Next Seminar: Reading the Past? Images in Archaeology as a Source of Information
The study of images has always played a significant part in archaeology as it is considered a useful tool towards the reconstruction of various aspects of life of ancient societies, such as beliefs and symbolisms that are not otherwise visible in the archaeological record. This is especially true in prehistoric archaeology due to the lack of writer sources. Wedde (1995), for example, discusses issues of Aegean Bronze Age hierarchical systems based on iconographic representations.
In fact, as Morgan (1985: 19), observes ‘iconography, as a notation of a culture, is as expressive and informative as any language’. However, even in historical periods, when written documents are more abundant and contain plenty of information, the careful study of images is crucial in order to differentiate myth from reality (see Ferrari 2003).
The aim of this seminar, led by Dr. Angelos Papadopoulos, is to present and discuss some of the key aspects of the study of images in order to comprehend to a greater extent the role of representations in ancient societies.
• Should images and representations be considered as ‘portraits’ or ‘photographs’ of the past and to what extend should the archaeologist be dependent on them in order to interpret the available data?
• Are images what may be called pure ‘art’ or where they manipulated and presented in certain ways in order to highlight individuals, such as the local elite(s) or specific moments in time, for example victories over the enemy?
• Are there common patterns between the various cultures and polities in the use and appreciation on certain icons, so that different peoples can understand the meaning of an image or a scene?
• Who had access to the images decorating the walls of palaces and temples and why there are variations in size and type of representations?
Seminar will take place at 7pm on Friday May 27th 2011 at the Irish Institute of Hellenic Studies (IIHSA) at 51a Odos Notara. Numbers are limited to 15, please RSVP by email (iihsa@hol.gr) to book a place and request the reading
Next Seminar: Gender in Archaeology
Attention to gender and feminist questions within archaeological practice and theory has followed a somewhat different path from other disciplines, but inquiry into the presence of women and the difference gender makes, is ongoing in a variety of areas. The discussion be led by Meryl Altman, Professor of Women’s Studies at DePauw University, will address the following important issues:
●How does gender affect the use of space, the meaning of objects, the distribution of resources and power?
●What theories about gender (implicit or explicit) underlie various ways of conceptualizing (for instance) the household and the city? Suspicion has rightly fallen on certain “grand narratives” (evolution from matriarchy to patriarchy, “oriental seclusion,” etc., whether in conservative or feminist versions); is it desirable to avoid all grand narratives? (Is it possible?) To what extent should “domesticating” vs “foreignising” strategies be pursued, i.e., is it helpful to emphasize similarities or differences with the present day?
●How does the development of gender and feminist theory and methodology articulate with other developments in the field of archaeology (processualism, post-processualism, interest in “networks,” questions about the possibility/desirability of reconstructing “experience”), and are there differences between the archaeological study of the Aegean region vs the rest of the world?
●What is/ should be/ can be the relationship of gender archaeology to ethnography? is there a place for aesthetics? how do we understand relations between gender representations and gender realities? between “status” of women and women’s power defined as access to resources? what role, if any, remains for biology?
●How can the sorts of evidence available, and the methods of investigation used to explore that evidence, influence the social picture that develops? How can we be careful not to erase differences between women – in particular differences of social class – and still come to some conclusions? What do we do when the texts say one thing and the material culture says something difference? What do we do when there are no texts? Is it reasonable to generalize between literate and pre-literate societies?
●How does the study of sexuality (including same-sex practices and gender fluidity) overlap with study of the presence and role of women, where are there some disconnects, how can these different approaches most productively work together?
●How does the study of gender intersect with studies of ethnicity, colonialism, and migration?
Seminar will take place at 7pm on Wednesday April13th 2011 at the Irish Institute of Hellenic Studies (IIHSA) at 51a Odos Notara.
Numbers are limited to 15, please RSVP by email (iihsa@hol.gr) to book a place and request the reading
Next Seminar: Theoretical & Methodological Perspectives on Networks & Connectivity in Mediterranean Archaeology
Albeit within the archaeological discourse interaction has always played a critical role, it can be safely asserted that for many years its functioning has been one of the most under-theorized themes in archaeology in general and in Mediterranean archaeology in particular. This is because inter-societal interaction has been often taken for granted and considered more a prerequisite than a topic per se.
In the last two decades or so, however, this situation has considerably changed. Indeed, a relatively well-defined branch of studies has gradually emerged which sees its main object of analysis not in the individual entities forming the archaeological record but rather in connections between them. Albeit often starting from quite different standpoints (from “island archaeology” to more science-oriented applications), these studies appear to have a common denominator constituted by the adoption of methodologies based on/loosely inspired by a specific branch of mathematics called graph theory.
In archaeological applications of graph theory, archaeological objects are connected by various means to other nodes, and forming a network. What is of interest of networks (whatever their form) is primarily their overall properties and the roles that nodes acquire by virtue of their position in that whole. As a result of this position nodes might have different degrees of “centrality”, “between-ness” or “remoteness”, features that, in turn, can be linked to aspects that it is possible to recognize in the archaeological record (prominence of a particular site in a region, abundance or lack of archaeological remains at some particular locales etc.). Finally the limiting/empowering capabilities of physical space are another aspect that network applications examining case studies from the Mediterranean past are starting to deal with (i.e. Knappett et al. 2008).
In this TASA session, led by Francesco Iacono (University College London), we will discuss and highlight the potential and the limitations of the use networks both as a rigorous methodology and as a broader metaphor of past human activity, addressing in particular issues related with:
● Why archaeology should be interested in networks & how networks in the past can help us to gain a better understanding of the current world
● Relationship between various notions of centrality & the emergence of prominent sites in a region
● The role of environment in shaping continuity or discontinuity of interaction (i.e. the role of the sea, a connecting element rather than a dividing one Horden and Purcell 2000, Broodbank 2000),
● Limitations entailed by the use of networks approaches with the often incomplete data offered by the archaeological record
● Social implications of networks. Are networks neutral? What is the influence of networks on societal differentiation?
Seminar will take place at 7pm on Monday March 14th 2011 at the Irish Institute of Hellenic Studies (IIHSA) at 51a Odos Notara.
Numbers are limited to 15, please RSVP by email (iihsa@hol.gr) to book a place and request the reading
Next Seminar: “Linguistics and Archaeology”
This TASA session aims at examining recent approaches on the interdisciplinary studies which combine linguistics and archaeology. Admittedly, the collaboration between these two very diverse fields has not always been fruitful in the past. In the last century, and to a certain extent even today, family tree models of historical linguistics have often been inaccurately applied to archaeological “cultures”. These linguistic models have been often utilized to associate a certain population group with a certain language family, in order to explain cultural changes in the archaeological record caused by an invading culture, which also brought a new language. This out-dated culture historical approach presumed a direct connection between material culture, language, and ethnicity; anachronistically using modern concepts to analyse the past.
In the last decades, however, both disciplines have changed considerably. Today both linguists and archaeologists agree that i) there is no necessary connection between archaeological “cultures” and languages; ii) population replacement is only one of the possible causes of cultural change; iii) population replacement is only one of the possible causes of language dispersal. In both disciplines, many different models have been proposed to explain cultural change or language dispersal, e.g. peer polity interaction, acculturation, conspicuous consumption; language shift through exchange networks, extensive bilingualism, Sprachbund, influence of prestige languages, etc…
Since there is no necessary correlation between the subjects of these two disciplines, i.e. languages and material culture, is it still possible to have productive collaboration between linguists and archaeologists? The short answer seems to be “yes, but carefully”. For the long answer, you are kindly invited to the next TASA session, which will be chaired by Mr. Hüseyin Çınar Öztürk (University of Cincinnati).
Questions for discussion will include:
• Can modern language dispersal models be applied to archaeological cultures?
• Can universally acknowledged pre/proto-historic migrations be challenged by linguistic analysis? (see Parker 2008)
• Can linguistic characteristics of a language tell us about the social mechanisms or subsistence systems of the society that spoke it? If so, how can we make use of that information as archaeologists?
Seminar will take place at 7pm on Monday 17th January 2011 at the Irish Institute of Hellenic Studies (IIHSA) at 51a Odos Notara.
Numbers are limited, please RSVP by email (iihsa@hol.gr) to book a place and request the reading
Next Seminar: “Social Memory in Archaeology”
Memory is not data stored in the mind, but ‘emerges from the mutual engagement between the person and world’ (Jones 2007). It mediates between the past and the present and is not a passive reading of external information. It is part of the ongoing process of interpretation and re-interpretation of the world.
Memory can also change through time and memories can be eradicated. Connerton (1989) argues that memories are socially constructed phenomena and not purely psychological occurrences or constructed by social narratives. Instead, he argues than memory is embodied in social practice and that habit memory is expressed in actual body or physical movements of people and in ritual performances. Social memory can cause inertia in social structures, although this is not always the case. In order to understand these social structures it is necessary to examine habit, bodily practises and ritual. Accumulated material memories can create/ define human identity and personhood (also group identities). Material culture as a medium for storing memory (also neurological/ cognitive ability i.e. human brain evolution & language) but also for creating new memories and thus a medium for transmission of information, knowledge. Archaeologists have tended to either treat past societies as if they had no memories and to process and analyse their actives as if they had no sense of their own past, or archaeologists tend to rely heavily on textual evidence, which can be limited, fraught with pitfalls and can be limited in scope. Alcock (2001) believes that memories are embedded in a material framework and memory in archaeology can be ‘experienced’ in several ways, through actions or gestures, monuments, symbols and, of course artefacts.
Three case studies are listed which discuss various ways in which memory is used:
Embodied memory used to promote political/social capital in mortuary feasting in Late Bronze Age Greece and how the past is manipulated by ruling elites (Hamilakis).
Aurignacian statuettes reflect cultural memory, and are not passive objects that are reproductions of collective ideas but instead are active objects with meaning and have links with cultural memory, although, they have individual variations they possess shared meaningful ideology (Porr).
Social memory in a wider landscape at a time of dissent in Archaic and Hellenistic Messenia, exploring monuments and competing versions of the past (Alcock).
This seminar led by Dr. Yannis Hamilakis (University of Southampton) intends to use three casestudies to frame the discussion. (Questions to frame the discussion will be sent later)
Seminar will take place at 6.30pm on Wednesday 19th May 2010 at the Irish Institute of Hellenic Studies (51a Odos Notara).
Please RSVP to request the reading as spaces are limited: iihsa@hol.gr
Next Seminar: “Mortuary Practices and Society”
Mortuary practices have been used as a tool to track changes through time in elite ideologies and local political geographies. Preston (2004) discussed local mortuary practices in order to comment on the level of external influences on Crete during the Final and Post Palatial periods. Mortuary monuments may have functioned as large statements and monumental symbols.
A comparison by Wright (1987) between Shaft Graves and tholos tombs at Mycenae suggests that there were changes in mortuary architecture due to the evolution of society from chiefdom to an early state. Regional differences and different social strategies throughout the same cultural sphere may be traced through a study of mortuary evidence as Voutsaki (1998) showed with the case study of tholos tombs
in Messenia and the Argolid during LH II and LH IIIB. The same monument may well have a different social significance through time.
Changes in mortuary practices that could be due to radical socio-political developments leading to the emergence of a single, central authority may be visible via the archaeological record. Manning (1998) discusses the above issue with material from Maroni Valley in Southern Cyprus during the 14th Century B.C., a very crucial time in the island’s history.
It is even possible to identify distinct styles of burial which reflect different religious traditions, such as a 17th Century A.D. cemetery at Corinth where the remains of 133 individuals indicate a mixing of Christian and Muslim burial practices (Rohn et al. 2009).
The above case-studies, although largely focused on prehistory show the various applications of the study of mortuary evidence available to archaeologists. This seminar, led by Dr. Angelos Papadopoulos (Department of Antiquities, Cyprus), will use the above case studies from a range of chronological periods and geographical regions to address the issues outlined below and discuss their
applicability to all chronological periods.
• Can mortuary practices be used to show social differentiation and stratification between elite
and non-elite groups or are archaeologists are biased from modern perceptions?
• Can we trace cultural influences and wider network patterns through grave-offerings?
• Is it possible to reconstruct social and political processes of a society from the study of tombs
and burials?
If interested in participating please email the IIHSA to request the recommended reading. Seminar will take place at 6.30pm on Thursday 15th April 2010 at the Irish Institute of Hellenic Studies (51a Odos Notara).
Please RSVP as spaces are limited: iihsa@hol.gr
Change of time for the “Anachronistic Identities?” seminar
The seminar is going to take place at 5.00pm on December 17.
Next Seminar: “Anachronistic Identities?”
“Perhaps instead of thinking of identity as an already accomplished fact… we should think, instead, of identity as a ‘production’, which is never complete, always in process, and always constituted within, not outside, representation.” (Hall, S. 1990, 232)
The purpose of this seminar is to examine the way in which cultural critics, archaeologists and historians think about questions of identity. Although the imposition of outdated models of identity onto the ancient world has been discussed in areas as diverse as gender, colonialism and age, the manner in which group identity is variously conceived and the applicability or otherwise of (modern) notions, such as ethnicity and culture, remains highly contentious throughout all areas of archaeological enquiry. It is now somewhat commonplace that scholarship on the ancient world reflects modern interests and concerns – not least a concern for identity itself. Post-colonial approaches to antiquity are now increasingly prevalent – as demonstrated by the recent concern for subaltern voices and hybridized identities. We are ultimately faced with something of a conundrum, however, since it is often unclear how such terms of reference/models of understanding can best applied to the study of antiquity. In addition to wider concerns regarding the most appropriate means of reconciling the nuanced complexity of archaeological theory with the practical imperatives of material culture analysis, the influence of concepts such as ethnicity can at times seem excessive, skewing debate in favour of one particular ‘type’ of identity. During the course of this seminar participants will be asked to reflect upon the prevailing trends and assumptions within their area of study in the light of a series of set texts. The latter adopt positions that either challenge or qualify the way in which identities are ‘imagined’/constructed within a variety of fields: culture theory, archaeology and classics. Their intellectual bases and wider applicability will be open to debate along with questions of a more general nature, e.g. to what extent and for what reasons does scholarship on Neolithic, Classical or Bronze Age identities differ according to historical period or ‘national’ tradition – Anglophone versus Francophone scholarship etc. The discussion will be chaired by Dr Naoise Mac Sweeney (Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge) and Dr Joseph Skinner (BSA).
Questions for discussion will include:
Is ‘identity’ itself a modern, rather than an ancient, concept?
Ethnicity, nationality, colonial – how far can these words be satisfactorily applied to ancient societies?
Do we need to revise the way in which we study past events and peoples or is the gap between theory and practice one to which we should be reconciled?
Would a different ‘take’ on identities have changed the way in which elements of the material and/or historic record were selectively interpreted?
If interested in participating please email the IIHSA to request the recommended reading
6.30pm Thursday 17th December 2009 at the Irish Institute of Hellenic Studies (51a Odos Notara). Please RSVP as spaces are limited.
Contact: iihsa@hol.gr
Next Seminar: “Imitation in Archaeology”
The Mediterranean basin contains complex and dynamic communication networks. Since Antiquity, ideas, objects and people have travelled on a regular base generating various forms of cultural contact. Cultural borrowing, or imitation, is one of them. This phenomenon, frequently encountered in archaeological studies, often represents a real challenge for archaeologists. Imitations affect the comprehension of archaeological issues related to technological knowledge, chronology and socio-economical aspects that need to be comprehended in order to reconstruct ancient history. The objective of the seminar will be to focus on the most frequent problems related to imitation in archaeological objects. The first meeting of the new session, led by Martin Perron (Université de Montréal & École doctorale d’archéologie, Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne), will discuss the concept’s definitions, mechanisms and purposes found in academic literature.
The issues we hope to discuss are:
- the causes of cultural transfer (trade, war, craftspeople, mobility, migration, centre-periphery relationship, etc.)
- the agents of transfer (the ideas, the objects or the individuals?);
- who is imitating? for whom and for which purposes?
- the techniques and the cognitive aspects associated with cultural reproduction;
- the local needs that encourage acceptance of foreign influences in the “receptive environment”;
- the degree of acceptance of influences (integral imitation, hybridation, rejection?) and what it can tell us about the “receptive community”;
- the social impact(s) that imitation generates on individuals & collectives welcoming it;
- Strategies, symbolisms and functions lying behind the phenomenon.
The last part of the seminar will be dedicated to the methodological approaches (stylistic, typological, archaeo-metrical, etc.) followed by archaeologists in order to distinguish imitations from genuine objects.
If interested in participating please email the IIHSA to request the suggested and recommended reading.
6.30pm Friday 06th November 2009 at the Irish Institute of Hellenic Studies (51a Odos Notara). Please RSVP as spaces are limited.
Contact:
Next Seminar: The Archaeology of Religion and Ritual
Religion and ritual have been core concerns of archaeology for much of the discipline’s history. Many of the world’s most famous and impressive archaeological sites, from Stonehenge to the Pyramids of the Yucatan are often thought of as primarily religious or ritual sites. At the same time the study of ritual and religion has always had an ambiguous reputation within archaeology. Many scholars have regarded ritual and religion warily, as unrealistic subjects for investigation, poorly defined as phenomena, inaccessible through material evidence, or as merely convenient labels for the currently inexplicable in the archaeological record. It has been noted that even within post-processual archaeology with its notorious concern for the ‘ideational’ the term religion rarely crops up.
In this seminar we will discuss how archaeologists can approach ritual and religion. We will discuss whether they are clearly definable phenomena cross-culturally; whether they can be identified in the archaeological record; and how the study of ritual and religion impacts on other subjects within archaeology.
Reading:
J. Brüch, “Ritual and Rationality” in European Journal of Archaeology 1999
T. Insoll, “Chapter 3: Current Approaches” in T. Insoll, Archaeology, Ritual, Religion
C. Renfrew, “The Archaeology of Religion” in Renfrew and Zubrow, The Ancient Mind
If you are interested in participating please email the Irish Institute of Hellenic Studies. 4pm Saturday 14th March 2009 at the Irish Institute of Hellenic Studies (51a Odos Notara)
Contact: iihsa@hol.gr
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