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6th INTERNATIONAL POSTGRADUATE CONFERENCE PERSPECTIVES ON CLASSICAL ARCHAEOLOGY (PeClA)
Dates: 11th–12th December 2017
Location: Celetná 20, Prague (room no. C 141)
Organizing Institution: Institute of Classical Archaeology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University
PeClA 2017 is a two‐day conference in Classical Archaeology and Classics aimed at postgraduate / doctoral students traditionally offering a space for presenting research results, discussion, and an exchange of ideas, in a friendly and supportive environment. This year's theme of the conference is: RESOURCES: POWER AND CONNECTIVITY IN THE ANCIENT MEDITERRANEAN.
Speaking of resources, one usually thinks directly of the copper ingots on the Uluburun shipwreck or the grain from Egypt in the later periods. However, the range of resources being traded and consumed by the ancient Mediterranean societies was much broader than that! It encompassed not only the omnipresent metals and other raw materials, such as stones, minerals, clay or agricultural products, but also ready‐made tools or even human power and the related transfer of knowledge and technologies. Therefore, the primary aim of the conference will be to identify all the possible facets of the catch‐all term Resources, from Prehistory to Late Antiquity. A diachronic approach in environmental archaeology and resource procurement strategies can offer results in shifting networks and economic background.
Alongside the commonly used means of geoarcheology, archaeometry, archeobotany or archeozoology, the conference will primary focus on the social and political dimension of resource handling: What was the impact of unequal geographical distribution of resources across the Mediterranean? How was their mining, production and distribution organised? Who was in control? What about trade of perishable items, such as textiles, horses and slaves? This brings us also to the old question: is there a causal link between the resources, trade networks and connectivity as such in the Mediterranean? A broader employment of a post‐colonial perspective can be especially useful in this respect. Conceived broadly, this theme gives young scholars from different European countries and the USA the full opportunity to present and discuss their opinions and thoughts applicable to the theme.
The keynote lecture with the title Resources and Their Impact on Aegean-Anatolian Societies Through Time. A View from Prehistory will be held by Prof. Dr. Barbara Horejs, the director of the Institute for Oriental and European Archaeology of the Academy of Science in Vienna.