Archaeology and history of Lydia from the early Lydian period to the late Antiquity (8th century BC - 6th century AD): an international symposium

May 17-18, 2017, Izmir, Turkey

The Izmir Center of the Archaeology of Western Anatolia (EKVAM) is pleased to inform you that an international symposium on the Lydia region in western Turkey will take place on May 17-18, 2017 at the Dokuz Eylül University (DEU) in Izmir, Turkey.

Lydia was an ancient region, located in inner western Anatolia, stretching from today’s Turkish province of Manisa in the west to Uşak in the east. Since the book by C.H. Roosevelt, entitled “The Archaeology of Lydia, from Gyges to Alexander”, archaeologically and historically Lydia has become a special focus in the fields of ancient Anatolian studies. We warmly invite contributions by scholars and graduate students from a variety of disciplines related to this region. The aim of this symposium is to report on the state of research concerning Lydia between c. 8th century B.C. and 6th century A.D. Intended to bring together scholars of archaeology, history, historical geography, epigraphy and other related disciplines in ancient Anatolian studies to discuss a range of issues concerning this region’s archaeology and history, this symposium should be an excellent opportunity to increase our knowledge about this region.

The following theme groups address the main questions of the symposium and are prescriptive:
  • Archaeological field projects and museum studies in Lydia,
  • Lydia during the Iron Age,
  • Lydia in ancient mythology,
  • Lydia during the Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic, Roman and Early Byzantine periods,
  • Lydia and Lydians in ancient authors, eg. Homer, Herodotus, Strabo, Hippolytus of Rome and Hierocles,
  • Ethno-cultural landscape of ancient Lydia and ethnoarchaeology,
  • Lydian language, script and epigraphy,
  • First coinage in Lydia: Reasons, circulations, dynamics and mechanisms,
  • The Royal Road,
  • Relationships between Lydia and Ionia, the Achaemenid Empire as well as other neighbouring regions,
  • Historical geography and settlement patterns in Hellenistic, Roman and Late Roman-Early Byzantine Lydia,Lydia as a part of the Roman province Asia and the “seven churches of Apocalypse”,Jews and Jewish heritage in Roman and Early Byzantine Lydia,
  • The province Lydia under the tetrarchy reform of Emperor Diocletian in A.D. 296,
  • Episcopal sees of the late Roman province of Lydia,
  • Population and settlement boom in the “Justinianic” era,
  • Miscellanea.
  • On these themes and questions, all approaches and methods able to bring some progress to our current knowledge are of course welcome: archaeology, ancient history, historical geography, epigraphy, numismatic, history of art, cultural anthropology etc. English is the official language of the symposium. The symposium will take place at the Blue Hall of DESEM in the Chancellery Building of DEU. A local archaeological journal is planned as a special issue containing the symposium’s abstracts which will also be made available on the website. The proceedings of the symposium will be published in 2017. The symposium is free of charge. We will make the required hotel reservations as soon as we know the exact number of participants. The approximate cost for the accommodation per night + breakfast will be 20 €. A post-symposium excursion is planned on May 19-21 to Chios, Greece through Izmir-Çeşme. For the participants who cannot travel to Izmir, we will arrange a video-conference facility through Skype. There are several low-cost flight companies (Pegasus, Sunexpress, Onur Air, Easyjet, Eurowings etc.) that operate direct flights to Izmir from several locations. The symposium’s program will be regulating for those who are also planning to participate in the symposium in Thessaloniki, Greece, entitled “Classical Pottery of the Northern Aegean and its Periphery “ which will take place on the same date with the Lydia Symposium, i.e. May 17-20, 2017. We would be delighted, if you could consider contributing to our symposium and contact us with the required information below before January 1, 2017.

    Our e-mail address is: terracottas@deu.edu.tr. For all your queries concerning the symposium our phone number is: +90.544.938 54 64. The organizers seek to widen participation at this symposium, and would like to encourage colleagues from all parts of the world to attend. The symposium committee kindly requests that you alert any persons within your research community who would be interested in participating at this symposium, either by forwarding our e-mail, or by printing this circular and displaying it in your institution. We hope that you will be able to join us at the Dokuz Eylül University, and look forward to seeing you in Izmir!

    Organizers of the Symposium: Prof. Ergün Laflı (DEU, Izmir), Dr Sami Patacı (University of Ardahan), Dr Gülseren Kan Şahin (University of Sinop).

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    Dare to Choose: Making Choices in Archaeological Heritage Management

    EAC Symposium, 9-11 March, 2017, Athens, Greece                                                                                               
    European Archaeological Council - Europae Archaeologiae Consilium - Conseil Européen d’Archéologie

    The 18th Heritage Management Symposium (9-10 March) will focus on the theme Dare to Choose: Making Choices in Archaeological Heritage Management (working title). The scientific coordination is in the hands of Ms Ann Degraeve (adegraeve@gob.brussels), EAC Board member and Head of Department of Archaeology at the Brussels Regional Public Service.

    The archaeological discipline puts effort into achieving the greatest possible scientific added value and supporting the potential values of archaeological heritage for society. However, choices have to be made at different stages and levels of the archaeological heritage management process. Several interests are at play when making these choices: science, society, financial, legal and logistical possibilities, public support. Choices are based on the weighing up of different factors such as values, interests and practical opportunity.

    A call to action for Europe’s archaeology was set out in the Amersfoort Agenda. It identifies the subject of “decision-making” (theme 2, “Dare to Choose”) as one of the three key themes in meeting the current challenges facing archaeological heritage management in Europe.

    The key aspects in making choices can be resumed through its three agenda items:

    • Be conscious, explicit and transparent about the choices being made and the consequences of selection in the archaeological heritage management process;

    • Develop a sound infrastructure to support the making of informed choices: identify research frameworks and criteria, and enable access to current archaeological knowledge and data;

    • Adopt a broader perspective when making choices: open up boundaries within the discipline and involve other stakeholders (and their interests) in the process.

    Clear choices should indeed ultimately result in a more consistent and transparent decision-making, a stronger defence of funding for archaeological excavation, a more sustainable approach to archaeological heritage management and a better-informed and engaged public.

    This Symposium will give EAC members and others a welcome opportunity to explore the variety of approaches in decision making mechanisms and actions and consider how they may become embedded in general archaeological policy and practice over the next few years.

    The Symposium will last one and a half days (9 and 10 March) and will consist of three presentation sessions followed by discussions – including questions and comments from the floor. Each presenter will propose actions as part of their presentation/paper. The results of the Symposium will feed into the EAC “Making Choices” and “Archaeological Archiving” Working Groups and form part of the future EAC Guidelines on the basics and requisites of informed, transparent and structured choices in the archaeological process.

    Thursday 9th March 2017
    Session 1 – The decision making mechanisms. Not everything is being excavated, recorded, researched, archived with the same intensity. The aim of this session is to explore the various decision making processes within their context: on what grounds do we choose the archaeological sites to excavate, the preservation, the analysis, the archiving and the publication of the chosen datasets?; how can we strike the best balance between financial implications and public support?; what are the values of the related stakeholders and other disciplines and how do we take them into consideration?; how can we be transparent about the choices being made, what is the minimum infrastructure needed for making the necessary choices and what are the long-term consequences of these choices?

    Friday 10th March 2017
    Session 2 – The choice of research questions for excavations. Is question-driven fieldwork vital or not? How do we identify research frameworks in order to make the necessary choices? What questions need to be answered and subsequently what methods / field strategies do they require? How do we develop criteria and standards for assessing the significance of the archaeological sites? Which political/economical/social realities do we take into account in the creation of our selection criteria?

    Session 3 – The choice concerning the involvement of society. This session will give an overview of the choices operated concerning public participation and publicity and the question of how we can make informed choices allowing us to achieve not only the greatest possible scientific value but also support the potential value of the archaeological heritage to society. The practice of “embedding archaeology in society” through public participation is still in its infancy, but basic questions already appear: What does the public/society want from archaeologists? Which choices do we make regarding public engagement and public awareness? How can/should the various stakeholders and their interests be involved in the archaeological heritage management process? How can we adopt a broader perspective and explore ways of involving others in making our choices?

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    Zwischen Pragmatismus und Inszenierung? Zur sekundären Nutzung von Objekten, Orten, Räumen und Landschaften in prähistorischen und antiken Gesellschaften

    17 - 18. Februar 2017, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Germany

    Fokus der Tagung ist die kulturelle Praxis der Wiedernutzung und Umnutzung von Objekten, Räumen, Orten und Landschaften. Diese Praxis wird in der archäologischen Forschung zwar häufig beobachtet und erwähnt, als soziales Phänomen aber bislang nur selten ausdrücklich thematisiert. Im Rahmen eines interdisziplinären Kolloquiums soll insbesondere beleuchtet werden Wie und Warum Menschen auf Vergangenes bewusst zurückgreifen oder Vergangenes durch Veränderung bewusst verdrängen.

    Die archäologischen Disziplinen bieten die große Chance diachrone und grenzübergreifende Perspektiven einnehmen zu können und so entsprechende Phänomene zu identifizieren, beispielsweise durch die Feststellung von Formveränderungen oder durch Re-Kontextualisierungen von Objekten, Räumen, Orten oder Landschaften.

    Durch die Einbeziehung verschiedener Disziplinen (Alte Philologien, Alte Geschichte, Ethnologie, Soziologie, …), an die sich dieser Call gleichermaßen wendet, erhoffen wir uns einerseits eine inhaltliche Schärfung und methodologische Erweiterung sowie andererseits die Möglichkeit unterschiedliche Facetten und Quellensituationen vergleichend einbeziehen zu können.

    Um über eine gemeinsame Diskussionsbasis zu verfügen, schlagen wir folgende Themenblöcke und Fragestellungen vor:

    • Das Phänomen sekundärer Nutzungen und ihre Identifikation: In diesem allgemeinen Themenblock sollen die Gedanken um folgende Fragen kreisen: Wie lassen sich Wieder- und Umnutzungen erkennen? Wie lassen sich verschiedene Handlungsrahmen in der Vieldeutigkeit der Quellen konturieren? Die Beiträge sollen sich anhand von Fallbeispielen mit den Begriffen Wiedernutzung und Umnutzung beschäftigen.

    • Die Wiedernutzung von Objekten, Räumen, Orten und Landschaften: Zielfragen könnten lauten: Handelt es sich in dem überlieferten Fall um eine bewusste Anknüpfung an Vergangenes nach einem zeitlichen Hiatus? Lassen sich aus den Quellen Ursachen und Wirkungen herauslesen?

    • Die Umnutzung von Objekten, Räumen, Orten und Landschaften: Zielfragen könnten lauten: Handelt es sich in dem überlieferten Fall um eine bewusste Ablehnung von Vergangenem? Lassen sich aus dem Kontext Ursachen und Wirkungen herausarbeiten? 

    Um die Relevanz der sozialen Praxis und Prozesse einer zeitübergreifenden Bezugnahme bzw. Neubesetzung interdisziplinär diskutieren zu können, richtet sich unsere Einladung an Wissenschaftler*innen und insbesondere Nachwuchswissenschaftler*innen aus dem gesamten Spektrum der Altertums- und Geisteswissenschaften.

    Wir sind eine Forschergruppe an der Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, der Goethe-Universität Frankfurt sowie der Römisch-Germanischen Kommission Frankfurt mit einem Interessenschwerpunkt an der skizzierten Thematik und freuen uns auf anregende Vortragsvorschläge bis zum 15.10.2016!

    Nähere Informationen zum Programm ergehen nach Auswahl der eingegangenen Papers, voraussichtlich im November 2017.

    Abstracts von max. 300 Wörtern richten Sie bitte an eine der folgenden Ansprechpersonen:
    Prof. Dr. H. Frielinghaus (JGU Mainz) – Frieling@uni-mainz.de
    Dr. D. Neumann (RgK Frankfurt) – Daniel.Neumann@dainst.de
    Prof. Dr. D. Wicke (GU Frankfurt) – Wicke@em.uni-frankfurt.de

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    V (XXI) Russian national archaeological congress

    by Ekaterina Dolbunova, The State Hermitage Museum (katjer@mail.ru)                                     
    The V (XXI) Russian national archaeological congress will be held in Barnaul (Altai Krai, Russia) on 2-7th October 2017. This is the fifth congress held in post-Soviet time. It will be held more than 100 years after the last pre-revolutionary (XVI) archaeological congress, which was supposed to be conducted in July 1914 in Pskov, but cancelled because of the First World War.

    Fifteen Russian archaeological congresses were organized in the Russian Empire. They were conducted in different cities of the Russian Empire; reports connected to the history and archaeology of the area, where they were held, dominated. The idea to create such conferences appeared within Moscow archaeological society, founded by A.S. Uvarov. The congresses were supported by Grand Prince Mikhail Nikolaevich, A.S. Uvarov, Ministry of Education and other organizations and private persons. Permission to conduct Russian archaeological congresses was obtained in 1868, and the first one was conducted in Moscow on March 16th, 1869. Further congresses were organized regularly every three-four years, each time in a new town. 130 archaeologists participated in the first congress, 240 in the third and 400 in the sixth congress. The congress lasted for about one week. The organizing committee of each congress made a list of questions for each congress and prepared exhibitions. Archaeological prospection surveys and excavations were conducted in the area where the future congress was supposed to be organized. Afterwards the conference proceedings were published, encompassing three to five volumes of articles.  

    In 2006 the tradition of conducting Russian national archaeological congresses – one of the most significant forums of archaeological science – was resumed in Russia. It represents the most recent discoveries and a wide range of current applications of archaeological science. 700 participants took part in the former IV (XX) Russian national archaeological congress from more than 70 territorial entities of the Russian Federation and nine foreign countries. The V Russian archaeological congress is organized by the Altai State University (Barnaul), the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the SB of the RAS (Novosibirsk), the Institute of Archaeology of RAS (Moscow) and the Institute for the History of Material Culture of RAS (St Petersburg).

    More information about the V (XXI) Russian national archaeological congress can be found on http://konf.asu.ru/

    For a history of Russian archaeological congresses, see L. S. Klein, Istoriya rossiiskoi arheologii: ucheniya, shkoly i lichnosti. Tom 1. Obshii obzor i dorevolyucionnoe vremya. SPb, 2014.

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    Free issue of EXPRESSION

    by Emmanuel Anati (atelier.etno@gmail.com)

    New issue of EXPRESSION MAGAZINE on: WHY ART? 

    Issue 12 of EXPRESSION e-magazine is just now available. Over 100 pages include papers related to the Project “WHY ART?” Authors from different scientific, cultural and geographical areas, from five continents, are opening a debate that is further expanding. Should you wish to receive a free copy, just ask for it at atelier.etno@gmail.com. Provide your name, mailing address and e-mail, and the free copy will be sent to you.

    The next issue of EXPRESSION will face another fascinating topic: “Abstract signs in prehistoric and tribal art: meaning and problems of interpretation”. In the framework of the project ‘Understanding what is defined abstract’ colleagues are invited to present papers about the meaning and problems of interpretation of abstract signs in prehistoric and tribal art. Scholars, students and other persons of culture are welcome to participate in this research, presenting papers on their projects, their discoveries and their ideas. After being reviewed, the accepted papers will be published in EXPRESSION magazine and eventually in a monographic volume. It would be a pleasure to consider your contribution.

    Among the many aspects of such a discussion we anticipate some topics:

    1. The decoding and possible meaning of specific signs defined as abstract.
    2. Specific cases of abstract art and their significance.
    3. Syntactic relations between figurative and abstract art.
    4. Pictograms, ideograms and psychograms.
    5. Tribal explanations of abstract signs.
    6. Abstract art and communication.
    7. Recurring abstract signs and their meaning. 

    Other topics can be considered.

    Following the traditions of EXPRESSION magazine you are invited to propose a paper on a specific topic or site. Short papers of 1,500–3,000 words are suggested, preferably with illustrations and related captions.  We look forward to the pleasure of reading your paper.

    The goal of EXPRESSION is to promote knowledge and ideas concerning the intellectual and spiritual expressions of non-literate societies. It is an open forum in conceptual anthropology welcoming contributions. Colleagues having something to say will find their space in this e-magazine, which is reaching people of culture and academic institutions in over 60 countries. 

    For further information or for submitting papers contact atelier.etno@gmail.com.

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    Historic England digital magazine

    by Robin Page (Robin.Page@HistoricEngland.org.uk)

    Historic England has recently published Issue 3 of Historic England Research digital magazine, available to download as a free PDF https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/historic-england-research-3/

    and now also incorporated in a new web feature entitled Latest Research https://historicengland.org.uk/whats-new/research/

    These carry news of aspects of  research by Historic England and our partners into the Historic Environment (both archaeological and built).

    Articles on archaeological topics include:

    A fresh look at the remarkable Must Farm Bronze Age site. Much of the emphasis of reporting on the site has understandably been about its level of preservation and the staggering finds that afford a snapshot of domestic life in the Bronze Age. In this article however, site director Mark Knight looks at the site in its wider settlement and landscape context. https://historicengland.org.uk/whats-new/research/must-farm-timber-platform/

    It also highlights surveys that are revealing past landscapes in the north-west of England https://historicengland.org.uk/whats-new/research/revealing-past-landscapes-cumbria-lancashire/ and in West Wiltshire https://historicengland.org.uk/whats-new/research/changing-historical-landscape-west-wiltshire/

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