Theme:
4. Persisting with Change: Theory and Archaeological Scrutiny
Session format:
Regular session
Title:
Persistent Interpretations and Continual Changes. New Theories and Alternative Approaches toward Interdisciplinary Narratives of the Past
Content:
Ancient space was the physical and mental place where individuals lived, interacted, and negotiated identity, beliefs, and cultural practices at different levels (house, grave, temple, city, family group, community, etc). Humans actively shaped natural and cultural landscapes, facing periods of increased climate instability and famine, conflicts, and phenomena such as the advent of Christianity or the relentless scourge of the Black Death. Understanding this often-far-reaching past requires tackling the challenge of integrating perspectives from the Socio-historical and Natural Sciences. By combining various sources and methods, archaeology enables us to understand how persistence and change shaped ancient space. However, the theoretical approach to contextualize ‘Persistence’ and ‘Change’ could be challenging. The need for alternative and nuanced narratives of the past becomes evident when approaching concepts such as resilience, adaptation, resistance, and fragility in archaeological reconstructions. An insightful reflection about vocabulary, methodology, and approach to these concepts, sometimes provided by other research fields, leads to ultidisciplinary discussions actively contributing to research advancement.
This session welcomes contributions that examine the ever-changing relationships between humans, animals, and their environments. We particularly encourage papers on theoretical approaches to persistence and change in archaeology from Antiquity to the Middle Ages without geographical limitations. Points of discussion could potentially include:
- How do we best engage with and activate archaeological and environmental research data from often localized cultural landscape investigations to transcend various disciplinary limitations and address the more extensive historical phenomena?
- How do we investigate ancient contexts focusing on persistence and change, exploring interactions, resilience and adaptation strategies employed in the face of dynamic processes?
- How have the vicissitudes experienced by a territory led to/conditioned changes in landscape and infrastructures
-Can a space’s immutability or change depend upon its function and symbolic meaning? Are there any links between identity formation and territory evolution patterns?
Keywords:
Persistence, Change, Theoretical Approaches, Cultural Landscapes, Sustainability andadaptability, IdentitiesHuman ecodynamics research
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:
Valentina Limina (Belgium) 1,2
Co-organisers:
Elísabet Ásta Eyþórsdóttir (Iceland) 3
Loredana Lancini (Belgium) 4
Kristin Møller-Nilsen (Iceland) 3
Sarah Vyverman (Belgium) 1,5
Affiliations:
1. Université catholique de Louvain
2. F.R.S. - FNRS
3. University of Iceland
4. Universitè catholique de Louvain
5. Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris
THIS SESSION CAN NOT BE SELECTED AT THIS MOMENT