Theme:
5. Theories and methods in archaeology: interactions between disciplines
Session format:
Regular session
Title:
Pre-Christian Beliefs of Central and Northern Europe. Interdisciplinary Investigations
Content:
The proposed session is intended to provide an overview of the recent studies dealing with diverse research questions regarding pre-Christian religions and beliefs of the Central and Northern Europe from the 6th to the 13th centuries. Matters of the conversion, transition from traditional beliefs to Christianity, human-animal relations, rituals practices and landscape studies could be some of the most interesting themes. During the session we hope to present innovative interdisciplinary methods used in the research concerning pre-Christian beliefs and how results of these analyses changed our understanding of the period. We also intend to demonstrate how in these investigations we can, and rather must, use theories and methods gathered from other disciplines. In archaeological study of religion, we draw upon a wide range of sources and methods, but the fundamental question is: how to use them successfully in archaeological research of pagan beliefs? Through presentations and discussions, we´ll attempt to offer some answers to this question. Moreover, we would also like to present multiple innovative methods which combine different branches of humanities (e.g. cultural anthropology, history, religion studies) with various fields of natural sciences (e.g. zoology, osteology, landscape studies). We would like to encourage not only humanist scholars to take part in this session but also specialists in different branches of archaeology (e.g. zooarchaeology, osteology, paleoethnobotany) who are interested in pre-Christian religions and beliefs. Contributions from all these research fields are highly welcome.
Keywords:
pre-Christian beliefs, early medieval archaeology, theory and method, human-animal relations, ritual practices, interdisciplinary methodology
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:
Main organiser:
Pawel Szczepanik (Poland) 1
Co-organisers:
Anna Jelicic (Sweden) 2
Klaudia Karpinska (Norway) 3,4
Affiliations:
1. Institute of Archaeology Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń
2. Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies, Stockholm University
3. Museum of Cultural History
4. University of Oslo
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