (such as the timing and frequency of single or multiple occupation events). Additionally, the spatial distribution of hearths in relation to other archaeological remains can offer information about single occupation events. The magnetic properties of hearths can also be examined to provide temperature data and aid in the estimation of time intervals between different hearths. By combining these data with stratigraphically associated remains, we can gain a deeper understanding of behavioral patterns and changes over time. In this session, we invite talks presenting the theoretical, methodological, or applied studies involving the investigation of archaeological fire and its components as an avenue to approach anthropogenic fire use with an emphasis on the distinction between synchronic and diachronic contexts.

Main Organiser

Carolina Mallol

Co-Organiser

Ségolène Vandevelde

Mareike Stahlschmidt

Christopher Miller

TITLE

S18-1 Prehistoric art studies in North Africa and Sahara at the beginning of the 21st Century. Contributions from Interdisciplinary Research Approaches

Key Words

Rock art; Mobiliary art; Personal adornments; North Africa; Sahara; Final Pleistocene; Holocene; Interdisciplinary approaches

Abstract

Prehistoric art (mobiliary, parietal, personal adornments) in North Africa and the Sahara, from the Atlantic to the Red Sea, is a fundamental field of research as it has the potential to reveal the symbolic and intellectual component of prehistoric groups, which are indispensable to a comprehensive reconstruction of the lifestyle of ancient societies. The developments in field research that have facilitated major advancements in the study of economics, environmental and chronological reconstructions have also proven to be of great value to investigations involving prehistoric art. Indeed, the study and analysis of this class of archaeological evidence can also benefit greatly from the application of innovative interdisciplinary approaches. In this sense, scholars are proceeding on a dual path. On the one hand, we can assist with an increasingly careful analysis of the artistic production, which allows identification of representations of elements connected with the real world (tools, dwellings, landscape elements), socio-economic activities (hunting, fishing, gathering, herding, feasting, conflicts), and elements related to the symbolic activities, as known from the excavations. On the other hand, technological approaches aimed at better analysing manufacturing techniques and pigment components, together with more advanced dating techniques, new tracing and documenting methods (e.g., photogrammetry and laser scanning), and development of tools for image enhancement, enrich the available documentation, and open new perspectives for prehistoric art interpretation.

The main goal of this session is to encourage dialogue and exchange among scholars involved in prehistoric art research in the regions from Mediterranean and Atlantic Africa, the Sahara, the Nile Valley, and the Red Sea coast, from the Final Pleistocene to Holocene. We particularly welcome the participation of colleagues working on technology, landscape-rock art sites nexus (i.e., the relationship human groups-landscape-artistic production), systematic reviews or newly discovered sites characterised by the presence of art productions.

Main Organiser

Barbara E. Barich

Co-Organisers

Lotfi Belhouchet

Christian Dupuy

Giulio Lucarini

Dario Sigari

Affiliation

1. Sapienza Foundation, Rome; ISMEO, Rome, Italy
2. INP, Tunis
3. CNRS-UMR 8171 IMAF, Paris, France
4. ISPC-CNR, Rome; University of Naples L’Orientale, Naples, Italy
5. CNRS-UMR 5608 TRACES, Toulouse, France; ISPC-CNR, Rome, Italy

TITLE

S18-2 Challenges of satellite remote sensing applications in detecting and interpreting prehistoric contexts in Saharan North Africa

KEY WORDS

Remote Sensing; North Africa; Sahara; Holocene; Satellite Imagery; Computer Science; Landscape Archaeology

ABSTRACT

Satellite remote sensing studies have been successfully and widely applied in various archaeological and paleo-environmental contexts to analyze historical landscapes, detect sites, and monitor the human impact on endangered heritage areas. The research has focused on “easy-to-spot” elements and phenomena: visible architectonic features and infrastructures (monuments, forts, limes, settlements, routes, dams, water channels, excavated paths, and quarries); major natural evolutions of regional topography, hydrography, climate, and the related biosphere; and significant modern human disturbances (rapid expansion of intensive agriculture and farming, industrial development and modern infrastructures, destruction and looting caused by political instability, wars, and illegal activities). Satellite-based approaches to detect and analyze the ephemeral evidence of prehistoric archaeological sites are less common and more challenging. Small temporary encampments, hunting traps, long and short-distance trails, and hotspots of recurrently exploited natural resources are some traces left by non-sedentary cultures that are very tough to spot from an orbital perspective. However, recent studies have successfully investigated these remains by applying manual and automatic workflows to high-resolution multisensory and multitemporal satellite images. The benefit of these applications to prehistoric studies in North Africa exceeds the methodological advancements of these techniques in the remote sensing field. During the Holocene, many cultures of the Saharan region, from the Atlantic to the Nile Valley, maintained subsistence strategies based on a mixed economy of gathering natural resources and pastoral practices, showing non-sedentary mobility patterns for millennia. The vast areas inhabited by these groups and their intricate dynamics of displacement represent tremendous obstacles to interpreting their way of life. Consequently, the results of these approaches in this archaeological framework can open multiple new lines of investigation into exceptionally fragile and elusive phenomena, allowing us to question and correct many established models of prehistoric behavior. This session will include papers focused on using satellite remote sensing data and computer workflows to interpret the Holocenic landscapes of Saharan North Africa.

The topics of interest for this session are:

• Archaeological and environmental prehistoric contexts in the Sahara;
• Dedicated databases of information for satellite image interpretation;
• Passive and active (including SAR) multitemporal satellite imagery;
• Single sources or multilayered composites of satellite images;
• Remote sensing and machine learning-based approaches;
• Local and cloud platforms for image processing;
• Graphical filters, combination algorithms, and spectral indices;
• Manual, automatic, and semi-automatic approaches for the classification and analyses of satellite imagery;
• Spatial and distribution analyses;
• Computer workflows and research protocols;
• Quantity, quality, and interpretation of the results.

Main Organiser

Alessia Brucato¹

Co-Organisers

Nicola Masini²

Giulio Lucarini²

Affiliation

1. Department of Humanistic Research and Innovation, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Italy; Institute of Heritage Science, National Research Council of Italy
2. Institute of Heritage Science, National Research Council of Italy

TITLE

S14-1 Raw material acquisition, trade and exploitation in North Africa and Sahara during Prehistory: The contribution of archaeological science to the study of lithic and ceramic assemblages

Key Words

North Africa, Sahara, Archaeological science, Archaeometry, lithics, ceramics, Prehistory

Abstract

Within the study of prehistoric material cultures, investigations focused on raw material exploitation demonstrate an enormous potential to shed new light on the interaction between past societies and their environment. In addition, these studies help us to reconstruct the biography of archaeological artefacts made from different types of materials. Raw material acquisition, trade and exploitation are the expression not only of ecological adaptive strategies, but also of technological knowledge and cultural traditions. Therefore, their study is fundamental for a better understanding of the internal dynamics and external connections that catalysed the formation of various cultural phenomena. An interdisciplinary approach merging archaeology, geology, archaeometry and geography has proven to be a powerful tool that helps to increase the accuracy of data deriving from techno-typological studies. It provides us with a better understanding of the potential sources, patterns of knowledge transmission, and distribution of the raw materials exploited, either by a single group or as part of a larger trade network. Like in other regions of the world, these approaches have recently experienced a steady increase in their application to prehistoric material cultures from North Africa and from the Sahara. Our session focusses on lithics and ceramics, two of the most common materials found in the archaeological record of this part of the world. It aims to prompt a much-needed discussion within this field of study in this region. The timespan considered is the late Middle Pleistocene up to the Mid Holocene, while the area taken into consideration covers the Atlantic and the Red Sea coast, as well as the Mediterranean Africa, the Saharan regions, and the Nile Valley. The goal of this session is to encourage discussions about:

• The analytical methods used in characterizing archaeological artefacts (geochemistry, petrography, mineralogy, optical and electron microscopy, spectroscopy, isotopic analyses, etc.);
• The dynamics between the sourcing, selection, and exploitation of the raw material from a geographical, social and chronological perspective;
• Supply strategies connected with exchange networks and mobility patterns;
• The impact of the mutual influence between natural and cultural landscape on the exploitation strategies of the raw materials;
• The changes/continuities derived from the exploitation of the sources through time.

Main Organiser

Adelaide Marsilio¹

Co-Organisers

Silvia Amicone²

Donatella Barca³

Mohamed A. Hamdan⁴

Giulio Lucarini⁵

Affiliation:

1. Department of Humanistic Research and Innovation, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Italy; Institute of Heritage Science, National Research Council of Italy
2. Archaeometry Research Group, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Germany; Institute of Archaeology, University College London, UK
3. Department of Biology, Ecology and Earth Science, University of Calabria, Italy
4. Geology Department, Cairo University, Egypt
5. Institute of Heritage Science, National Research Council of Italy; Department of Asian, African and Mediterranean Studies, University of Naples L’Orientale, Italy

TITLE

S19-1 The Nile valley and West Africa between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic periods

Key Words

Cultural exchange, Nile valley, Sahara, Sudan, West Africa

Abstract

The Nile Valley had been closely related to the Western Desert and the adjacent areas of the Maghreb and Libya in the west and the Sudan in the south. This session will look at the possible interaction between the Nile Valley and West Africa. Since Paleolithic times the Western desert and the Sudan had multiple cultural exchanges and movements of people with the Nile Valley. These interactions could be explained in terms of the diverse environmental changes affecting the whole region. These changes created new opportunities for the development and transformation in food production strategies and the subsequent symbiosis of the areas in question. As in many types of interaction, if environmental changes affected the geomorphology of North Africa and the Sahara regions, creating new possibilities for the flora, fauna and humans, the physiology of the environment was also affected by changes in human living conditions in the region. As demonstrated by pictorial and ceramic evidence, also the Nile Valley might have had some type of interaction, cultural or economic exchange, with the West African region bordering the Atlantic Ocean. The aim of this session is to examine this evidence found by archaeologists during excavations in present day Sierra Leone.

Main Organiser

Alicia Meza¹

Affiliation

1. Independent Scholar

TITLE

S20-1 In the light of resilience and innovation - human responses to the Last Glacial Maximum in Central and Southeast Europe

Key Words

Last Glacial Maximum, Central and Southeast Europe, resilience and innovation, technology, economy and subsistence

Abstract

It is commonly accepted that the Last Glacial Maximum had severe environmental impacts and resulted in major latitudinal and elevational shifts of species ranges and ecosystems demanding adequate behavioral and cultural responses by hunter-gatherer communities and eventually human populations. Hitherto unclear, however, is the precise sequence of events together with accurate chronometric placement, which is indispensable, together with more objective typo-technological descriptions, for the understanding of these responses on an inter-site and interregional scale. Hereby, central and southeast Europe represents a particularly interesting study area because we observe the entire breadth of potential human responses: increased mobility to depopulation of larger areas, as well as successful occupation of environmental niches. In our session we want to explore new research advances focusing on interdisciplinary multi-factor perspectives in the light of resilience and innovation. Submissions can consider results from e.g., typology, technology, subsistence, raw material economy, chronology, demography, climate and environment. We welcome both site and multi-site approaches.

Main Organiser

Marc Händel¹

Co-Organisers

Mircea Anghelinu²

Andreas Maier³

Jarosław Wilczyński⁴

Affiliation:

1. Austrian Archaeological Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria
2. Department of History, Valahia University of Târgoviste, Romania
3. Department of Prehistoric Archaeology, University of Cologne, Germany
4. Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland

TITLE

S20-2 Exploring the relevance of mountain occupation in prehistoric and protohistoric times: a worldwide perspective with a focus on the Carpathians

Key Words

Highlands; adaptation; mountain archaeology; environmental factors; Carpathians

Abstract

Mountain archaeology has experienced rapid development in the last decades. This has led to increasing acknowledgment that high-elevation landscapes have played a key role in shaping major processes in human (pre)history, such as large-scale migrations, culture contact dynamics, domestication of animals and plants, technological and subsistence innovations, and so on. Due to preservation and environmental factors these influences appear particularly marked from the end of the Last Glacial Maximum onwards (i.e., 16,000 years cal. BP). Thus, for millennia mountains have been settled and exploited by human societies with a multitude of adaptations taking advantage of the high geological and biological diversity of their unique environments. Today numerous projects are being carried out in different mountain regions around the globe. Archaeological methodologies (from field and topographic survey to excavation) are increasingly being calibrated and adapted to the characteristics of mountain environments, while investigations continue to explore the tensions between the role of such landscapes as barriers versus conduits, and as incomparably rich territories for resource availability versus harsh and hostile areas. The adaptive capacities of past mountain communities, highlighted by archaeologists, are also playing an increasingly important role in the development of novel policies for the management of mountain landscapes and the protection of traditional practices. In this session, we welcome proposals organized as syntheses aimed at highlighting the role of mountains during prehistoric and protohistoric times in different regions of the globe. Given the seat of the conference, papers focused on the Carpathian Mountains are particularly appreciated.

Main Organiser

Martin Callanan¹

Co-Organiser

Francesco Carrer²

Federica Fontana³

Sabine Reinhold⁴

Brian Stewart⁵

Pawel Valde-Novak⁶

Affiliation

1. Department of Historical Studies, NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
2. School of History, Classics and Archaeology, Newcastle University, UK
3. Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Sezione di Scienze Preistoriche e Antropologiche, Università di Ferrara, Italy
4. Eurasia-Department, German Archaeological Institute, Berlin, Germany
5. Museum of Anthropological Archaeology and Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, USA
6. Institute of Archeology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland

TITLE

S21-1 Archaeoacoustics: a novel interdisciplinary way of studying the past

Key Words

Archaeoacoustics, interdisciplinarity, soundscapes, musicarchaeology

Abstract

Following several pioneering studies in the second half of the 20th century regarding the use of sound by past societies, it is in the 1990s that the interest in Archaeoacoustics reaches a significant level among researchers. Archaeoacoustics forms part of a multidisciplinary field of research, sometimes still beset by methodological difficulties but is, as mentioned by Scarre (2006), “potentially a vital part of the understanding of the lived experience of past societies”. Following on from a milestone Conference organized in 2003 at the University of Cambridge, other events about Archaeoacoustics have been organized in several different countries since, with contributions that constitute today a considerable part of the specialised bibliography on this theme, and complement several additional publications that provided a broad view of Archaeoacoustics. This new discipline, which attempts to recreate the soundscapes of the past, emerged from various experimental methods, and the organisers encourage these types of approaches, which sometimes may take the form of performances. We should note that Archaeology per se is very much one aspect of the understanding process which is hampered by the survival (or not) of a material culture. We stress that the intangible aspects of the past have long since disappeared. It is our responsibility that we re-colour the past by applying a more sensory approach to the available archaeological record. The organisers intend to have an interdisciplinary session, gathering researchers from different disciplines such as archaeology, experiential archaeology, acoustics, ethnomusicology, archaeoacoustics, anthropology and psychology, among others, with the aim to better understand the ancient human social contexts and sequent behaviours. We are particularly interested in presentations concerning early musical behaviour, shamanism, the representation of musical instruments and/or dancing scenes in prehistoric art, “ringing stones”, the acoustics of classical Greek and Roman buildings and of medieval churches, music archaeology, the effects of specific sounds on the human brain, as well as other possible approaches to the use of sound in past human contexts that interested participants may wish to propose.

Main Organiser

Fernando Coimbra¹

Co-Organisers

Dragos Gheorghiu²

George Nash³

Affiliation

1. Polytechnic Institute of Tomar, Portugal
2. National University of Arts, Bucharest, Romania
3. University of Liverpool, United Kingdom

TITLE

S21-2 Pendant or not a pendant? Identification, uses and meanings

Key Words

Pendants, suspension techniques, technology, use-wear analysis, organic and inorganic raw materials, artefact biographies

Abstract

Notched or perforated objects, commonly called pendants, constitute one of the main categories of finds in the archaeological contexts. Different methods have been used to create various suspension systems, which facilitated their attachment to the clothing or other items. Some of them were intensively worn, while others may not have been used, and served for other purposes, including social communication and construction of identities. The contexts in which these artefacts are discovered vary and include (broadly defined) both settlement and ritual ones. Nevertheless, the environmental setting and the availability of resources and supply networks, as well as the chronological framework suggest notable differences in the choice of raw materials used for the production of the pendants. In many regions, bone materials, especially teeth, are commonly used for making pendants, while in others shells, various stones, metals and other mineral and organic materials have been favored. Some of the raw materials could be suspended in their natural state, while others were heavily modified to achieve a certain shape or otherwise worked to fulfill particular needs or reflect specific meanings. At the same time, not all suspended objects can be classified as pendants.

This session wishes to explore what defines the pendant and what differentiates these artefacts from other objects. How and with what methods and tools were the pendants produced? How were they suspended and used? What meanings were given to pendants and how these changed when the artifacts were moving between different contexts and communities? With this session, we want to bring together the material, technological and interpretive studies to discuss pendants regardless of the organic or inorganic material. Even though the emphasis is on technological and use-wear analyses, including the modes of attachment and suspension, we also welcome studies dealing with the choices of raw materials, the contexts of use and the meanings of these artefacts. We encourage interdisciplinary contributions studying pendants from different regions and chronological contexts in prehistory.

Main Organiser

Aija Macāne¹

Co-Organiser

Éva David²

Affiliation

1. University of Helsinki, Finland; Institute of Latvian History, University of Latvia, Latvia
2. Université Paris Nanterre, Paris, France

TITLE

S21-3 The archaeometry of rock art

Key Words

Pigment, Prehistory, Analysis

Abstract

In the last decade analyses of prehistoric rock art have become widespread. The combination of different physical and chemical techniques and new methodological approaches has made it possible to determine raw material sources, operational sequences, pigment compositions, and taphonomy processes, among other parameters, which can also have direct implications for the improvement of the chronological framework of rock art sites. Nevertheless, there are few studies linked to the characterization and identification of the organic binders, probably related to technical difficulties, high degradation of the components, or site preservation. The session will consider presentations related to these subjects of rock-art imagery from all chronological periods or cultural traditions. Likewise, papers will be accepted from any rock art site in the world. Finally, since rock-art Archaeometry and Conservation are closely related to other disciplines (Geology or Biology, for example), papers will be accepted from practitioners from other relevant fields of study related to the theme. It is expected that the session will discuss relevant guidelines for archaeologists, geoscientists, physics, chemists, conservators’ researchers, and managers. We invite and encourage the participants in this session to debate around the different studies related to pigments, binders, absolute dating, the most recent methodologies, and scientific instrumentation, taking into account the state of the current issue and the future prospects of this line of research.

Main Organiser

Hugo Gomes

Co-Organiser

Hipólito Collado

Virgínia Lattao

Sara Garcês

TITLE

S21-4 Interdisciplinarity in the study of rock art: the use of new technologies to understand the artistic dynamics of past societies

Key Words

Digital; Prehistoric Art; Imagery; Technology; Documentation

Abstract

Rock art is one of the most phenomenal legacies of past societies. It has repeatedly recognized its heritage value as some of the first examples of the art of humankind. Rock art sites represent some of the most visited heritage sites in the world, generating economic and social wealth. Moreover, the emergence and development of symbolism and imagery expressions are considered major milestones in human evolution and a fundamental source to evaluate the organization and complexity of past societies. A lot of the studies of rock art have been based on individual research, limited to personal capabilities and experiences. However, the development of digital technologies offers unprecedented possibilities for a more accurate, detailed, and complex analysis of rock art and its features. This session intends to explore the multi-inter-disciplinary scientific methodologies and the implementation of cutting-edge technologies used in rock art sites nowadays in different contexts. We want to know which different advanced technologies are being used to obtain accurate, commensurate and transferable results in different rock art sites, their advantages, disadvantages, problems, obstacles, and possibilities for future development. We also want to explore the real impact of the use of these technologies on the research concerning the factor for understanding and interpreting its meaning, filling a gap, and unblocking current research. Furthermore, it is important to understand how the technological way of approaching rock art has been important to unravel questions such as hierarchy, gender, inequality, division of labour, and knowledge transmission in the context of past societies.

Main Organiser

Sara Garcês1

Co-Organiser

Diego Garate²

Affiliation:

1. Polytechnic Institute of Tomar, Portugal; Geosciences Centre, University of Coimbra (u. ID73 – FCT); Earth and Memory Institute, Mação, Portugal; Museum of Prehistoric Art and the Sacred Tagus Valley, Mação, Portugal.
2. Investigador Ramón y Cajal; Instituto Internacional de Investigaciones Prehistóricas de Cantabria; IIIPC (Universidad de Cantabria, Santander, Gobierno de Cantabria) Edificio Interfacultativo, Avda de Los Castros, nº52, 39005. Santander, Universidad de Cantabria, Spain

TITLE

S22-1 The conceptual anthropology approach to Prehistory

Key Words

Conceptual Anthropology

Abstract

THE HUMAN MINDS BEHIND THE ARCHEOLOGICAL REMAINS. From Paleolithic to historical times, what can the archeological remains reveal about the minds, motivations, and beliefs of people that left behind these traces, in the context of their location, age, environment, way of life, and society?  Specific cases, concepts and methodology.

Main Organiser

Emmanuel ANATI

Affiliation:

Conceptual Anthropology research team; CISENP “The UISPP International Scientific Commission on the Intellectual and Spiritual Expression of Non-literate Peoples

TITLE

S22-2 Precolonial Urbanisms: A global perspective on the indigenous practices of urban life

Key Words

precolonial urbanism; indigenous practice; comparative urbanism; archaeogeography

Abstract

Postcolonial comparative urban studies are succeeding in establishing a discourse that welcomes critical perspectives from the ‘global south’. In spite of this, in focusing on contemporary cities it still prevents the preceding precolonial urbanisms from playing a substantive role in contextualising urban development in some of the most crucial regions: Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Especially across the ‘global south’ archaeology has recently been revealing an increasing variety of urban forms and organisations and new interpretive approaches are offering alternative perspectives on the realities of past and present urban lives. Simultaneously, the ‘global south’ probably contains the greatest variety of informal (peri)urban settlement, adding further diversity to urban vernaculars. In this session we aim to identify commonalities through diversity. We imagine papers to represent a variety of disciplines, including history, archaeology, geography, urban studies, ethno-history, and architectural history. By bringing together a selection of papers that address the indigenous practices of urban life in precolonial urban traditions, we aim to connect principles of the past to urban anthropology, urban planning and design, and urban development today. Elucidating vernacular solutions and knowledge that existed prior to the unsustainable principles of globalised urban life first introduced with colonisation, we hope to grow an appreciation for locally appropriate development practices. At the same time, we aim to explore shared characteristics of precolonial urban environments and the continuity of indigenous practices to set out a path for the comparative study of indigenous urban traditions and their historical development processes. By adopting a cross-cultural comparative perspective, we aim to avoid being blinded by the particularities of any single case and to value shared and transferable practices. Such explorative evaluation of global precolonial urbanism aims to offer a critical historical contextualization to formal and informal practices of urban development in the ‘global south’.

Main Organiser

Benjamin N. Vis^{1, 2}

Co-Organiser

Victor Brunfaut¹

Affiliation:

1. Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
2. Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Mexico

TITLE

S22-3 The native survivals in the Roman Empire

Key Words

native, Iron Age, Roman Empire, pottery, traditions

Abstract

The Roman Empire was one of the larger and populated Empires of the Antiquity. We have proposed to add the aspect of the native tradition survives in the Roman World as a part of the Roman World. Because, from Thracia and Dacia to the Hispania and Britannia, and from the Pannonia to the Mauretania and Africa, as well as Arabia and Mesopotamia, the native were for generations a significative part of the Roman Empire people and civilization. The phenomenon of Romanization was observed and relative well studied in the Roman provinces. Instead, the question of the native traditions was a peripheric preoccupation of the archaeologists. The theme will highlight the material and spiritual survive of the native population in the Rome Empire. From Iron Age pottery to the beliefs and art objects as a part of the conquered people by the Romans, as well as mainly provincial testimonies of parallel existence of “urban Romans” and usually hidden simple folk. Some of them survived until the end of Roman period, and they were restored after the romans left these territories. In this section are welcome the contribution of Dacian, Thracian, Greek, Celtic, German, Iberic, Illyrian and any other native people traditions in the Roman Empire.

Main Organiser

Mircea Negru¹

Co-Organisers

Vojislav Filipović²

Krassimira Luka³

Affiliation:

1. Spiru Haret University, Bucharest; University of Craiova, Romania
2. Arheološki Institut (Institute of Archaeology), Belgrade, Serbia
3. Bulgarian Archaeological Association (Chairman), Sofia, Bulgaria

TITLE

S23-1 Prehistory and society: museums, education and media

Key Words

Prehistory – Museums – Education – Media – Sciences

Abstract

The role of Prehistory in society has evolved throughout over 150 years of research and education, but fundamentally remains focused on four core and crucial domains: the affiliation of the human past to a natural history of human evolution; the building of expanded scales of time and space when perceiving and understanding life; the approach to the mechanisms of human adaptation to contextual changes, including human agency; the understanding of the integrated nature of analytical sciences, fostering on one hand interdisciplinarity and, on the other, social participation in the construction of scientific data (transdisciplinarity). Also, the means of knowledge socialization have structurally remained the same: the organization of collections of past remains (artifacts and ecofacts) and their interpretation in museums; the construction of new knowledge through research-based education; the promotion of massive dissemination of knowledge through communication media. These latter dimensions include the crucial integrated conservation, study and protection of both sites, moveable heritage and documentation associated to heritage, together with a development dimension that includes daily life of local inhabitants.

Although the tools in each of these chapters may have changed from the mid-19th century to the dawn of the 3rd millennium, they remained fundamentally similar in purpose and strategy: an historical understanding of the past, rooted in reason and science. However, for the past few decades, and particularly since the beginning of this century, social relevance of History has been growingly challenged by discourses on memories and identities, with relevant impact on museums (growingly focused on narratives and performance, and less in remains and processes) and on education (growingly focused on context-based stories and not on human natural history). Even if media has changed less, since its focus has always been “dramatic novelty”, the contemporary trend towards showcasing isolated “scenes” and curiosities, rather than wicked processes also has relevant implication for society.

This session calls for contributions reflecting on theses mechanisms and trends, but also on the challenges and responsibilities of prehistorians in these three domains: museums, education and communication. The session calls for a reflection on the need to structure networks of museums as a matrix for promoting the social understanding of prehistory as an integrated approach of diverse human, social, natural and hard sciences. The organizers invite contributors to namely reflect on the interaction between museums, research, education and the structuring of socially shared mindsets.

Main Organiser

Luiz Oosterbeek¹

Co-Organisers

Árpád Ringer²

Abdoulaye Camara³

François Sémah⁴

Affiliation:

1. Polytechnic Institute of Tomar, Geosciences Centre of Coimbra University, Museum of Prehistoric Art of Mação, Portugal
2. University of Miskolc, Hungary
3. Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire (IFAN Ch.A. Diop), Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar, Senegal
4. Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, France

TITLE

S23-2 – Ethnic Interpretations in the Archaeology of Meseurope

Keywords

Archaeology – History – Anthropology – Geopolitics – Ethnohistory – Ethnicity – Nation-building – Iron Age – Bronze Age – Meseurope – L’Europe mediane – Eastern Central Europe – Ostmitteleuropa – South Eastern Europe – Balkans

Abstract

In 2023, the International Congress of Archaeology organized by UISPP is hosted again by Romania. Its venue Temeschburg / Temeschwar / Timișoara / Temesvár / Темишвар (= Temišvar) is a multi-ethnic city where those two regions of the eastern fringes of Europe commonly known as Ostmitteleuropa / East Central Europe and South Eastern Europe, respectively, blend into a special cultural unit which forms a major attraction. The city thus for good reasons has been chosen as the European Capital of Culture for the same year in which the congress takes place. Whereas both regions named were deeply interconnected in the past and also share a huge set of experiences concerning ethnohistorical processes, they have been rarely dealt with jointly as a super-region, whether by the humanities or by archaeology. The most suitable name recently in use for about the larger area stems from the contemporary French diplomat and geopolitician Michel Foucher, who aptly labeled it “L’Europe mediane”, evoking a median axis of the continent, which fits for many of the prehistorical and historical as well as current phenomena that can be observed here. Regrettably, when doing so he explicitely excluded Greece, which fully deserves to be seen in this very context, too. In addition, there are also problems for a coherent wording of the term „median“ in the different languages of Europe. The session’s proposer, Thomas W. Wyrwoll, therefore suggested the coinage of an alternative concept and terminology: „Meseurope“ – derived from Greek μέσος / mesos, ‚middle‘, and Ancient Greek Εὐρώπη / Eurṓpē, ‚Europe‘. This new concept would comprise a region from about the Gulf of Finland to the Mediterranean south of Greece, which does not only have a partly shared archaeologically-extended history, but also a rather vivid awareness among its peoples of these „prolonged“ cultural and ethnic roots—with the latter including both substantially proven and rather invented ones. Many of the area’s countries achieved their respective statehood only after World War I, i.e. rather "late". In an attempt of nation-building and / or border vindication, they consequently developed ethnic and statehood „genealogies“ often dating back into the Iron Age, or even beyond. Some of these approaches have been changed in the course of new political agendas and thus were more or less short-acting, whilst others were kept for ages and lead to long-standing feuds, e.g. about the legitimate heirship of Ancient Macedonia. In other cases, native ethnic or tribal minority groups cherish archaeological views on their distinctive origins alongside their own prevailing traditions, thus connecting both and fostering an already existing self-awareness. And in addition to "native approaches", foreign powers frequently tried to assert their respective geopolitical agendas towards the region with the help of historical arguments, including prehistorical ones. In sum, there is a wide range of ethnic issues in Meseuropean archaeology which highly merits to be communicated and discussed at an international forum like the current congress. All colleagues, from Meseurope and beyond, are therefore cordially invited to advance their insights and ideas at this symposium.

Main Organizer:

Thomas W. Wyrwoll ¹

Affiliation

1. West and East Prussian Study Circle for Antiquarian and Natural-History Research; German Association for Rock Art Research & Archaeo-Zoological Studies in Prehistoric Animal Depictions

TITLE

S24-1 The Critical and Evolving Role of Preventive Archaeology in Creating Cultural Heritage Knowledge

Key Words

preventive archaeology, quality control, knowledge dissemination

Abstract

Preventive archaeology accounts for a large proportion of the knowledge produced about our common heritage. Its practice, however, is beset by myriad and unevenly applied legal codes, varying levels of quality, and often results in the commodification of scientific research. This paper serves to highlight this situation as well as to suggest strategies for reform that may result in a more globally unified, standardized practice.

Organiser

Sławomir Kadrow¹

Co-Organiser

Ashley A. Dumas²

Affiliation:

1. Institute of Archaeology Rzeszów University, Poland
2. The University of West Alabama, Livingston, AL 35470, USA

TITLE

S25-1 Percussive osseous industry a human revolution between pre-formation and waste selection

Abstract

Archaeologists have developed a growing interest in the study of the bone industry related to percussion, particularly for Paleolithic periods. This type of industry became frequent, notably such as the manufacture of bone retouchers, but not only, and recent papers highlight the possible use of some bone fragments as hammer or anvil. Most of these tools originated from herbivore long bones, although some specific elements such as tusk fragments, teeth or antlers were common too. Zooarchaeological analysis, in addition, application of new methodologies such as proteomics, confocal microscopic analysis are complementary to answers to essential questions about this type of animal hard materials  (ivory, antler, bones) industry:

1. origin of the bone tools and pseudo bone tools,
2. place in the technical equipment of the hunter-gatherers,
3. blank selection: pre-formation of the blank during the butchering process or selection after, among the butchery waste,
4. in situ used or possible transport, regarding the delay after butchery process and use and finally the abandonment.

The inclusion of these artifacts in animal hard material in the chaine opératoire of debitage or lithic tool shaping in a perspective of cross and multidisciplinary analyses allows a global vision of the use of these retouches on lithic tools. The use of animal hard material retouchers responds to technical needs related to lithic knapping. The knowledge of both the lithic material and the hard material of animal origin depends on the skills of the knappers. It also implies a good knowledge of the tool technology and its use.

In this session, we bring together researchers working across the broad field of the osseous and flint industries. We propose studies from different points of view: 

• Morphometric and geometric-morphometric analyses (blanks),
• Spatial analyses (blanks and marks),
• Archaeological experiments (neo-taphonomy),
• Functional and use analyses (blanks and marks),
• Technological analyses,
• Raw material (teeth, tusk, bone, flint, quartz…),
• Traceology of different lithic materials,
• Typology and nomenclature of the marks,
• Proteomic and DNA (taxonomy).

Instead of focusing on one method, this session aims at exploring how different methodologies may complement each other within and between cases of study and projects to provide a more nuanced understanding of the technical behaviors related to the bone and lithic industry through the Paleolithic and the diverse humanities. Papers may focus on case studies, theoretical frameworks and the development of specific methodologies related to the percussive osseous industry.

Main Organiser

Ursula Thun Hohenstein¹

Co-Organisers

Delphine Vettese²

Juan Marin³

Marco Peresani¹

Affiliation

1. Department of Humanities, Laboratory of Archaeozoology and Taphonomy, University of Ferrara, Corso Ercole I d’Este 32, 44121 Ferrara, Italy.
2. Department of History of Art and Archaeology, Université de Perpignan, UMR 7194 HNHP – DisCo. 
3. juan.marin.hernando@gmail.com

TITLE

S25-2 Hunting: a diachronic perspective on its role on human subsistence from the Pleistocene to the Holocene

Abstract

Hominine hunting strategies during the Pleistocene and the Holocene are broadly characterized by a diversification in the target’s choices, variously related to the available animal resources. The accessibility of these prey may have been conditioned by various constraints such as changes in the environment and climate, the natural availability of the animals, technological skills, social organization and even taste preferences. The diachronic perspective of subsistence behavior allows a reconsideration of the human relation with his environment and particularly, the complex relations between humans and animals over the long term. The multidisciplinary approaches permit to contextualize hunting strategies and their evolution. This session aims to bring together specialists who deal with subsistence strategies applying new approaches, methods, and innovative diagnostic techniques and ethnographic comparisons by addressing the following topics:

-        Hunting vs Scavenging

• Big game hunting
• Small game hunting
• Selective hunting
• Hunting technologies
• Hunting and breeding
• Hunting and prestige

Main Organiser

Ursula Thun Hohenstein¹

Co-Organisers

Ana B. Marín-Arroyo²

Ivana Fiore³

Delphine Vettese⁴

Affiliation

1. Department of Humanities, Laboratory of Archaeozoology and Taphonomy, University of Ferrara, Corso Ercole I d’Este 32, 44121 Ferrara, Italy.
2. Department of Historical Science, EvoAdapta Laboratory, University of Cantabria, Edificio Interfacultativo. Avda. de los Castros, 52. 39005 Santander
3. Museo delle Civiltà, collab. Servizio di Bioarcheologia, Piazza Guglielmo Marconi, 14, 00144 Roma.
4. Department of History of Art and Archaeology, Université de Perpignan, UMR 7194 HNHP – DisCo.

TITLE

S26-1 Human societies facing climate change in prehistory and protohistory

Key words

Climate change, adaptations, peopling

Abstract

Following the project started 2018 with UAI, and concretized by the publication of two first volumes in 2022, the session will be particularly dedicated to the following topics:

• Peopling during isotopic stage 5,
• Early Holocene,
• Event 8200 cal BP,
• Consequence of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes (collapses, migration, etc.)

Main Organiser

François Djindjian¹

Affiliation

Université de Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris, France.

TITLE

S26-2 The Dark Side of the Rock Choices: Non-Flint Registries During the Palaeolithic

Key Words

Non-flint rocks, lithic technology, technical choices, Palaeolithic

Abstract

Non-flint rocks (e.g. basalt, phonolite, quartz, quartzite, sandstone, limestone) are often underestimated in Palaleolithic archaeology, while they are broadly used in Africa and Eurasia. Chaînes opératoires of these raw materials are not well known and this hides a large range of hominins technical behaviours. In the shadow of flint rock chaînes opératoires (e.g. flint, jasp, calcedony, chert, obsidian), the use of tenacious rocks is the result of a true technical choice. We can observe two types of archaeological sites: those with an exclusive use of tenacious rocks, and those with both rock types.

Questioning and characterizing the variability of technical production goals will lead us to better understand human behavior regarding raw materials panel during the Palaeolithic, in different geographic contexts. It will also help to define transversal criteria and diachronical adaptation to the raw material.

Several issues will be highlighted in this session: characterization of tenacious rocks chaînes opératoires, variability of production goals, gain and constraints inherent to those raw materials. Contributions may cover the entire Palaeolithic period (including Mesolithic) without geographical restriction.

Main Organiser

1. Clément¹

Co-Organiser

1. Viallet²

Affiliation

1. INRAP – UMR 7041 ArScAn-AnTeT
2. Paléotime – UMR 7194 HNHP

TITLE

S27-1 Chronological approaches on prehistoric sites

Key Words: Geochronology; Human Evolution; Chronostratigraphy; Eurasian and African prehistory ; Palaeoenvironments

Abstract:

This session addresses the issue of establishing precise chronologies for archaeological contexts during the Middle and Upper Pleistocene. Providing a timeline for human occupations at prehistoric sites is essential in our understanding of the biological and cultural processes associated with early humans.

This session aims to present multidisciplinary approaches that have been applied in archaeological contexts to shed more light on questions such as the timing of migration routes, the tempo of major cultural changes and the role of climatic changes in human behavior.

We encourage application studies that present synchronization and correlation of prehistoric sites, with regional climatic and environmental records. Methodological improvements regarding the use of dating methods in Pleistocene environments (40Ar/39Ar, tephrochronology, ESR, ESR/U-series, U/Th, TL, OSL, 14C...) are also welcome.

Main Organiser

Alison Pereira¹

Co-Organiser

Maïlys Richard²

Affiliation

1. University Paris-Saclay, Laboratoire GEOPS (France)
2. Archéosciences Bordeaux, UMR 6034 Université Bordeaux Montaigne-CNRS