Theme:
1. The Material Record: Current Trends and Future Directions
Session format:
Discussion session (with formal abstracts)
Title:
Ochre and Culture: The Odyssey from Exploitation to Societal Significance
Content:
Across diverse human cultures, our perception of reality is profoundly shaped by cultural significant colours. Materials known for their strong colouring properties, often referred to as 'ochre', have been used for over 300,000 years. Starting around 160,000 years ago, the utilisation of ochre became increasingly common and encompassed a wide variety of functions. These ranged from symbolic purposes, such as its use as a pigment in rock art, body painting or as a nonverbal communication agent, to more technical-economical functions, including its use as an abrasive or tanning agent. This diversity of uses has provided a cumulative inheritance of knowledge and skills that allowed us to truly stand on the shoulders of giants.
While the study of ochre has been widely developed in the last two decades, several questions remain unanswered. We still lack clarity on when and how ochre exploitation was standardised according to social-cultural norms, and we seek to understand the timing and link between changes in ochre usage and the traditions identified through the study of other artefacts that can be related to cultural traditions. This session is designed to bridge these gaps. Specifically, we aim to explore two main questions:
(1) Ochre exploitation traditions: Can we identify distinct traditions related to ochre exploitation? When and how did these traditions emerge? What cultural, technical and environmental factors contributed to their standardisation?
(2) Synchronicity of ochre traditions with other cultural markers: How does the use of ochre align with the development and utilisation of other artefacts that can be related cultural traditions within various societies? What can these synchronicities reveal about the evolution of the human lineage?
Through a thorough examination of these questions, our session aims to provide a deeper insight into the prehistoric exploitation of ochre and its significance in human evolution study.
Keywords:
Ochre sensu lato, Culture, Prehistory, Human evolution
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
yes
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:
PaM - Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Community
Main organiser:
Guilhem Mauran (France) 1
Co-organisers:
Daniela Rosso (Spain) 2
Affiliations:
1. UMR 5199 PACEA, University of Bordeaux, France
2. Main AddressDepartamento de Prehistoria, ArqueologÃa, Universidad de Valencia
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