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Keynote lectures

A contemporary view of hunters and gatherers adaptations, through an under-researched African region

Makarius Itambu

New field research in the Singida region, in Tanzania’s central plateaus, represents an emblematic case to study early human biocultural evolution and raises issues relevant for reflections on archaeological theory. Its emerging significative heritage, with contexts ranging from the Early-Middle Stone Age (ESA-MSA) period to the present time, including more than 50 stratified open-air sites, rock shelters and rock art sites, shows how much modern archaeological research can acquire from an area so far under-researched. It is still possible, in 21st century CE, to change the geographic narrative of archaeology by expanding research horizons and by designing and devising grassroots projects with the local community.

Furthermore, the recent transition of hunting-gathering communities to agropastoral economic strategies, has condensed in the last 50 years a major transformation of human socio-economic, and cultural adaptive behaviors to varied ecological niches. For our study, we adopt multiple cutting-edge palaeoecological proxies such as phytoliths, stable isotopes, and plant wax biomarkers to complement site and stone tool studies. Our goal is to better understand the historical trends related to ancient mosaic habitats, and the role that climatic and environmental drivers had on shaping human cultural and technological adaptations to the arid environments of Singida during the Pleistocene-Holocene.
The project is framed inside a community-oriented research project, namely the ‘Singida Heritage & Archaeological Research Project’ (SHARP), recognizing archaeology as a practice intertwined with a fabric of social and cultural relations. African scholars generally lack direct funding, and are still unlikely to obtain grants from external funders, therefore we still work with little support or resources. We’re here to demonstrate that we can change not only where archaeology is done in Africa, but also how we’re changing project design, stakeholder engagement, and knowledge mobilization.

Biography

Makarius Itambu earned his PhD degree in Archaeology in 2020 with a specialization in Biological Anthropology. Immediately after his graduation, he returned to teach at the University of Dar Es Salaam (UDSM) in Tanzania. He teaches Palaeolithic Archaeology, Human Evolution and Stone Age Archaeology, as well as Research Methods courses at the UDSM. Mak Itambu is interested in exploring and underscoring hominin behaviours in relation to food procurement strategies in the past, stone tools manufacture and the synergetic links between hominin-environmental interactions, cognition abilities and subsistence systems. Specifically, he uses phytolith analysis in combination with archaeological and plant micro-remains data to reflect the nature and type of environments that were occupied by early humans and the plant environments surrounding their habitats during the Pleistocene-Holocene epochs. Also, he performs microscopic analysis of the soil and sediment for phytoliths, and the laboratory treatment for stable isotopes and granulometric analyses.
Mak is a research affiliate at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology MPG-Jena, Germany. Similarly, he received a Mobility Grant from MPG to be able to routinely travel to Germany to undertake radiocarbon dating (14C) and Stable Isotopes analysis. In 2024, he obtained a MOPGA grant from the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs-hosted by the CEREGE & CNRS-France (Research stay in France for 12 months). He is currently, relocated to France to learn and practice the newly emerging lab analytics and equipment for archaeomagnetism, (triple oxygen isotope composition of phytoliths 170), XRD & laser granulometry at the Européen de Recherche et d'Enseignement des Géosciences de L'environnement), Aix- en Provence et Aix Marseille Université, France. Additionally, he recently received a 1-year research grant from the Gerda Henkel Foundation for his research project entitled: ‘Community Engagement in Safeguarding the Rock Arts of Singida Region, Tanzania’ in order to undertake a community engagement-oriented project to salvage the endangered rock art sites of the Singida region.

The Making of a Mediterranean Network: The Retrospective Ethnogenesis of the Greeks

Naoíse Mac Sweeney

The ancient Greek world can be conceptualised as a network, stretching across the Mediterranean and beyond into the Black Sea. Over the last fifty years, scholars have debated how this network came into being, arguing for different models based on centrally-organised colonisation, mass migration, entrepreneurial movements, and the haphazard mobility of individuals. In all models however, the directionality of human travel is the same – it is assumed that Greek people travelled outwards from their original homeland in the Aegean, and created the network by settling in new and far-flung locations. In this paper, I will argue the opposite. Based on the work of the ERC project, Migration and the Making of the Ancient Greek World (MIGMAG), I will propose that the ancient Greek world was created, not by the outwards emigration of people with a pre-existing Greek identity, but rather by complex multidirectional and multiscalar movements leading to a gradual cultural convergence, culminating in the retrospective ethnogenesis of the Greeks.

Biography

Naoíse Mac Sweeney is Professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of Vienna. She is an Academic Editor of the journal Anatolian Studies, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Antiquaries (UK), a Corresponding Member of the Archaeological Institute of America (USA), and currently leading the ERC project, Migration and the Making of the Ancient Greek World (MIGMAG). The main focus of her research is migration, cultural interactions, and identities in the first millennium BCE, particularly in Anatolia and the Greek world. An important second strand of her work considers the uses of antiquity in modern political discourse.

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Material Culture Acting from Beyond Time: “Antique” Artifacts in Early Medieval Mortuary Practices within the Central Balkans

Monika Milosavljević

As the remnants of the post-Roman world transformed into the early Medieval period, there is observable significant and evident reuse of acontemporaneous, “antique” material culture together with the adoption of “anachronistic” mortuary practices. Roman culture lingered, continuing to reverberate into the future in medieval communities that had not been part of the original multi-scalar empire, nor had maintained a direct connection to the land throughout the previous empire. Early medieval mortuary practices of the central Balkans clearly demonstrate interconnections in social and cultural construction in a time of crisis, building upon the remains of "the shoulders of giants”. Cemeteries and individual graves from the 9th to 11th century around the Danubian limes (located in modern-day Serbia) are most recognizable. The phenomenon of reuse may be more concretely labelled the “percolation of time” i.e., how the link to the past could be used to justify the present by newly-settled small communities of Slavs and Avars in the Early Middle Ages. The key takeaway is that the dissemination of material culture and ideas need not merely be derived directly from the centre to the periphery and in reverse, but may trickle out locally beyond assumed boundaries of time. New communities continue to be shaped from the past, selecting and augmenting to the original meanings of the material culture of the past while assigning ones of their own.

Biography

Monika Milosavljević is an associate professor at the Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Belgrade, as well as a co-head of the Center for Theoretical Archaeology at the same department. She has been a Medieval European Research Community (MERC) committee member since 2019. Her research interests lie in the political usage of archaeology, the history of archaeology, the archaeology of identity and archaeological theory in general. In recent years, Monika has focused on medieval mortuary archaeology and the stećci phenomenon - medieval monumental grave markers of unknown origin dating from the 12th to 16th century. Moreover, she is interested in the history and philosophy of science, particularly the philosophy of archaeology and evidential reasoning. Believing that archaeology as a prominent field has its place in the everyday world around us, she is passionate about the benefits of plurality in archaeology, from epistemological positions to everyday teaching practice.

Materialising Sacred Landscapes: An Investigative Tool for Understanding Social Transformation

Giorgos Papantoniou

A holistic approach to landscape archaeology considers ‘landscape’ as an expression of society within a system of cultural meaning; it gives equal consideration to built and natural environments, as well as humans and movable objects, seeking to ‘read’ place-making and materialisation of ideologies. This paper, using Cyprus as a case-study, aims to raise issues for discussion about the changes in the use and concept of sacred landscapes as developed in the Archaic and Classical periods under the Cypriot kings (the basileis), but then continued to function in a new imperial environment, that of the rule of the Ptolemaic strategos and later of the Roman proconsul. This diachronic, inter-disciplinary and Cypro-centric approach reveals that the new politico-economic Hellenistic and Roman structures were, as in the preceding periods, supported by the construction of symbolically charged sacred landscapes. Thus, during the long history of the island, we may identify three pivotal phases: first the consolidation of the Cypriot polities and the establishment of a ‘full’ sacred landscape as shown by the rise of the number of urban and extra-urban sanctuaries; then the transition from segmented to unitary administration under Ptolemaic and Roman imperial rule and the consolidation of a more ‘unified sacred landscape’; finally, as a conclusion, the establishment of a number of Christian bishoprics on the island and the movement back to a ‘full’ sacred landscape as shown by the establishment of a great number of urban and extra-urban basilicas. Case-studies will also be drawn from the archaeological surface survey project in the Xeros River Valley in Larnaka, where we have recently combined landscape, historical and community archaeology to address issues related to contemporary cultural heritage and societal transformations, such as healing of negative memories and contribute to various communities’ wellbeing. Moving beyond the particular example of Cyprus, this contribution offers a paradigm for the implications that the employment of the ‘sacred landscapes’ concept may have when addressing issues of socio-political and socio-economic transformations.

Biography

Giorgos Papantoniou (BA University of Cyprus, PhD Trinity College Dublin) is Assistant Professor in Ancient Visual and Material Culture in the Department of Classics, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. He has also previously held research and teaching positions at the University of Cyprus, the Open University of Cyprus, the Institute for Mediterranean Studies in Crete, and the University of Bonn in Germany. He currently coordinates the international scientific network ‘Unlocking Sacred Landscapes’ (UnSaLa). Focusing on Mediterranean archaeology with Cyprus as a case-study, his agenda is based on interdisciplinary and diachronic approaches bridging the Greek and the Roman worlds: bringing together landscape, archaeological, textual, iconographic evidence and deploying anthropological models, he works on the visual and material culture of the island from the Bronze Age to Late Antiquity. He is currently developing new interests in cultural heritage and historical archaeology, especially archaeology and wellbeing, reception studies and use of ethnography. More specifically, he focuses and publishes consistently on four diverse yet interconnected themes: landscape archaeology; Hellenistic society and image making; material culture and the archaeology of ritual and religion; and cultural heritage studies.

Another radiocarbon revolution? Uses of single tree-ring 14C in improving radiocarbon calibration and anchoring chronological frameworks

Charlotte Pearson

There is no doubt that radiocarbon dating has been revolutionary for the archaeological discipline, but situations still persist where it does not agree with archaeological expectations. Where such issues cannot be resolved, attempts to synchronize multi-region chronologies can be held up for decades. Recent advances in radiocarbon instrumentation mean that it is now possible to upgrade data sets underpinning the international radiocarbon calibration curve (IntCal) with a far greater sample depth and precision than was previously practical. The result is a more acuate representation of past 14C against which to calibrate radiocarbon samples. For some time periods this will likely make little difference to calibrated dates, but in others we now know it could impact dating results by 70 or more years. The calibration data also reveal globally reproducible patterns or events in 14C which can be used in new ways to anchor chronologies and compliment improved calibration. This talk will preview some likely changes for calibrated radiocarbon dates between 2000 and 1400 BCE and provide examples of how single year 14C can be used to anchor floating archaeological records.

Biography

Dr Charlotte Pearson is a geoarchaeologist, radiocarbon and tree-ring scientist based at the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona, Tucson, USA, where she is also affiliated faculty in the School of Anthropology and Geosciences. She gained her bachelor of science degree in environmental archaeology at the University of Wales, Trinity St David, her master's degree in geoarchaeology and her PhD in archaeological science at the University of Reading, UK. Her research focuses on using tree-rings, radiocarbon and paleoenvironmental evidence to provide more accurate chronological frameworks for inter-regional archaeology and geological hazards. She serves as part of the International Radiocarbon Calibration Curve working group where she is part of a team generating and refining single year (tree-ring based) radiocarbon data to improve the accuracy of the radiocarbon calibration curve. She is currently developing the National Science Foundation funded 'TIME lab', at the University of Arizona, which will continue this work and innovate further high-precision dating solutions utilizing tree-rings, radiocarbon, stable isotope and chemical evidence.

Stratified lives around the sanctuary of San Casciano dei Bagni (Siena, Italy): archaeology, ancient bronzes, modern communities

Jacopo Tabolli

This lecture presents the new discoveries at the sanctuary of Bagno Grande, at San Casciano dei Bagni (Siena, Italy), a thermo-mineral spring still in use today. The Etruscan and Roman communities that structured and frequented the sanctuary between the 3rd century BCE and the 5th century CE left visible architectural, sculptural and textual evidence. Moving beyond the now famous votive offerings in bronze, we will investigate the complex multilingual and multicultural elements that are stratified in the shrine.
Multilingualism and Multiculturalism are also the two main components of the international research project around Bagno Grande. The role of the current local community is crucial within the research project and its interaction with universities and political institutions (such as Region Tuscany and the Italian Ministry of Culture) is a primer of the research. Decolonizing the assumption that links every archaeological research to the initiative of academics, we will explore how the community of San Casciano dei Bagni over the past thirty years has led the research and promoted the enhancement of cultural heritage: as a result, the impact assessment analyses of the ongoing project since its early phases keeps resulting into a constant renegotiation of the research objectives of the project.

Biography

Jacopo Tabolli is Assistant Professor of pre-Roman Archaeology and Etruscology (ARCH-01/C) at the Università per Stranieri di Siena and Director of the Centre for Archaeology of Diversity and Mobility in pre-Roman Italy. He received his BA in 2006, MA in 2008 and completed his PhD in 2012 at Sapienza University of Rome. Between 2015 and 2017 Jacopo has been a post-doctoral researcher at Trinity College Dublin, where he also taught for two years and a Research Associate at the University of Cyprus. Between 2017 and 2021 he was an Archaeological Officer at the Soprintendenza Archeologia, belle arti e paesaggio per le province di Siena, Grosseto e Arezzo. He published two books, edited twelve volumes and wrote more than 120 papers on peer-reviewed journals and book chapters. Editor of Officina Etruscologia and founder of the Museo Archeologico Virtuale di Narce, his main research interests include also cultural heritage law and economy of culture.
His main research interests focus on Etruscan and pre-Roman material culture, funerary ideology, ancient political landscape and sanctuaries. Jacopo has been excavating in several necropoleis, sanctuaries and settlements. Jacopo has been working for many years on Etruscan Veii and the Ager Faliscus (especially on Narce), combining the study of material culture with archival research. He has been addressing in particular the role of legal and illegal excavators at the time of the Unification of Italy (Francesco Mancinelli Scotti for instance, published in 2021 with M. Cristina Biella). Jacopo is currently conducting multidisciplinary research on the archaeology of the territory of ancient Chiusi, with a focus on the protourban and urban development of the centre, and on the territory to the west of the Cetona Mountain, towards the Ombrone Valley and the area of Etruscan Saina/Siena. He is also interested in the role of the small islands of Tuscany between the Late Bronze Age and the Romanization.
Jacopo currently directs the archaeological excavations at San Casciano dei Bagni (Etruscan and Roman sanctuary at Bagno Grande) and at Isola del Giglio (Seascape project), receiving funding from different national and international institutions. He co-directs the excavation at the tumulus of Laona, in Palaepaphos (Cyprus), within the framework of the PULP project, directed by Maria Iacovou. Alongside the excavations, Jacopo is developing the display of the artifacts and contexts in local and national museums, integrating the results of field activities and surveys into broader projects of enhancing and communicating cultural heritage to local communities.

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