Session: #528

Theme & Session Format

Theme:
1. Widening horizons through human-environment interconnections
Session format:
Regular session

Title & Content

Title:
Shifting the Focus: Mountains as Central Places in (Pre-)History
Content:
Mountainous regions, sometimes considered remote and marginal areas, have always hosted a variety of human activities. Indeed, the importance of altitudinal gradients, climatic conditions and repartition of the ecosystem resources create different constraints and opportunities. This session aims to bridge an interdisciplinary community (i.e. Archaeologists, Historians, Ethnographers, Palaeoecologists and Palaeoclimatologists) in order to discuss the diversity of Human-Environmental interactions and perceptions associated with mountain environments during prehistorical and historical periods. In particular, we will welcome highly interdisciplinary approaches, time-transgressive investigations, and comparisons of studies of different mountain areas that will look at:
- Perceptions and experiences amongst human groups (e.g. sedentary farmers, hunter-gatherers, mobile pastoralists, urban citizens);
- Mobility (e.g. vertical, horizontal, migrations, invasions);
- Cultural niche construction (impacts of human activities on landscapes and ecosystems);
- Socio-economic activities (e.g. agriculture, arboriculture, pastoralism, transhumance, mining, way of life, including ritual practices);
- Interaction with geomorphic and climate hazards (e.g. erosion, snow cover duration, drought, river flood).
Keywords:
Mountain, Southwestern Asia, Central Asia, Prehistory, History, Paleoenvironment
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:

Organisers

Main organiser:
Elodie Brisset (France) 1,2
Co-organisers:
Andrea Ricci (Germany) 3
Silvia Balatti (Germany) 4
Morteza Djamali (France) 1,2
Affiliations:
1. Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d’Ecologie
2. CNRS, University Aix-Marseille, Inuviersity Avignon, IRD
3. Cluster of Excellence ROOTS, Kiel University
4. Institut of Classical Studies, Kiel University