SCAPECON 2020

Breaking boundaries: negotiating change in the Aegean Bronze Age

Date: 22 Sept. 2020, 29 Sept. 2020 and 6 Oct. 2020

Location: online

Credits: 1 ECT

Registration: send an email to scapecon2020@gmail.com

To be human means to interact. By interacting and establishing relationships with fellow humans and other living beings, the environment, architecture and objects, humans constantly influence and are influenced in what they think, do and create. The socially constructed, physically delineated environments in which these interactions occur are often referred to by scholars with the suffix ‘-scape’. The influence of these different ‘scapes’ (e.g. landscapes, cityscapes, taskscapes, deathscapes, etc.) on human lives is strong: they have the power to shape and structure culture and society.

The relationships of people with their material and immaterial worlds are not static. They are subject to continuous adaptation, renegotiation and manipulation as a result of agents responding to changes in the ‘scape’ or agents themselves bringing about change depending on their needs and motivations. As a result, culture and society are constantly being restructured, forever escaping the status quo.

This third installment of the no(e)scape-conference series returns to discuss relational archaeology in the Aegean Bronze Age. While on the one hand we aim to address the structuring structures of culture (e.g. the habitus as formulated by Bourdieu),on the other hand we will also be exploring its rejection, manipulation and change. This conference series, with previous successful editions held in Heidelberg in 2018 and Poznán in 2019, provides a platform specifically for early career scholars to discuss their research. Therefore, we invite Master and PhD-students who work on the Aegean Bronze Age to send in proposals covering a wide range of topics, but nevertheless touching on these relational aspects of societies.

Preliminary online Programme:

Tuesday 22 September

13:45 – 13:55 Online arrival.

13:55 – 14:00 Welcome by organizers

14:00 – 14:55 Keynote lecture by Prof. Ann Brysbaert (Leiden University)
A “Moving” Story about Labour. The Taskscape of the Late Bronze Age Argive Plain

14:55 – 15:00 Short Break

Session I Human relations with their lived space

15.00 – 15.15 Stephanie Emra (University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna), Sabina Cveček (University of Vienna)
Negotiation and interaction in EBA Çukuriçi Höyük: differing solutions to competing ‘scapes’ with the beginning of rising inequality

15.15 – 15.30 Başak Ongar (University of Ege)
Household Archaeology in West Anatolia during the Late Bronze Age

15:30 – 15:45 Piotr Zeman (Adam Mickiewicz University)
Entangled Mycenae: Case Study of a Late Bronze Age palatial town

15:45 – 16:00 Sarah Hilker (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
Beyond the Palace: Case Studies in Mycenaean Townscapes

16:00 – 16:15 Francesca Nani (University of Pisa), Salvatore Vitale (University of Pisa), Calla McNamee (Wiener Laboratory for Archaeological Sciences)
Building Identities: Breaks and Continuity in Construction Practices at the Prehistoric Settlement of the “Serraglio” on Kos

16:15 – 16:20 POSTER: Dimitra Spiliopoulou
Life with the help of artificial light sources in the prehistoric settlement of Akrotiri, Thira

16:20 – 16:30 Short Break

16:30 – 17:15 Discussion

Tuesday 29 September

13.55 – 13:55 Online arrival

13.55 – 14:00 Opening day two

14:00 – 14:55 Keynote lecture by Prof. Sofia Voutsaki (University of Groningen)
Towards an archaeology of kinship

14:55 – 15:00 Short Break

Session II Human relations with sacred and mortuary space

15:00 – 15:15 Alexandra Katevaini (University of Groningen)
Contextualizing Late Minoan Tombs

15:15 – 15:30 Yannick de Raaff (university of Groningen)
Experimenting with change: the built tomb of the North Cemetery at Ayios Vasileios, Lakonia.

15:30 – 15:45 Dimitra Rousioti (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki)
Investigating the sacred landscape in the Late Bronze Age Greek Mainland

15:45 – 16:00 Iris Rom (University of Groningen)
Negotiating death in the Bronze Age: a view from western Greece

16:00 – 16:15 Katarzyna Dudlik (Adam Mickiewicz University)
Mortuary Practices in Context. Local Idiosyncrasies in Search of the Koan Identity

16:15 – 16:20 POSTER: Youp van den Beld
Understanding socio-political processes through the study of labour investment: the
case study of the North Cemetery at Ayios Vasilios.

16:20 – 16:30 Short Break

16:30 – 17:15 Discussion

Tuesday 6 October

13:45 – 13:55 Online arrival

13:55 – 14:00 Opening day three

Session III Human relations through material culture and art
14:00 – 14:15 Ece Sezgin (Mugla Sitki Kocman University)
An Assessment of Gender Roles in the Early Bronze Age Aegean

14:15 – 14:30 Thomas Mumelter (University College London)
Affective Fields in Akrotiri’s Miniature Frieze, Thera

14:30 – 14:45 Diana Wolf (Université Catholique de Louvain)
Symbols as Social Strategy? Late Palatial Hard-Stone Glyptic as Identity Markers

14:45 – 14:50 POSTER: Anna Filipek
One but many. The concept of the great mother goddess in the study of the Minoan
religious system in the Bronze Age.

14:50– 15:20 Discussion

15:20 – 15:30 Short Break

Session IV Human relations viewed from material culture

15:30 – 15:45 Evgenia Tsafou (Université Catholique de Louvain)
Identifying the changing function and use of cooking vessels in Minoan societies

15:45 – 16:00 Assunta Mercogliano (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice)
Breaking ceramic boundaries: formation and change in pottery assemblages during the Middle Helladic period with a special look at the Trapeza settlement (Eastern Achaea)

16:00 – 16:15 Daniel Frank (Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg)
Tracing Early Mycenaean Ceramic Traditions in the North-East Peloponnese

16:15 – 16:20 POSTER: Kilian Regnier
Building interactions beyond boundaries during the Bronze Age: the case of the
Aegean tripod stone mortar

16:20 – 16:25 POSTER: Todor Valchev
The Marble pendant from the prehistoric settlement mound Maleva Mogila near the
village of Veselinovo, Yambol municipality, Bulgaria

16:25 – 17:00 Discussion

17:00 – 17:10 Short Break

Session V Human relations with the economic landscape

17:10 – 17:25 Giulia Paglione (Sapienza University Rome)
Reconstructing the landscape through the Linear B texts: The case of coriander cultivation in Phaistos

17:25 – 17:40 Anastasia Vergaki (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens)
Lonesome are the eyes: The depiction of the animals on the Ayia Triadha Sarcophagus

17:40 – 17:55 Abby Durick (Fulbright Student Researcher, Bulgaria)
Origin to Deposition: The socio-cultural significance of gold provenance studies in the North Aegean and Ancient Thrace

17.55 – 18:00 POSTER: Jakub Witowski
Relation between the form of Aegean swords and modes of use in the light of use-
wear analysis — the case of two bronze swords from the Athenian Agora.

18:00 – 18:30 Discussion

Credits: Students can obtain 1 ECT. We ask students to attend the full conference and hand in a reflection report.