Session: #139

Content:

Circular economic models—based on reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products—have been the subject of much attention in the past decades by historians and archaeologists. However, most studies on the topic have been geographically or chronologically limited to single sites, periods, or archaeological contexts. Wider regional or supraregional perspectives have been hindered, for example, by the nature of the evidence and the costs of archaeometric analyses. Without multi-site or longue durée approaches, we lack the ability to delineate overarching patterns in the history of circular economies or the process, structures, and materials that made recycling and re-use important economic practices.
The scope of this panel is to go beyond the traditional approaches to circular economies in antiquity by exploring studies from broader temporal and geographic contexts that will attempt to answer the following questions:
• What are the challenges of studying circular economies in antiquity with multi-site and longue durée perspectives?
• What methodologies can be used to effectively and systematically collect and interpret existing datasets?
• What insights or results have broader studies of the circular economy shown? How do circular economies vary over time? How do circular economies differ across multi-sites?
• Are certain materials or products intrinsically more (or less) suited to circular economies?
Are successful circular economies organised around cost-saving—or profit-driven models? Does this vary according to the material or product?
• What is the circulation of high-quality compared to low-quality materials within circular economies? How does this change over time?
We welcome proposals for papers dedicated to circularity in antiquity with a specific focus on pottery, glass, metal, and building material from the Roman to the Medieval periods in the Mediterranean basin.

Session: #139

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