Abstracts Book
1. An Archaeology Commi2ed to the Future: From the Social andEnvironmental Value of Archaeological Theory to the Decolonisa@on of
Development-Led Archaeology.
Session abstract
This session aims to apply a crea2ve and specula2ve lens to archaeology, as a ﬁeld of researchand prac2ce, to explore, in an ambi2ous and op2mis2c way, how the discipline might look likein the future. The session is par2cularly interested in exploring how we shall bridge the gap
between archaeological theory and development-led prac2ces, to explore how they can bothcontribute towards a more sustainable future for the discipline and society.
Some of the ques2ons we would like to explore are:
What will be the contribu2on of both research and development-led archaeology to the
Anthropocene? How will we contribute towards the well-being of society? Can we decolonise
development-led archaeology, and if so, how do we do it? How do we make the ‘development’in development-led archaeology less problema2c? How do we bridge the gap between an
increasingly eli2st theore2cal archaeology, and an increasingly precarious commercial
prac2ce, that struggles to include social or sustainable values in the agenda? How can webring theore2cal archaeology to the forefront of development-led archaeology? How shall we
make sure archaeology is useful ﬁgh2ng the climate emergency?
We par2cularly welcome the contribu2ons of early career researchers and those working in
the development-led sector, as well as contribu2ons from more established researchers
willing to develop a long-term dialogue with the commercial sector.

1Organisers: Guillermo Diaz de Liaño (MOLA), Sadie Watson (MOLA), Alice Clough(MOLA/University of Bournemouth)
The CBA at 80 – Reﬂec0ng on the interface between commercial and grassroots archaeology
in developing sustainable prac0ce in the future.
Neil Redfern, Council for Bri2sh Archaeology
The past 80 years has seen considerable shi[s in archaeology, heritage and the managementof the Historic Environment. The discipline and concept of heritage has grown and evolved,
commercial archaeology has blossomed, community archaeology has beneﬁ]ed fromsubstan2al resources from the Na2onal Lo]ery. The internet and digital pla^orms now oﬀer
incredible reach and scope to further reimagine how we engage people and par2cipants.
How will these founda2ons need to adapt to create and archaeology commi]ed to the
future? What will be the role of grassroots archaeology and its intersec2on with thedevelopment-led sector?
Archaeology today and tomorrow. What changes do we want to see, and what changes do
we fear?
Sadie Watson, MOLA
This paper will come from the perspec2ve of an employee archaeologist, presented by only
one on the day but taken from the crowd-sourced opinions of many members andsupporters of the Prospect Trade Union Archaeologists Branch. The immediate future of oursector looks rocky, with Government mishandling of infrastructure spending and a poten2al
slowdown in housing developments. The job market for archaeologists has changed
signiﬁcantly with increasing amounts of interna2onal work, agency staﬀ and casual
contracts, which have all been welcomed by some. The last few years have seen a rise inmergers, acquisi2ons and joint venture working, again, much of this has been posi2ve but
do we see this con2nuing, and if so, what might be the end result? It is disappoin2ng that
our jobs are increasingly precarious, despite many a]empts to steady the ship. So how do
we see our jobs developing over the next year, ﬁve years, or decade? What changes do wewant to see, and what changes do we fear? I will gather responses, study comparator
professions and look back at similar situa2ons we might have faced, to come up with a seriesof outlooks, some of which might even be op2mis2c.
Telling diﬀerent stories: developing future-oriented, experimental approaches to large-scalelinear infrastructure schemes.
Alice Clough, MOLA/University of BournemouthThis paper will introduce ‘Telling Diﬀerent Stories’, a collabora2ve doctoral partnership
between Bournemouth University and MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology). The project
looks at how archaeological interpreta2ons are developed and communicated in thedevelopment-led sector, looking speciﬁcally at some of the largest, most commercial
endeavours in Bri2sh archaeology: infrastructure schemes.

2

In direct dialogue with MOLA’s ﬁeldwork, post-excava2on and management teams, ‘TellingDiﬀerent Stories’ aims to understand the dominant tropes and assump2ons that informlarge-scale development-led prac2ce, and how these subsequently shape and inﬂuence theways archaeologists think, work, interpret and communicate the past. From there, informedby the cri2cal posthumani2es and crea2ve prac2ce, the project is developing a series ofexperiments to explore how else things could be done.
Infrastructure schemes oﬀer huge resources and poten2al to advance our understandings ofthe past, but this poten2al is not being fully realised. As with the development-led sector
more broadly, they tend to produce very par2cular types of knowledge. ‘Telling Diﬀerent
Stories’ asks: which types of knowledge are privileged in the development-led process, andwhich are rou2nely omi]ed? How can we know which types of knowledge will be inspiring
to future genera2ons? How can we listen for counter-narra2ves?
‘Space Invaders’: enabling the reclama0on and con0nuity of non-linear 0me-space indevelopment-led archaeology.
Farès K Moussa, University of Southampton, and Charles Le Quesne, University of Oxford /Quercus Heritage
Commercial development-led archaeology cons2tutes a response to mainly Euro-American
style development prac2ces, using Euro-American concepts of linear historicity. Large scaleindustrial development prac2ces are ul2mately intrusive and destruc2ve to landscape, water
sources, ﬂora and fauna and arguably facilitate further prac2ces destruc2ve to theenvironment, such as the extrac2on, processing and burning of fossil fuels. In this context,
development archaeology may be understood as an ac2vity which, while in some way owing
its existence to destruc2ve prac2ces, makes some contribu2on to salvaging and conserving
human heritage. Nevertheless “heritage” and “conserva2on” prac2ces concerned with“history” and “archaeology” are in and of themselves rooted in the very same human
metaphysical and economic modali2es as those which have led to the development
prac2ces which they seek to mi2gate. Industrial development and archaeology, in this sense,
may be said to be en2rely consonant with one another. Indeed, for many indigenous groups,
archaeological analysis and historical explana2on may have no per2nence or relevance totheir internal concep2on of 2me and space; and may cons2tute no more than further EuroAmerican projec2on or colonisa2on.
This paper seeks to propose a pragma2c approach which, while recognising the incongruent
modality of development and development-led archaeology within many contexts, seeks toenable the reclama2on of non-Euro-American industrialised space-2me. By securing the
explora2on and iden2ﬁca2on of intangible heritage as a cornerstone of mi2ga2on
archaeology, opportuni2es for the ac2ve reclama2on of non-Euro-American space-2me
narra2ves and land-use prac2ces become much more feasible.

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The making of archaeological theory: between the ivory tower and the coﬀee break.
Ana González San Marnn, Joukowsky Ins2tute for Archaeology & the Ancient World, Brown
University
Archaeological theory is o[en viewed as eli2st, una]ainable, and inscrutable to laypeople,
non-academic professionals, and a signiﬁcant percentage of undergraduate archaeology
students…
But is it, really?
Decolonial approaches have begun to deconstruct the embedded Western, male-centric
nature of archaeology as a whole and archaeological theory in par2cular. It can be argued
that certain strands of theore2cal thinking, concepts, and ideas have deeply permeateddiﬀerent segments of the popula2on associated with archaeological research in diverse
ways. Professional CRM archaeologists, students, the public in their engagement withhistorical heritage, and even some academics have made substan2al contribu2ons to
discussions concerning landscape, sustainability, ethics, ethnographic and Tradi2onal
Ecological Knowledge (TEK) studies, the Anthropocene, gender, disability, and more.
Over the past two decades, there has been a surge in debates around topics that werepreviously only popular among highly educated and like-minded scholars, regardless of their
par2cular theore2cal background. Today, discussions on ma]ers such as agency, sovereignty,
social complexity, gender roles, sexuality, personhood, and conviviality are taking place inmore informal serngs. Whether it's in the university's canteen or during a coﬀee break on a
CRM project, archaeological theory is not merely studied and debated; it is ac2vely created.
What can we glean from the informal, everyday discussions that various stakeholders
involved in archaeology and its past are having? How can we incorporate these approaches,
not only as an anthropological examina2on of the present but as an integral part of ourdiscipline's epistemological founda2on? Is it conceivable to replace the recurring "publish or
perish" approach with a focus on listening to the needs, desires, and claims of diverse
individuals in archaeology? How can we adapt archaeological research topics to address
issues related to labor-based protec2ons and rights, sex and gender equality inarchaeological prac2ce, measures for family reconcilia2on for students and workers, andaccessibility and mobility accommoda2ons for students and the public?
If decoloniza2on is more than just a metaphor, how can archaeological theory contribute to
substan2a2ng the work we can integrate into it?
Once upon a 0me… we looked South. From archaeology today to tomorrow’s archaeology inthree acts.
Guillermo Diaz de Liaño, MOLA
The structure of this talk imitates that of tales, with three acts: an introduc2on, a climax, anda conclusion. This aims to demonstrate how some2mes we need to break away fromacademic conven2ons and narra2ve structures if we aim to reach our audiences.
The ﬁrst act includes a necessarily brief analysis of some of the main issues faced byarchaeology, when we observe it through the lens of post-normal science, and which include4

the failure to bring public value to communi2es, a systema2c top-down approach toresearch design and development, or the extreme compartmentalisa2on of the discipline.
The second act, or climax, explores one of the poten2al solu2ons, which in this case is noneother than looking at what our colleagues in the Global South are doing. In this sense, thistalk defends that by learning and adop2ng their epistemologies, we can hope to contributetowards the crea2on of new ontologies in the Global North. And the task of imagining new
ontologies for the Global North is absolutely necessary not only if we aim to makearchaeology relevant for society, but to avoid the doom that neoliberal logic has brought
upon us and the planet. The third act, or conclusion, dares to imagine how tomorrow’sarchaeology could look like, and its role in the Anthropocene.

2. Towards an ‘archaeoecology’ of landscapeIntroduc0on: towards an ‘archaeoecology’ of landscape
Jonathan Last (Historic England)
Adapta2ons to a changing climate require, above all, transdisciplinary solu2ons. One of the
key concepts in this respect is landscape. Archaeologists have tended to adopt the term as
simply conno2ng a scale of ﬁeldwork or analysis above that of the individual site but thewider literature, including the European Landscape Conven2on, makes it clear thatlandscape represents the entanglement of culture and nature at a variety of scales. So how
could we help develop and contribute to a more inclusive landscape discipline that brings
nature into archaeological work and provides a historical dimension to ecologicalapproaches? And how might an a]en2on to landscape in four dimensions address ouranxie2es about environmental change and help generate more sustainable places for people
and other species? My contribu2on will outline some of the thinking that prompted the ideaof the session.
Organiser: Jonathan Last (Historic England)
The chalk inﬂuence: ecocultural conﬂuence and crea0on in the Wessex Basin
Colin Weighell (University of Southampton),
Although rivers are understood to have played a key role in the cocrea2on of postglacial
environments and landscapes by plant, animal and human communi2es, the full signiﬁcanceof this remains somewhat underdiscussed. Approaches which recognise rivers as crea2ve
and connec2ve ecocultural systems can oﬀer glimpses into the dynamics of interac2onwhich cons2tuted postglacial landscapes across extensive 2mespans, meaning they have thepoten2al to give novel insights into past ecological and sociocultural systems as they
responded and adapted to signiﬁcant clima2c and cultural change.
Rivers, being unique expressions of their catchments, display biophysical proper2es related
to their local geologies. These proper2es shape their histories of interac2on, inﬂuencing not5

only large-scale pa]erns of behaviour and spa2ality, but also the experiences andpercep2ons of individuals. The unusual geological origin of Chalk rivers gives them highly
dis2nc2ve physical, ecological and aesthe2c quali2es. This paper explores the idea thatthese quali2es facilitated and inﬂuenced occupa2on and interac2on in the Wessex Basin
during the Pleistocene-Holocene transi2on, as well as implica2ons regarding how thislandscape was inhabited and perceived well into the Holocene. It proposes that
apprecia2ons of early prehistoric rela2ons with the Wessex Basin chalk rivers emphasise not
only their permea2on throughout the rich history of this region, but also their great
poten2al as powerful par2cipants in the landscape, capable of suppor2ng resilient systems
as we move into another period of transi2on and change.
Labourscapes and the conviviality of ac0on
Ana González San Marnn (Brown University)
In The Human Condi2on, Hannah Arendt men2ons that ‘’things and men form theenvironment for each of men´s ac2vi2es, which would be pointless without such loca2on,
yet this environment, the world into which we are born, would not exist without the humanac2vity that produced it’’ (Arendt, 1958).
While the explicit anthropocentrism of Arendt´s early formula2on of ac2on and the agent´sinvolvement with the crea2ve work of worldliness may drive us away from issues ofconviviality and ecological rela2onality, the idea that ac2on and world-making are
inextricably related in an aﬀec2ve and physical sense is worth exploring and valuable tointegrate archaeological evidence with eﬀorts into diversifying agency and expanding thedeﬁni2on of communi2es of prac2ce (Wenger, 2007).
For decades, landscape archaeology has interrogated and proposed new interdisciplinary
approaches to studying human-environmental rela2onships. While speciﬁc contribu2ons
looking into coopera2on and the role of non-human actors in popula2ng ancientarchaeological landscapes have become increasingly common, a seemingly impermeable
division between the speciﬁc types of ac2on (Ingold, 1993) carried out by agents and the
spa2al condi2ons on which they take place remains strong. The overemphasis on thespeciﬁc types of ac2on ‘’taking place’’ on archaeological landscapes obscures the blatantunder-conceptualisa2on of labour and ac2on as their own analy2cal category.
In Mediterranean prehistory, the lack of theore2cal engagement with the concept of ac2onis especially evident in how scholars have addressed labour. Usually framed as intrinsicallyextrac2ve, exploita2ve, commodifying, and produc2on-based, labour is an ever-growing
elephant in the room. When addressed, it is o[en men2oned as an epiphenomenon ofhuman ac2vity and cultural choices, more akin to a modality of produc2on than to a driving
force for rela2onality, coopera2on, and world-making.
In my research, I take Bronze Age Cyprus as a case study to examine how human and nonhuman communi2es of prac2ce simultaneously engage in a mutually cons2tu2ve processwith their landscape. By deﬁning a mul2-proxy analy2cal framework and drawing parallels
from ethnographic work, I seek to highlight the role of conviviality and transhuman co-6

labora2on (Flexner, 2020; Given, 2013, 2018) as the precondi2on for social, cultural, andphysical change of ancient ecological communi2es, reframing ideas of social complexity andeconomic organisa2on.
Selected references:
Arendt, H. (1958). The Human Condi2on. The University of Chicago Press.
Flexner, J. L. (2020). Degrowth and a sustainable future for archaeology. Archaeological
Dialogues, 27(2), 159–171.
Given, M. (2013). Commo2on, Collabora2on, Conviviality: Mediterranean Survey and theInterpreta2on of Landscape. Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology, 26(1), 3–26.
Given, M. (2018). Conviviality and the Life of Soil. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 28(1),127–143.
Ingold, T. (1993). The temporality of the landscape. World Archaeology, 25(2), 152–174.
Wenger, E. (2007). Communi2es of Prac2ce. Learning, Meaning and Iden2ty. Cambridge
University Press.
Along the way and on the edge: the case for a holis0c approach to research andconserva0on of the Icknield Belt landscape
Stewart Bryant
The Icknield Belt is 75km long and 10-15km wide, is divided between four coun2es, contains
a popula2on of c300,000 and straddles the ancient Icknield Way route between Dunstable,
Beds. and Newmarket, Cambs. Topographically, it is also the interﬂuve between the Thames
and Great Ouse river catchments.
The ecological signiﬁcance of the Icknield Belt derives from its surviving open chalkgrasslands and the complex hydrology of chalk streams and springs, many of which are ofna2onal or interna2onal signiﬁcance. Its historic environment comprises some of the mostimportant landscapes and monuments in the south of England and an unprecedently diverse
range of na2onally signiﬁcant vo2ve and burial complexes, and linear boundaries. The
landscape of the Icknield Belt can also be regarded as liminal zone between major river
systems, within which land-use con2nuity and conspicuous display have been notable
themes from early prehistory.
This talk will consider the regional signiﬁcance of the Icknield Belt landscape including theclose and mutually dependant rela2onships that have developed between the natural andhistoric environments. It will also look at the threats from development, popula2onpressure and climate change, and will make the case for a holis2c approach to theirconserva2on and future research.
In the midst of rich meadows / it was perfectly clear / I walked with company: crea0ve
archaeology of landscapes, in and for the Anthropocene (a ﬁlm and paper)
Lara Band (independent researcher)It’s 9.30am: dopey from a night interrupted by barking foxes and the August heat, I’m cycling
along the Greenway, a cycleway and nature corridor formalised in the 1990s. On cold days
steam wraiths rise from vents along the way: the Greenway tops Balzalge[e’s Northern7Ou]all Sewer, built in the 1860s to manage London’s wastewater following the cholera
outbreak of 1853-4. I’m just crossing over the Channelsea River when a rat rockets out ofundergrowth. I swerve, heart racing at the sudden movement. Tiny paws scrabbling on
ﬂagstones, the rat scuds 360 and hurtles back into the buddleia and brambles. Righ0ng
myself I reﬂect on the appropriateness of our encounter on my ﬁrst day of ﬁeldwork andcycle though]ully onwards.
In the midst of rich meadows […] is a short ﬁlm: the main output of two days ﬁeldwork
carried out upstream at Middlesex Filterbeds Nature Reserve, originally constructed in the
mid-19th century to provide clean water to east London. Adding to research advoca2ng more
ecological approaches to archaeology and heritage and drawing also on ecologicalposthumanism and crea2ve prac2ce as research I turned to 2me-based media to respond tothese calls for new ways of paying a]en2on to vibrant human and fellow being
entanglements. For this paper I will show my ﬁlm, then contextualise it within thistransdisciplinary framework. Through this I will explore just one way of working
collabora2vely with landscapes and all that inhabit them for a deeper apprecia2on of our
messy, interconnected and changing worlds.

3. Increasing impacts of Climate Change on Cultural Heritage and Human
Migra@ons
Session abstract
The eﬀect of climate change and the changing perspec2ves on heritage have had major
inﬂuences on the use and prac2ce of heritage in many areas around the world. There havebeen instances of mass movements of people leaving their ancestral homes for morefriendly loca2ons. Others have abandoned certain lifestyles or cultural prac2ces, such as
culinary ways, in the face of boisterous climate crises. How is climate change perceived
among the indigenous groups? What is the degree of impacts of climate change on
primordial cultural prac2ces, and how can its impacts be measured? What can indigenous
epistemologies contribute to aba2ng the impact of climate change on cultural heritage?
This session cri2cally seeks to cri2cally engage these ques2ons with the aim to formula2ng
theore2cal and prac2cal approaches to mi2ga2ng the eﬀects of climate change on bothtangible and intangible cultural heritage. It focusses on a mul2disciplinary approach in thediscussion on issues rela2ng to how communi2es adapted or have been adap2ng and theregional and local circumstances that nega2vely aﬀect heritage prac2ces across the globe
from theore2cal perspec2ves. This session therefore welcomes research papers fromscholars in Archaeology, Anthropology, Geography, Palynology and other disciplines todiscuss local, regional or con2nental cases. We especially encourage climate change experts,
environmentalists to be part of the session.
Organisers: Kolawole Adekola and Macham Mangut (University of Jos)

8

Climate Change and Migra0on: Chadic Migra0ons and the Transforma0on of Ethnic
Iden00es on the Jos Plateau, Nigeria
Macham Mangut, Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies University of Jos, Nigeria
The West African sub-region has witnessed many episodes of migra2ons over the past four
millennia. Many of these migra2ons were triggered by extremely dry climate, leading todwindling aqua2c resources, food shortages, and lesser grazing ﬁelds. To ensure theirsurvival, people had to move to newer places. These have led to huge demographic changes
and cultural transforma2ons in diﬀerent locales. One of such large-scale popula2onmovements is the Chadic migra2ons, which involved the southward movement of people
from the Lake Chad region of present-day Nigeria to as far as the Jos Plateau in Central
Nigeria. On arrival, they fused with earlier se]lers that they met to form the numerous
ethnic na2onali2es found today on the Plateau. In addi2on to understanding be]er the
long-term se]lement history, sociopoli2cal organiza2on, and economy of the Ron on the Jos
Plateau. There is also interest in the role clima2c ﬂuctua2ons played in the migra2ons. The
paper involves a mul2faceted approach of u2lizing palaeoclima2c data, historical andarchaeological data to shed more light on the processes of ethnic forma2ons on the Jos
Plateau.
Climate change and its eﬀects on coastal historic communi0es: case study of Badagry inSouthwestern Nigeria
Knowable M. Akintayo, Department of Archaeology, University of York, United Kingdom.
Zachariah H. Mshelia, Disaster Management Training and Educa2on Centre for Africa, Facultyof Natural and Agricultural Sciences, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa.
The Badagry area is an historical se]lement in Lagos, southwestern Nigeria. The area isfamous for being among the ﬁrst places to have contact with the Europeans. Several groupsof se]lers with diﬀerent tradi2ons of origin have been occupying the Badagry area since"ancient 2mes". In the last twenty years however, one of the eﬀects of Climate Change isvisible in coastline change from natural and human-induced factors. As a result of this,cultural sites and se]lements along the coast are being threatened. In this paper, we
explored the impact of coastline change on seventeen coastal communi2es which have been
iden2ﬁed from surveys in the Badagry area. We employ the use of Geographic Informa2on
System to examine the environmental eﬀects of shoreline changes on historic communi2es
in Badagry. We consider the impacts of short-term events such as storms, regular wave
ac2on, 2des and winds and long-term events such as glacia2on or orogenic cycles that may
signiﬁcantly alter sea levels rise/fall and tectonic ac2vi2es that cause coastal land subsidenceor emergence. In addi2on to this, we examine the eﬀects of uncontrolled development-led
ac2vi2es as well as mi2ga2on plans that are in place to mi2gate the risks to these coastal
communi2es.

9Key words: Climate Change, Geographic Informa2on System, historical communi2es,
shoreline changes
Historical Archaeology of Climate-Induced Human Migra0on in the Adjourning Lowlands of
the Jos Plateau
Pa2ence Nanep Ladan. Department of History and Interna2onal Studies, Plateau State
University, Bokkos, Nigeria.
This paper delves into the complex interplay between climate change, human migra2on, andcultural heritage. It highlights the signiﬁcant threats posed by climate change to cultural
heritage sites in Central Nigeria, with a par2cular focus on the vulnerability of adjourning
lowlands of the Jos Plateau to erosion, ﬂooding, and the deteriora2on of archaeologicalfeatures. The paper also emphasizes the impact of climate-induced human migra2on on theloss of cultural tradi2ons and prac2ces, leading to the breakdown of communi2es. Drawing
on case studies from the region, the study explores the interdependent rela2onshipbetween environmental shi[s, the safeguarding or decline of cultural heritage, andpopula2on movements. The research iden2ﬁes the obstacles aﬀected communi2es face andproposes viable strategies for protec2ng and preserving cultural heritage amidst thechallenges posed by climate change. This paper contributes to a deeper understanding of
the intricate eﬀects of climate change on human migra2on and cultural heritage, ul2mately
aiming to inform the development of eﬀec2ve mi2ga2on and adapta2on strategies.
The Impact of Climate Change on Ancient Se[lements: A study of Larteh Amanfu (Amanfro),a 17th Century Urban Centre in Akuapem, Eastern Region of Ghana
Albert Larbi Appiah, Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies,University of Ghana
Historical se]lements and other facets of human civiliza2on are signiﬁcantly impacted byclimate change. This paper examines the rela2onship between climate change and ancientciviliza2ons, focusing on Larteh Amanfu (Amanfro), an ancient se]lement of the present-day
Larteh people with profound archaeological signiﬁcance. Exege2cal analysis of oral
tradi2ons, together with examina2on of archaeological ﬁndings, and historical records reveal
the changing clima2c pa]erns on this ancient se]lement. The analysis reveals how clima2c
condi2on, speciﬁcally perennial water shortage over centuries had signiﬁcant inﬂuence on
the lifeways of the people of Larteh Amanfu and their subsequent migra2on to the presentday Larteh town. The study also explores the adap2ve strategies employed by the people
who inhabited Larteh Amanfu, revealing their resilience and ingenuity in the face of diﬃcult
environmental condi2ons. In short, this research unravels the ways in which climate change
acted as a catalyst for societal change. This paper argues that apart from the ‘fear ofenemies’, climate change contributed to the abandonment of Larteh Amanfu. This paper’s
ﬁndings thus contribute to our understanding of the historical context of Larteh Amanfu andalso provide valuable insights into the broader discourse on the impact of climate change onhuman socie2es.

10

Eﬀects of Clima0c Changes on Kofyar Cultural Prac0ces
Na’ankwat Kwapnoe-Dakup, Sainsbury Research Unit for Arts of Africa, Oceania and theAmericas, University of East Anglia
Several migra2ons into the Jos Plateau region of central Nigeria which contributed to theethnic diversity that characterises the region today has been partly a]ributed to clima2cchanges in the Lake Chad region. Many of these groups have long adapted to the diﬀerent
landscape that is their home today with dis2nct cultural prac2ces. The focus of this paper is
to highlight the various changes and adapta2ons associated with environmental changes by
one of such groups, the Kofyar, located in the south-eastern corner of the region. It seeks todetail how indigenous knowledge and the interconnec2on between human andenvironmental rela2onship are u2lised in adap2ng to these changes. Usingethnoarchaeological data derived from my doctoral research, it will also discuss further
migra2ons within the Jos Plateau associated with clima2c changes which could not support
former ways of livelihood and heritage prac2ces have also been impacted.
Death, Destruc0on and Migra0on: Ghana’s Varnishing Past
Adum Edward Nyarko, University of Ghana
Discussions on climate change and its repercussions have been ongoing for over a decade
now in Ghana. This paper uses ethnography and photographs to assess the impact of climatechange and its implica2on on forced migra2on, cultural loss, death, and destruc2on of thepeople of Ada Totope, a community on a peninsula sandwiched between the sea and theSonghor Lagoon in the Ada East District Assembly of Greater Accra Region of Ghana. The
paper examines how the impact of climate change has contributed to the rising volumes ofthe sea water culmina2ng into death, destruc2on of lives, loss of cultural resources andproper2es of the inhabitants, migratory and coping strategies.
A Pilgrim’s Solemn Rite: Theore0cal Discussions on Indigeneity, Environment, and Pilgrimage
within The Moroccan Jewish Diaspora
Hamza Woodson, University of Oxford
The concept of indigeneity deﬁnes a group’s interdependent rela2onship between theirculture and physical environment. Ways of life that are na2ve to an environment will reﬂect
the na2ve region’s landscape and number of extractable resources at one’s disposal,
subsequently making the predominant factor of a culture the literal space that a group exists
in. However, how is the conceptualiza2on of indigeneity impacted when a group operates as
removed from both a space and connec2on to history? Indigeneity, as constructed by
Moroccan Jews, is o[en thought of as such, with the ethno-religious community claiming to
an extent “na2ve” connec2on to both North Africa and Israel. This opera2ve cons2tutes aclear dilemma, in which popular conceptualiza2ons of what is “diasporic” and “indigenous”
o[en require a singular cultural point of origina2on in na2on-states. This paper examines
theories of collec2ve memory, rela2onal iden2ty making, and processes of pilgrimage
among diaspora Moroccan Jews to explore how indigeneity is constructed and operates

11within a popula2on o[en construed as innately diasporic. Speciﬁc focus on how diasporic
Jewish popula2ons occupy and deﬁne spaces as cultural heritage sites within Morocco will
also be incorporated. Ethnographies are sourced from between 1940 A.D, during the ini2al
removal of Jews from the Moroccan state, to modern day. I argue that the concept ofindigeneity is both rela2onally deﬁned and self-ascribed, and that 2es to land are subject tothat group’s modern iden2ty construc2on.
The environmental impacts of slavery in two diﬀerent regions of the Atlan0c world: Cacheu(Guinea-Bissau, West Africa) and Sado (Portugal, Southwestern Europe)
Sara Simõesa Ana Maria CostabCláudia Oliveirac João Teresod Maria da Conceição Freitase
Maria da Conceição Lopesf Patrícia Mendesg Rui Gomes Coelhoh Rute Arvelai Sandra
Domingues Gomesj and Sónia Gabrielka
UNIARQ - Centre for Archaeology, University of Lisbon, Portugalb
LARC - Archaeosciences Laboratory, DGPC - Directorate General for Cultural Heritage,
Portugal; BIOPOLIS and CIBIO; IDL-University of Lisbonc
UNIARQ - Archaeology Centre, University of Lisbon)d
CIBIO - Research Centre in Biodiversity and Gene2c Resources, InBIO AssociatedLaboratory; UNIARQ -Centre for Archaeology, University of Lisbon)e
Dom Luiz Ins2tute; Department of Geology, Faculty of Sciences, University of LisbonfCenter of Archaeology, Arts and Heritage Sciences, Faculty of Le]ers, University of Coimbrag
LARC - Archaeosciences Laboratory, DGPC - Directorate General for Cultural Heritage,
Portugalh
UNIARQ - Centre for Archaeology, University of Lisbon; Department of Archaeology,
Durham University, UK
i
UNIARQ - Centre for Archaeology, University of Lisbon; Department of Geology, Faculty of
Sciences, University of Lisbonj
UNIARQ - Centre for Archaeology, University of LisbonkArchaeosciences Laboratory, DGPC - Directorate General for Cultural Heritage, Portugal;
UNIARQ - Archaeology Centre, University of Lisbon
With the outbreak of the Transatlan2c slave trade and the implementa2on of colonial
regimes, the Atlan2c world saw one of the largest forced displacements of human history,
with millions of persons being enslaved and forced to leave their homelands in Africa andsent to Europe and the Americas. Cacheu was a major port in the slave trade, whereas the
Sado region became one of the ﬁnal des2na2ons of enslaved workers in Europe. Landscapeschanged signiﬁcantly due to the displacement of people and the development of new
agricultural fron2ers based on extrac2vism. The history of these places of large-scale
exploita2on, both of labor and natural resources, is deeply intertwined with the rise ofmodernity and the capitalist worldsystem, processes that are crucial to understand theunprecedented environmental challenges that we are facing today. In the interdisciplinary
project "Ecologies of Freedom: Materiali2es of Slavery and Postemancipa2on in the Atlan2c
World", we have been researching the environmental and social impacts of slavery and thetransatlan2c slave trade, forced migra2ons whose legacies con2nue to shape social life andthe ways in which people relate to the land and other forms of life. The project mobilizes
methodologies and datasets from mul2ple disciplinary ﬁelds to tackle this theme, including12historical archaeology and environmental history, archaeobotany, palynology,archaeozoology, and geoarchaeology.

4. “The archaeology made all the diﬀerence.”: A Specula@ve Design
Workshop for Sectorial Response to Climate Change.
Session abstract"2022 was yet another year of climate extremes across Europe and globally.
These events highlight that we are already experiencing the devasta0ng consequences of ourwarming world.”(European 3C Service Deputy Director, Samantha Burgess).
As individuals and professionals, we must accept that we are no longer planning for climatechange but consciously or unconsciously responding to it. Despite signiﬁcant work having
been and con2nuing to be done across the cultural heritage sector it s2ll lacks focus andcohesion and therefore any sense of the eﬀec2veness of this work. If archaeology IS to be
the diﬀerence, then a cri2cal assessment of current prac2ce is required. Are we asking theright ques2ons? Working with the right people? Using the right approaches? Do we have thedata, tools, funding, roles and structures we need?
This half-day, inter-disciplinary workshop aims to bring together a broad, representa2vegroup of archaeologists and heritage prac22oners and will follow the ‘Futurescaping’
specula2ve design protocol (CoHERE, 2019) developed speciﬁcally for innova2on and change
in the Cultural Heritage Sector by Are2 Galani and Gabriella Arrigoni (Newcastle University)and their partners at the Copenhagen School of Design and Technology.
Grounded in cri2cal theory, specula2ve design, while future-oriented, is not about
predic2ng the future. Leveraging collec2ve intelligence its purpose is to suspend present-day
constraints in order to ask ques2ons about the poli2cs and values in the sociotechnicalsystems that we currently experience (or might want to experience in the future) by crea2ng
an imagined world conﬁgured diﬀerently from our own. It is specula2ve in that it reimagines the world to be organized into diﬀerent social, poli2cal, economic, andtechnological conﬁgura2ons, or what Auger (2013: 12) terms “alterna2ve presents”.
However, specula2on alone is insuﬃcient. The ﬁnal ac2on in this workshop will evaluate
what is needed to deliver the desired future outcomes, against current capabili2es andcapaci2es to provide a star2ng point for a strategic sectorial response to climate change.
Organisers: Lorna Jane Richardson (UEA) and Claire Boardman (University of York)13

5. The mul@scale archaeology of big and small events
Session abstract“The archaeological record is not composed of the residues of structures, prac2ces orprocesses but the residues of events” (Lucas, 2008). But what is an event? Some debates
have already been made and aim to deﬁne an event as rela2ng to something that happened
in a certain space and in a certain 2me, even though the concepts of space and 2me are inthemselves under discussion. Events in archaeology can have diﬀerent approaches, theirdura2on or length for example, but they always leave tangible and intangible evidence,
which inevitably becomes the archaeological working material. In this session, we aim to
discuss the impact that large- and small-scale events, (leaving the considera2on of what islarge-scale or small-scale to the presenters) have on the existence of diﬀerent people,
animals, things, buildings, or landscapes. Responding to the topic of TAG2023 we welcome
papers that consider the impact of these events based on diﬀerent scalar readings ofpollu2on, environment, climate change, economics, social accelera2on, cultural changes,
religious confronta2ons, and entertainment, among others.
Organisers: Tánia Casimiro (University of Lisbon) and Joel Santos (University of Leicester)
The mul0-scalar Anthropocene Event and its archaeological signature
Ma] Edgeworth, University of Leicester
The Anthropocene was originally proposed as a new geological epoch, but the concept isevolving. Some Earth scien2sts now see it more as an emergent, unfolding, intensifying event,which has le[ and is s2ll leaving a very substan2al signature in archaeological stra2graphy. As
the Anthropocene Event con2nues to unfold, so accumula2ons of humanly-modiﬁed groundcon2nue to build up. This paper explores how the idea of the mul2-scalar Anthropocene Eventcorresponds to traces and residues of past events of diﬀerent scales that, as Gavin Lucas points
out, make up the material archaeological record.
Anthropocene and Climate Change: Evidence of Hyperobjects in the Archaeological Record of
Coastal Contexts in the Li[oral of Tierra Bomba Island, Cartagena de Indias (Colombia)
Carlos Del Cairo Hurtado, L. Victoria Báez Santos, Liliana Rozo Pinzón, Jesús Aldana Mendoza,
Carla Riera Andreu, Gabriela Caro León, Juan Sarmiento Rodríguez, Andrés López Narváez,
NGO COLOMBIA ANFIBIA
The archaeological discipline has 2midly approached the material culture of recent 2meseven though, in the last centuries, humanity has undergone substan2al changes in its socialand environmental dynamics. Such social behaviours and their rela2onship with theenvironment deserve to be studied through the associated material culture. Fromcontemporary archaeology, threats such as climate change and pollu2on are considered as
hyperobjects associated with the Anthropocene and described as real objects that are
massively distributed in 2me and space, which are diﬃcult to see or frame. Hyperobjects,
then, could be studied through an analysis of archaeological stra2graphy and their behaviour
14

in the archaeological record. The study of the Anthropocene record, therefore, would focus
on understanding the more recent Era characterized by a successive series ofhyperconsump2on and global integra2on events of the human appropria2on of resources.
In this order of ideas, this paper's goal is to present a methodological proposal structured
and implemented in two coastal archaeological contexts in Tierra Bomba Island (Cartagena
de Indias, Colombia). Thus, it is oriented to iden2fy, classify, and characterize the material
culture and evidence of climate change and pollu2on present in the archaeosphere; whichallows a be]er understanding of the par2cular and controversial Anthropocene Era.
Considera0on on the Crea0on and Development of Spaces with a Focus on Ano-greenhouse
Hyunjung Park,Hokkaido University / Ar2st
The pedestrian bridge - Ano-hashi, means “that bridge” - that was originally constructed toconnect the divided campus due to the road passing through Hokkaido University's campus
for the 1972 Sapporo Winter Olympics was removed in 2021, six months a[er the 2020
Tokyo Olympics. In the process of dismantling, 320 trees were cut down. To make eﬀec2ve
use of these trees, a smoked coﬀee called “Anotoki - means “that 2me” - was developed incollabora2on with local coﬀee shops. This ini2a2ve is part of the "Ano Onshitsu - thatgreenhouse“ art project, which is advancing an old greenhouse located where thepedestrian bridge once stood. It serves as a prac2cal research project in science andtechnology communica2on. In this presenta2on, we want to reﬂect on the rela2onshipbetween Hokkaido University and the city, Sapporo, sharing the history of the city that wasdeveloped. We'll also consider how to maintain a connec2on with nature within this context,
what role art can play in interdisciplinary research, and how an anthropological approach
can interpret this.
Digging a simulacrum: fake temporality in the abandoned ﬁlm set of Golden City (Madrid)
Jesus Mar2n Alonso, University of Amsterdam. Amsterdam Centre for Ancient Studies andArchaeology (ACASA)
A simulated place like an abandoned movie set possesses a temporality beyond
chronologies. It exists in a dimension where 2me is neither linear nor circular nor folded
becauseit simply never existed, yet it coexists with our percep2on of the past. This place exhibits two
dis2nct chronologies: one considered "true" and another characterized by its reverse, ﬂuid,
oranarchic nature. In other words, a simulacrum has, at the same 2me, at least three
temporali2es:
the present, the past (real), and the past in ﬁc2on (an invented past that never existed).
Why an excava2on in Golden City? The excava2on is a totemic and central methodology
in archaeology within and beyond the discipline (Thomas, 2004, p.170). I believe it is themostillustra2ve way to approach 2me in archaeology, as the very methodology of archaeologicalexcava2on, following Harris's proposal of layers or strata that reﬂect an antero-posterior

15sequence, deals with 2me. In a simulated place, such as Golden City, repeatedly used as aﬁlming loca2on for movies set in diﬀerent historical periods, it may very well happen thatthe oldest layer in the "real" 2me dimension is the most recent in the ﬁc2onal dimension.
Therefore, the objec2ve was to uncover this "stra2graphic inversion." If 2me is a sum of
points and lines (changes and con2nui2es, Series A and B) (McTaggart, 1908; Husserl et al.,2002), I defend that simulated 2me adds a new dimension that I have called "dissonance."
The aim of this talk is to answer (if possible) these ques2ons: Is simulated 2me a new"2meline" parallel to the "real 2meline," or is it instead a "non-echo," a "dissonance"? Inother words, is simulated 2me a separate dimension from real-2me, or is it a new dimension
within real 2me?
Pulp Fic0on, or How did we get where we are?
Paul Graves Brown, University of York
Like many people, I suppose, I frequently ask myself how we came to the verge of a climate
catastrophe. In this paper I want to examine just one thread, suggested by the work of theCanadian economist, Harold Innis. Among other things, Innis argued that the rise of popularmass circula2on newspapers could be an event a]ributable to the availability of cheap andplen2ful wood pulp paper from North American forests. Mass circula2on papers, such as
The Daily Mail and Express, which emerged in the 1890s were the ﬁrst true mass medium, tobe joined by ﬁlm and radio 30-40 years later and later s2ll by TV and the Internet. Not only
did papers exert considerable poli2cal inﬂuence (in World War 1, for example) but they also
became the medium for the expansion and reﬁnement of adver2sing. In turn, adver2singand marke2ng have been one of the principal drivers in the growth of a proﬂigate consumer
society…. And it all began with wood pulp!
Flourishing along the Himalayas: Urban process in Nepal’s Western Terai, 1-1000 CE
Jiajing (Iris) Mo, Durham University
Bordering the foothills of the Himalayas, the Terai region was historically known for its
malaria
infested jungles as well as the agricultural poten2al. Crosscut by a series of rivers ﬂowing
downsouthwards, it had immediate access to both the hills and the heartland of Gange2c plain.
Theunique geoloca2on renders it a sort of sensi2vity to mul2-variate webs of inﬂuences and astrategically important role in media2ng the reaches of centralised powers from both
direc2ons.
Instead of seeing it with such dynamics and par2cularity, the archaeology of the Terai region
has o[en been treated as marginal and subordinated to the archaeology of the heartland of
the Gange2c plain. This study focuses on the change of se]lement pa]erns in the westernpart of the Terai region during the ﬁrst millennium CE, spanning from the late Early Historicalto the Early Medieval periods, a 2me of cri2cal historic transi2on. Many of the sites in

16

Nepal’s Western Terai today were discovered in the search for the homeland of the historical
Buddha during the nineteenth century. In par2cular, the for2ﬁed site of Tilaurakot, with itsse]lement traced back to the early ﬁrst millennium BCE, has been related to other Early
Historic ci2es across northern India. In South Asian Archaeology the development of Early
Historic ci2es has tradi2onally been associated with large-scale poli2cal and social processes
centered around the upper and middle Gange2c plain. However, by reexamining thearchaeological data from previous and more recent inves2ga2ons, the study will
demonstrate a trajectory of se]lement change which is more complex than given by thegeneral interpreta2ons. The reevaluated sequences of the city, the surrounding habita2ons
and the ritual sites display diﬀeren2ated and even incongruous pa]erns of development,
reﬂec2ng successive interac2on of local and regional forces intermixed in this par2culargeoloca2on, with varied scales of inﬂuence that intertwined but not completely overlappedwith each other.
You just lost your thing there… or is it everywhere?
Tânia Casimiro (NOVA University of Lisbon) Joel Santos (Leicester University)
The acquisi2on of something, independently from when, what for, and by whom is o[enseen as a personal ac2on. Even when the purpose is to share it with other people, we rarely
consider these events as ac2ons with a large-scale widespread impact, especially because no
one or no group considers that other people are developing similar behaviours. Events,
either large or small tend to be seen as isolated, something that we, as archaeologists, when
considering our contexts as unique, sta2c, and closed, tend to promote. The reality is thatwhen we enlarge our percep2on of the diﬀerent scales of events and how holis2c contexts
can be no event happens without rela2on to another event. The purpose of this paper is to
discuss how small objects are just a small part of major events that exist in a general,permanently becoming unique context.

6. Mountains have souls and some statues are gods: Living artefacts,
climate justice, and new animism in archaeology
Session abstract
In this session we wish to discuss the ways in which artefacts, art, and the landscape havethe capacity of being alive. The session invites speakers who engage with ideas inspired by
the ontological turn, environmental personhood, indigenous theories, new animism or inany way looking at personhood of objects in the past or present.
We broadly want to discuss animacy on the basis of a shared concern with the poten2al forthe personhood of nonhumans. This means how living art and objects manifested
themselves in past socie2es, as we know there was much ontological ﬂuidity, in which some
objects were alive and could speak (Mol 2023). However, we also want to think about how
we as archaeologists, theorists, museum, and heritage professionals can engage with that17

sense of ‘alterity’ in the present world. For example, New Animism as a movement seeks tosecure personhood rights for nonhuman beings through legal means (environmental
personhood), successfully establishing these rights in countries such as Equador, Bolivia,
India, or New Zealand. For the Māori Whanganui tribes some rivers or mountains areancestors (tupuna), and this has been inﬂuen2al in gran2ng legal personhood to New
Zealand’s Whanganui River. Although we should be very cri2cal in all these examples about
the ways this serves indigenous communi2es and about where responsibili2es are situated(Tănăsescu 2020), adop2ng animism could poten2ally be a further aid towards climate
jus2ce.
There are many ways to think about past, present, and poten2al animacy and we encourage
crea2ve approaches. The session will take place at the Sainsbury Centre, a museum that
understands artefacts as being alive (Cooper et al. 2023). When you arrive at the front deskof the museum you will be told that the collec2on is considered to be living en22es. The
Centre likes visitors to meet them much like they might another human being rather than an
inanimate object and tries to establish to build these diﬀerent rela2onships through a seriesof experimental and prac2cal ways. The session invites people to share their thoughts andideas either through regular papers or as we walk through the gallery and meet the artefacts
currently within the Living Area. People can browse the collec2on beforehand to pick apar2cular work to engage with that might be on display. Papers and contribu2ons can be
anywhere between 5-20mins.
References:
Cooper, J. et al. 2023, Sainsbury Centre announces ground-breaking new museum concept
to mark its 50th Anniversary
Harvey, G., 2017. If not all stones are alive: radical rela2onality in animism studies. Journal
for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture 11, 481–97
Mol, E. (2023). New Materialism and Posthumanism in Roman Archaeology: When Objects
Speak for Others. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 1-15
Tănăsescu, M. (2020). Rights of Nature, Legal Personality, and Indigenous Philosophies.
Transna0onal Environmental Law, 9(3), 429-453
Wilkinson, D., 2017. Is there such a thing as animism? Journal of the American Academy ofReligion 85, 289–311.
Organisers: Eva Mol (University of York) and Jago Cooper (Sainsbury Centre, UEA)
Introduction- Living Art in the Museum.
Jago Cooper (Sainsbury Centre):
This introduction to the session will explain a new concept of Living Art in the Sainsbury
Centre, and consider how we can meet and experience objects differently: both in theircontexts of use and as the conceptual basis of what a museum is for.

18

Introduction- ‘There’s a spirit within’: how are the past and the future aided by animism?
Eva Mol (University of York):
This second short introduction on the session will briefly discuss how accepting ontologicalfluidity in the past can help us toward a better understanding of objects and their values insociety. What role does (archaeological) theory play? Can a more spirited world save theplanet?
‘Ensouled Statues: A Reflection’ inspired by the ‘Female Shinto Deity’ (accession no. 1146) inthe Living Area.
Chris Wood (Independent Scholar and Curator of the Ickeny Collection):
Female Shinto Deity is a Japanese Shintō statue of a goddess or kami, and the shrine object
in which a kami is resident for varying lengths of time. Carved out of a single block of sacredcamphor wood, She dates to the Kamakura period (1185-1333 CE) and is the epitome of
Shintō-Buddhist syncretism.
Traditionally, shintai are carefully and reverently wrapped, not exposed to public gaze.
Being wrapped in certain ways is a means of making a figure alive in a sacred sense,
honoured, but also safe. Such wrapping is seen in widely diverse cultures, from Polynesia toancient Egypt. And, from ancient Egypt to Kamakura-era Japan to modern India, statues andother images have been made as temporary or permanent dwellings for deities or spirits. A
divine image can be understood as the deity seen in a symbolic mirror, which is therefore aplace to meet deities. In Shintō, a mirror is a key element of the domestic shrine. In it, thedevotee sees themselves in the place of the gods, making a powerful inter-connection: weand They are not separate, but reflected together.
This also presents an interesting angle on the display of ensouled images behind glass inmuseums. The transfer of sacred or magical power from the sacred image is diminished, but
the barrier does have the advantage of acting as a partial mirror, allowing the viewer’s
image to be superimposed on that of the deity and a deeper connection to be realised, if
approached with respect and devotion.
If Neolithic figurines could speak to us in the present, who would they ask to speak to?
Shanshan (Lisa) Li (University of York):
The figurine identified as Number 575c in the Sainsbury Centre belongs to Thessaly, Greece.
I have observed a high degree of similarity between this figurine and one from the
Niuheliang site in Northeast China. Both figurines date back to the Neolithic period and arecrafted from stone with remarkably similar incised lines on their bellies, legs, and feet.
Furthermore, they share common features such as perforated heads and flat backs.
In light of these intriguing parallels, I propose a cross-regional and cross-culturalcomparative approach to examine the techniques and design concepts of these figurines.
This study aims to uncover the functions and ideologies of the people who created themduring that era. By using these two figurines as case studies, it becomes evident that they
were crafted from materials with similar characteristics, likely found in the same context as

19

tomb, which means they both use as burial objects and reflect highly analogous production
design concepts. Analyzing different types of figurines from various regions during the same
period provides valuable insights, as Neolithic people, utilizing comparable resources andproduction techniques, offer diverse possibilities in the interpretation of functions andproduction concepts of these artefacts.
Objects but not just objects. How the ontological turn allows us to manage the ‘ontologicalexcess’ of things with personhood.
Guillermo Díaz de Liaño, (Mola)
In this 10 minute talk, I will explore one of the ways in which the ontological turn can help
us, archaeologists situated in the Western world, to think about the personhood of nonhuman things, particularly objects. Using examples from my ethnographic fieldwork in the
Amazon, and from my research about personhood in the Bronze Age, I will illustrate thepotential that the notion of ‘ontological excess’, from the decolonial thinker Arturo Escobar,
holds. I will argue that this concept, used together with indigenous and non-western
ontologies, can help us not only to bypass the limitations of modern ontologies (à la Latour),but also to embrace the radical uncertainty that comes with the acknowledgement of ourown ontological limitations.
Archaeological Sites or Living Entities? Kofyar Notion of “Archaeology”
Na’ankwat Kwapnoe-Dakup (Sainsbury Research Unit for Arts of Africa, Oceania and theAmericas, University of East Anglia)
Africa is dominated by many areas of archaeological and anthropological interests some ofwhich have been extensively studied and interpreted based on scientific theories. However,many of these archaeological spaces of interest are located within local territories inhabitedby local people who may perceive them differently. My ongoing doctoral research seeks to
ask some neglected questions about what archaeology means to local people and this paper
is derived from this ongoing research. It will attempt to discuss questions relating toscientific versus local perception of “archaeology” on Kofyar landscape in central Nigeria.
Some of these are related to life and divinity of objects, spaces and landscapes. Without
making strong conclusions, it will explore the various connotations of local theories on
different natural and past or seemingly abandoned spaces on this cultural landscape andplace them within the broader debate about the interpretation and understanding ofarchaeological sites.
New Animism: A 21st-Century Promethean Fallacy’? Male figure (Fisherman's god)",
accession number 189.
Farès K Moussa (University of Southampton)
The sentiment of new animism, in principle, cannot be faulted. Indeed, the need toovercome colonising, occi-centric, androcentric perspectives which have dominated thehumanities, and in their own ways helped to sustain consumerist, commodifying

20

environmentally unsustainable practices, has become urgent. However, does New Animism
in-fact obfuscate any progress towards behavioural and societal change? This paper argues
that the philosophical basis of models such as Actor Network Theory and Object Oriented
Ontology are internally inconsistent and do not offer a holistic real-world solution beyond
their otherwise superficially persuasive rhetoric.
The Greek Myth of Prometheus stealing fire from Zeus to give to humans, is often
metaphorically read today as the gift of creativity bestowed upon humans. However, anequally essential component of the story is, perhaps conveniently, too often excluded:
Prometheus also deceives Zeus in making worthless sacrificial offerings of disguised bones
while keeping all the fatty spoils of the carcass for humans. Prometheus’ punishment is not
only for stealing fire from the gods for humans, but also for not respecting the sources of
the wealth of humans and paying necessary tribute to those sources. At the heart of the
New Animist agenda is the attribution of an agential life-like quality to things, but without
any commitment to meaningful exchange with them. Such a process of the historicization of
the non-human world (through the animation of things) from an ultimately secularising
stance, which does not necessarily recognise the value of the gift and of reciprocity, reveals
itself as a yet further anthropomorphising, colonising and commodifying behaviour. In short,
New Animism presents itself as a champion of environmental and indigenous values while
offering no significant systemic change in individual or institutional behaviours.
This paper suggests that New Animism bestows humans with yet more unchecked powersof giving life to things, with potentially dangerous consequences. A Philosophical
Anthropological approach instead would assert that all beings have distinctive qualities none more superior to the other - which should each be recognised and valued for theirunique differences, but in which humans have no control in determining. We may believe
things to be alive or to have agency, but this does make their experience or intentions
knowable to us. We should learn to live in our environment and alongside our non-humanco-habitants of this planet, not by presuming to know their needs or intentions (through ourown anthropomorphising projections), but humbly: through respectful observation,negotiation, care and reciprocity.
The personhood and liveliness of non-human persons as participants in Minoan peaksanctuary practices: a neuro-archaeological, cognitive, and phenomenological approach.
Anastasia Chrysanthi Solomou (Independent Researcher)Around the Middle Minoan (MM) I period (approximately 2000BC), peak sanctuaries cameinto use all around Crete. The practices taking place on these sites have been suggested toinclude feasting and drinking, however Peatfield and Morris (2012) have also explored theperformative nature of these practices, as illustrated by the clay anthropomorphic figurines,
which are omnipresent on peak sanctuaries. This paper aims to challenge the preconceived
notion of Minoan personhood by re-defining the participants of these performances
through the exploration of the animacy and personhood of the figurines, as well as thelandscape. This is done by first examining the phenomenological, cognitive, and neurological21

sequelae of the engagement of the human participants with the non-human, highlighting
the active cognitive and perceptual role of non-human persons during the practices.
Through this approach it is suggested that these non-human participants would play distinct
roles through which they would cognitively prepare the other human –and non–participants for the performance, as well as enhance it, and ensure its reproduction.
Through this framework, the discussion is then taken a step further to explore thepersonhood of the figurines and the mountainous landscape of Crete, which are viewed as
key active, dynamic, and animate constituents of the peak sanctuary practices.
Listening to the Huaco: The Animated Landscapes of the Moche Valley as told by Huaco
40089 (Wellcome)Patrick Mullins, (Visiting Fellow, Sainsbury Research Unit, Visiting Assistant Professor,
Washington College)
When mountains have souls and objects are alive, it is crucial to create spaces in which they
can tell us the many stories they hold. In this paper, I endeavour to create such a space forthe huaco – a local term for an ancient and sacred object – that is currently living in the
Sainsbury Centre with the name of 40089 (Wellcome). Focusing on features like their fanged
incisors and the hummingbird and catfish they clutch in their hands, I explore how thehuaco tell stories about the living landscapes and monuments of their homeland in the
Moche Valley of Peru. These stories will be further animated using representations of themany sacred places that still reside in the Moche Valley landscape and have been recordedin the settlement pattern and aerial drone mapping data built into the Moche Valley
Settlement Database (MVSD). Taking inspiration from the current display built by Peruvian
artist Claudia Martinez Garay, I hope that seeing – and being seen by – these
representations of home serve to further comfort the re-interred huaco and give us thespace to appreciate and listen to the stories that 40089 (Wellcome) can continue to tell.
Visions of Ancient Egypt
Sara Sallam (multidisciplinary artist)
Egyptian artist Sara Sallam reflects on her experience of encountering ancient Egyptian
objects in the Sainsbury Centre through the site-specific artwork she created in 2022. What
happens when these objects are understood as living entities, what are their wishes, theirneeds, and their role in the present. Working with photography, film, and writing, often reappropriating archival material and re-interpreting ancient texts Sara thinks through thecommunication between worlds. Through her work, she reflects on growing up in Egypt,
criticising the colonial attitudes embedded in tourism, archaeology, museum practices, andphotographic archives that prevent Egyptians from relating to their past and provides new
ways forward through her installation inside the Sainsbury Centre.

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7. Risk, resilience and response: societal responses to past and future
rapid climate change
Session abstract:
Archaeological and palaeoenvironmental records are replete with evidence of societal
changes during episodes of rapid climate change (RCC). However, archaeologists have beenwary about linking societal changes with changes in climate and environment and havelacked the language and frameworks to do so in a nuanced fashion. Where social andenvironmental changes have been linked, this generally has been in the form of narra2ves of‘collapse’, which have o[en drawn cri2cism for being overly simplis2c. Contemporary risk
frameworks and ideas of socio-ecological resilience, developed in the ﬁelds of ecology,
climate change adapta2on, and disaster risk reduc2on, oﬀer ways of interroga2ng pasthuman responses to RCC that avoid the pi^alls of environmental determinism and simplis2c
models of climate-driven collapse (IPCC 2023, Simpson et al. 2023). The applica2on of risk
and resilience frameworks to past episodes of RCC might help us develop models of climateenvironment-human interac2on that could be applied in the context of today’s climate crisis.
In addi2on, broad lessons from past episodes of societal disrup2on and reconﬁgura2on
during episodes of RCC can help us an2cipate some of the consequences of climate change
in the twenty ﬁrst century and beyond, addressing the failure of imagina2on that
contributes to our inability to envisage and prepare for some of the more profound impactsof anthropogenic climate change.
This session will introduce contemporary risk and resilience frameworks and apply them to
episodes of past RCC, using case studies of societal change during these episodes from a
range of loca2ons and periods. It will iden2fy some general lessons rela2ng to societal
responses to RCC and ask how the tes2ng of risk and resilience models using archaeologicalcase studies can be used to develop models of human-environment interac2on during
episodes of RCC that are relevant today.
The session will consist of short (15-20 minute) papers (three of which are alreadyconﬁrmed), followed by a structured but open discussion, based on a set of ques2ons thatwill be ﬁnalised with par2cipants following the presenta2ons. Key ques2ons might include:••••

To what extent do participants feel that risk and resilience frameworks would be
useful in their own work? (Participants are encouraged to talk about their own casestudies.)
How can we test risk and resilience models against past human-RCC interactions todevelop models that are relevant today in the context of the climate crisis?
Can the use of risk and resilience frameworks enable archaeologists to communicate
better with social scientists and policy makers working on climate change
adaptation?
What are the barriers to engage these actors with the ‘archaeology of adaptation’,and how might these be overcome?

Organisers:• Joanne Clarke, UEA and Nick Brooks, UEA and Garama 3C Ltd.

23

Archaeology and the climate crisis. How can archaeology help us think about and respond toclimate disrup0on in the 21st century?
Nick Brooks
Due to persistent policy failures, climate change impacts are intensifying rapidly, and theworld is set to breach the 1.5°C limit placed on global warming by the Paris Agreement
within the next decade. Current policy trajectories are likely to result in global hea2ng of
2.6°-2.9°C within the life2mes of many alive today. This unprecedented rapid warming will
result in a reconﬁgura2on of the global climate that will radically alter the distribu2on andavailability of resources and pose existen2al threats to ecosystems, food produc2on systems,
economic ac2vi2es, se]lements, and popula2ons. Contemporary experience and thehistorical record are inadequate guides to how complex, networked socie2es might respondto such changes, while current, incremental approaches to adapta2on will be insuﬃcient tosustain human socie2es in the face of accelera2ng climate change impacts.
The archaeological record provides us with numerous examples of transforma2onal
adapta2on by human socie2es during past episodes of rapid climate change (RCC), some ofwhose impacts are qualita2vely similar to unfolding or an2cipated climate change impacts
today. First, the study of such examples can inform contemporary responses to climatechange in mul2ple ways. High-level lessons about the common but diverse and contextspeciﬁc ways human socie2es have responded to RCC impacts in the past can help frame ourthinking about what climate change may mean for se]lement, migra2on, livelihoods, trade,and social rela2ons throughout the twenty ﬁrst century. Second, we can test risk andresilience frameworks at the scale of whole socie2es by applying them to past episodes of
rapid clima2c, environmental and social change, and use this as a star2ng point fordeveloping models of how contemporary socie2es might respond to RCC impacts. Third, we
can use past coupled climate-society transi2ons to illuminate processes of change andaddress failures of imagina2on that prevent us envisaging radically diﬀerent futures on the
one hand, and result in simplis2c dualis2c narra2ves of con2nuity versus collapse on theother.
This paper will explore these themes and a]empt to establish some star2ng points forlearning from past climate-society transi2ons to inform contemporary responses to theclimate crisis and advocate for more radical, transforma2ve approaches to climate change
adapta2on.
Archaeology, Climate Change and the IPCC’s Concept of Risk.
Joanne Clarke
The concept of risk is central to all three AR6 Working Groups of the IPCC. Risk provides aframework for understanding the increasingly severe interconnected and o[en irreversible
impacts of climate change on ecosystems, biodiversity and human systems. In the mostrecent report of the IPCC Working Group II on Impac2ons Adapta2on and Vulnerability,
there are two chapters concerned with Risk – Chapter 16 on Key Risks across Sectors andRegions and Chapter 17 Decision Making Op2ons for Managing Risk.

24

In the context of climate change, risk can arise from the dynamic interac2on of hazards, 2)
exposure, 3) vulnerability and 4) response capability. A recent literature survey of adapta2onliterature between 2013 and 2019 to be]er understand adapta2on responses aﬀect risk.
Results showed that maladap2ve characteris2cs contributed to 41% of the outcomes,
showing that Risk was exacerbated by response capability.
This has important implica2ons for our understanding of adapta2on to past climate change
events. Currently, within archaeological climate change discourse the focus is on the drivers
and impacts of climate change rather than the societal responses and how those responses
may have exacerbated posi2ve or nega2ve outcomes, including economic changes, societal
changes, migra2ons and abandonments.
This paper will apply the IPCC’s concept of Risk to three case studies from the Middle East to
demonstrate that human responses to climate change impacts in the past led to both
adap2ve and maladap2ve outcomes.
The North Sea giveth, and she taketh away: Exploring the risks of inunda0ng landscapes on
hunter-gatherers in Northwest Europe and its meaning
Pir Hoebe
The Late Glacial and Early Holocene saw the disappearance of Doggerland beneath theNorth Sea, as well as considerable ﬂuctua2ons in climate condi2ons. Models of paleoclimate
and environment poten2ally give insight into the spa2otemporal distribu2on ofcompounding hazards in the past. Contemporary climate risk frameworks show how suchcondi2ons lead to increased vulnerability and exposure in a wide range of contexts. In thispaper, a new inunda2on model for Doggerland is explored that indicates that between
10000-9000 cal. BP, up to 20000 km2 was lost to the sea each century. This unprecedented
rate of sea-level rise correlates with signiﬁcantly increased ac2vity in the surrounding inland
regions (England, Belgium and the Netherlands), as seen through the summed calibrated
probability of archaeological radiocarbon dates.
The model output is interpreted within the framework of climate risk and resilience, toiden2fy hazards and poten2al exposure. Where and when were northwest European huntergatherers exposed to climate- and environmental hazards and what were theirvulnerabili2es? Possible areas of vulnerability/resilience and responses are discussed fornomadic hunter-gatherers facing these challenges. What strategies and behaviours might
have been employed in the face of a new constant of ongoing inunda2on and thecompounding hazards that accompany this? Finally, what impact would this have had on thepercep2on of cultural landscapes, inhabited by plants, animals, people and spirits, now
threatened by a sea that started to take more than it gave?
From this theore2cal basis we can move on to conceptualise in what ways the interplay
between hazards and human response might be represented in our (archaeological) data.
What is visible and invisible? What is accessible and inaccessible? What is knowable andunknowable?

25

Researching during the Covid-19 Pandemic in Ilorin Nigeria: some experiences and lessons inthe ﬁeld.
Bolaji Owoseni, University of Cambridge,
In 2020, I carried out archaeological ﬁeldwork in Ilorin, Nigeria, with a pre-determined
2meline of six months for comple2on. Unforeseen to me, akin to numerous otherresearchers, the Covid-19 pandemic unexpectedly exerted an inﬂuence on my ﬁeldworkplan. The occurrence above led to the extension of my ﬁeldwork dura2on to nine months.
Addi2onally, upon my return to the United Kingdom, I encountered further disrup2ons
stemming from worldwide limita2ons on mobility and travel, necessita2ng quaran2ne
measures and the implementa2on of protocols such as physical and social distancing. In thecontext of my ﬁeldwork extension, these impacts led to rethinking other ways of doing
research and looking at the world around us even in the face of a pandemic andenvironmental or clima2c changes as an archaeologist. Therefore, this paper discusses somethoughts on my experiences and lessons learnt during the research in the face of the Covid19 pandemic, as well as in the context of environmental or clima2c change.

8. Place, Climate and Health: archaeology, therapy and well-being
Session abstract
The prac2ce of undertaking archaeological work and s2mula2ng the imagining of diﬀerent
pasts can be therapeu2c, leading to measurable improvements in self-assessment of wellbeing and mental health. Programmes providing experien2al encounters with archaeologicalobjects, sites and landscapes can provide a sense of value and help to establish no2ons andfeelings of stewardship towards both human and non-human aspects of place. Theore2callyone reason for this may be the dissolving or converging of the Cartesian dichotomy culture /nature and much unnecessary transac2onal and hierarchical baggage a]endant in thatstructure.
There appears to be a unique role for the therapeu2c beneﬁts of archaeology withapplicability for resilience in the face of climate shi[s, in dealing with loss of landscapes andthe resultant sorrow and anxiety. Tiering of such experiences is likely key, so that theprac2ces and imaginings are relatable and pragma2c to diﬀerent people depending on theirprevious experiences. Ritual and reciprocity can be incorporated into the prac2ce with anemphasis on non-transac2onal, non-direc2ve ontological mindsets. Imagining diﬀerent
social reali2es and exploring individual’s diﬀerent ways of rela2ng to the inherited world canthen be factored into the prac2ce of community archaeology, par2cularly through crea2ve
responses.
This session is interested in drawing out the value of diﬀerent responses to the past andexamining models for how this can be facilitated. Evalua2on and assessment of beneﬁts arenecessary to be]er encode successful prac2ces in future work and to unlock support. The
session is also interested in exploring the rela2onship between educa2onal and therapeu2c26

prac2ces and the merging of the two. More work and further case-studies on facilita2ng
community project co-crea2on is also a key interest.
Organisers: Harriet Sams (Bournemouth University), Chris Elmer (University ofSouthampton) and Andy Hutcheson (Centre for Archaeology and Heritage, Sainsbury
Ins2tute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Culture, UEA)
New perspectives on the relationship between heritage & wellbeing.
Carenza Lewis, School of Humanities and Heritage, University of Lincoln
In recent years, many studies have shown associations between heritage engagement andmental wellbeing. However, our understanding of the processes involved has remained
more limited. This paper considers the impact of recently published research, using
quantitative and qualitative methods to offer new insights into these processes, on thecapacity of heritage participation to benefit more people and places more widely in the
future.
Studies presented include a highly innovative quasi-experimental study into the impact oftest pit excavation by participants in their home communities using validated measuresfrom social psychology before and after participation from participants and nonparticipating controls showed a causal link between participation and effect in conditions
including community identification, social support, life satisfaction, positive emotion andself-efficacy. A very different qualitative study, using a grounded theory approach to analyse
the impact of participation on volunteers on sites designated as ‘Heritage at Risk’ showed
key themes associating participation with wellbeing to be purpose,being/belonging/identity, capacity building and learning, sharing, self-nurture and selffulfilment. The study also elicited the heritage ‘USP’ to be the offer of temporality,
discovery, authenticity, continuity, rescuing, shared nostalgia, transformation and legacy.
These nuanced insights have resonance for conditions such as climate anxiety, as well as forother aspects of wellbeing.
This new evidence showing how and why heritage participation improves wellbeing,
generated through highly interdisciplinary research bridging heritage, health andpsychology, strengthens arguments for making more opportunities available for people toengage with heritage. Because poor mental health is a widespread and growing problem,
heritage is ubiquitous, and thousands of heritage, history and archaeology organisations
could offer purposeful activities, the potential benefits of this could be immense.
Scaling-up Human Henge: Ancient landscapes and mental health well-being.
Timothy Darvill, Bournemouth University
Human Henge projects have been undertaken to explore how archaeological sites could be
used to help people with their mental health well-being. It was built from two key ideas.
First, that Stonehenge, and many other prehistoric and later sites like it, were originallyplaces of healing. And second, that ancient sites can and should have a wide range ofsocietally relevant uses in the modern world. Both ideas are briefly explored here in order tohighlight key themes that were woven together in the development of a cultural heritage
therapy programme. This used the iconic sites of Stonehenge and Avebury and theirsurrounding landscapes as arenas within which participants could be creative while safely
exploring places in unfamiliar ways. Through programmes of participant-led activities, local

27

people living with mental health problems came together for fun and therapeutic
adventures, assisted by experts, carers, support workers, and contributors from a range ofdifferent cultures. By journeying through the World Heritage Site, spending time at aselection of the monuments, thinking, talking, singing, dancing, and making music, it
became possible for them to connect with the landscape, the skyscape, the archaeology,
and, most importantly, to re-connect with themselves and with other participants.
The Wellbeing and Heritage Working Group: Creating a Community of Practice
Neil Redfern, Council for British Archaeology
The Wellbeing & Heritage Working Group was set up to create an opportunity to shareknowledge and experience from across the heritage and archaeology sector and otherrelated sectors.
Wellbeing and public health are clear priorities for government and society alike. In addition
to the need for all public bodies to prove their value and demonstrate how we improve
people’s lives, there is a general consensus that the ultimate goal of all our work is tocontribute to individual and societal wellbeing in its wider sense. The policy shift towards
putting wellbeing and public value at the centre of what we do as cultural and heritageorganisations is already happening and puts an additional stress on the need and the benefit
of working collaboratively. The Wellbeing and Heritage Working Group established by
Historic England and the CBA believes that the sector would benefit from having a betteroverview of wellbeing work being undertaken across our sector. It is establishing an efficient
network of connections between the colleagues that are leading on this work in theirorganisations and creating a supportive community of practice. Since its inception theworking group shared practices and approaches in embedding wellbeing in heritage
programmes and projects, to exploring evaluation methods, techniques and guidancesuitable for our sector. We have to discuss strategies’ approaches, research gaps and how
we might better collaborate across the sector and how we might partner up with external
leaders – such as the National Academy for Social Prescribing (NASP), mental healthorganisations, the National Health Service (NHS) wider public health organisations?
Playing by the Book: The Book of Deer and questions of repatriation
Alice Jaspers, University of Southampton
At times of uncertainty brought about by climate change we seek security through anunderstanding of Place and Identity. The Book of Deer, popularly known as Scotland’s oldest
manuscript, is currently stored in England in Cambridge University Library’s archive, though
its acquisition pattern remains unclear. In this session, I will discuss the recent excavation
work surrounding the text, namely the ongoing search for the lost Monastery of Deer where
it is believed the Gaelic addenda were written, and the storm damage to the archaeologicalsite. In line with this, I will consider the impact of the 2022 project on participants sense ofidentity and place, centring on the tripartite excavation, cultural programme and temporary
return of the Book. With the recent carbon dates from the BBC Alba documentary, I willconclude this discussion with a look to concepts of repatriation within the same country andideas of home in line with this. This discussion comes at a particularly pertinent timepolitically, with increasing instability on a local, national and global scale, from the ongoingcalls for a second Scottish referendum, to the worsening climate crisis. Through centring thedebate in this wider context, it will be possible to better evaluate the importance of heritageat times of uncertainty.
28

Mari0me Cultural Heritage and Climate change
Helen Farr, University of Southampton
Helen will be looking at how an understanding of our mari2me past can aid us address
cri2cal ques2ons about climate change and its impacts on mari2me communi2es andheritage.
“Mari2me cultural heritage is important, not only because it works to preserve anddocument the past, including past environmental changes across a variety of scales, but
because it can help in improving the future of an ever-changing and at-risk, ocean andcoastal landscape.
With our oceans at such a cri2cal point environmentally, it is key we look to the past to
answer ques2ons about what to do in the future. We can start by understanding the value of
our coastal and mari2me heritage, its importance to current communi2es, the value of
tradi2onal knowledge, and how these landscapes and seascapes have been changing
through human history. Through this, we can be]er understand the societal eﬀects ofclimate change, sea-level rise and ﬂash ﬂoods, oﬀshore development, policy and planning.
Through increasing ocean literacy, community engagement and interdisciplinary projects, we
can work to protect this heritage.” (Farr. H. ‘Underwater culture’: Re:ac0on. University ofSouthampton online newsle]er. Spring 2023)
Climate, archaeology, health and wellbeing
Andy Hutcheson, UEA
Heritage is important to health and well-being and a more thorough acknowledgement ofthat might help in dealing with the poli2cs of climate loss. Norfolk, as an example, has a longarchaeological prehistory, indeed longer than most other parts of north-western Europe,
da2ng back nearly 1 million years. Although in many cases its landscapes have a richassemblage of sites and monuments, many of the later prehistoric monuments now only
exist as cropmarks. The destruc2on of much of this legacy as earthworks took place in thepast. So that now visi2ng many monuments, for instance, a henge, is largely an imagina2ve
exercise. A focus on the past as a means of establishing iden22es in the present is an old
phenomenon. We can see examples of this in archaeological contexts, where materials
much older than the contemporary deposi2on have been found. There is, it would seem, anurge to engage not only with the recent past or the past of memories but also with an older
past. This paper suggests that one of the problems of the present is a lack of engagementwith pasts and with landscapes generally. This forms a division in the minds of people who
do not engage and perhaps leads to a lack of empathy with heritage and the environment.
This is a poor basis for dealing with an uncertain and a dynamically changeable future.
Archaeology needs to engage with a wider range of people and seek to foster moreengagement with stewardship.
CravWell: Inves0ga0ng Connec0ons Between Heritage Craving, the Outdoors, andWellbeing
Stephanie Piper1, Aimée Li]le1, Andy Needham1, Gareth Perry1, Emily Shoesmith2, Trish
Darcy2, Peter Coventry2, Piran White3
1
Department of Archaeology, University of York, 2Department of Health Sciences, University
of York, 3Department of Environment and Geography, University of York29

The beneﬁts of outdoor, nature-based, and cra[-based interven2ons in mental health care
are well documented (Coventry et al 2021). Likewise, engaging in archaeology has also beenshown to have posi2ve eﬀects on people’s wellbeing (Darvill et al 2019; Reilly et al 2018).
This paper presents preliminary results from the Cravwell project, an interdisciplinary
feasibility study into the connec2on between outdoor heritage cra[ing ac2vi2es anduniversity student responses across a number of wellbeing measures. In this project,
students were invited to the York Experimental Archaeology Research (YEAR) Centre - a quiet
area of woodland next to the lake on the University campus - to take part in one of twoworkshops: recrea2ng stone beads found at the Mesolithic site of Star Carr, North Yorkshire,or making pots based on Anglo-Saxon types from eastern England.
The results of the pre-and post workshop ques2onnaire and interviews have iden2ﬁed
posi2ve links between being outside in nature and focussing on cra[s with tangible links tothe past. Our future aim is that the outcomes can be used in social prescribing - an approach
which connects people with ac2vi2es and groups in their community to support theprac2cal, social and emo2onal needs aﬀec2ng their health and wellbeing, and encourage
more investment in similar archaeology-oriented schemes in the future.
References:
Coventry, P.A., Brown, J.E., Pervin, J., Brabyn, S., Pateman, R., Breedvelt, J., Gilbody, S.,
Stancliﬀe, R., McEachan, R. and White, P.L., (2021). Nature-based outdoor ac2vi2es formental and physical health: Systema2c review and meta-analysis. SSM-Popula0on Health,16, p.100934.
Darvill, T., (2019) Historic Landscapes and Mental Well-being, Oxford: Archaeopress
Reilly, S., Nolan, C., and Monckton, L. (2018). Wellbeing and the Historic Environment.
Historic England.
A hot topic: disrup0on and dilemma during a climate crisis
Chris Elmer, University of Southampton
This brief paper will focus on the disrup2ons caused to a community excava2on near
Andover in Hampshire by heatwave and heavy rain. Ques2ons around rescheduling school
sessions, volunteer health and safety and management of a site which itself forms a place ofcontested heritage will be used to prompt further debate about our response to the climate
crisis. The paper will a]empt to oﬀer a framework for managing a more cohesive approachto providing meaningful community engagement with a material cultural heritage understress.

9. Temporali@es, ontologies and teaching and learning: archaeology toaddress global challenges
Session abstract
In this session, we explore how archaeological theory can be used in our teaching andlearning to address global challenges. For instance, how do we go about addressing climatechange in our teaching? Can lessons be learnt from past behaviour? Does studying migra2onand movement in the past oﬀer insights into popula2on shi[ today? Is there a role for the
past in understanding and addressing inequali2es? This session seeks to draw on examples30

of using teaching and learning to inspire posi2ve contribu2ons to some of today’s global
issues.
But this is TAG! So we invite papers which do not just ‘show and tell’, but which engage withthe value of broader theore2cal debates to inform their teaching and learning. For instance,
can we frame Pétursdórr’s (2017, 2020) dri[ archaeology of the Anthropocene in ourclassrooms and our labs? Can we learn from Mol’s (2021) approach to embed slow
archaeologies of looking in our learning? Can indigenous archaeologies re-shape how weteach and learn ﬁeld prac2ce, as we see in Cipolla, Quin and Levy (2019)? Does a newmaterialist approach inspire new ways of seeing the world today and reframing assemblagesof teaching and learning (Cobb and Croucher 2020)? Do posthumanist feminist approaches
provide space for disrup2ng the human at the heart of our teaching and learning (e.g. Cobb
and Crellin 2022)? These are just a few “starters for ten”, and we invite speakers to look toapproaches from across the many theore2cal tradi2ons to inform their papers.
Because this session is about teaching and learning we warmly welcome papers from people
at all stages of their archaeological career – if you are a student, come and tell us how it is,and how it should be! If you are a new Teaching Assistant come and share your innova2ons
and work through your challenges. If you are an experienced lecturer, what do you think is
working well and what is there s2ll to learn? This will be a non-judgemental, safe space todiscuss the role of theory in our teaching and learning of archaeologies of climate change
and beyond. It will complement the session on archaeology and contemporary value. Papers
will be invited to contribute to a forthcoming edited volume.
References
Cipolla, C.N., Quinn, J. and Levy, J., 2019. Theory in collabora2ve indigenous archaeology:
Insights from Mohegan. American An0quity, 84(1), pp.127-142.
Cobb, H., & Crellin, R. (2022). Aﬃrma2on and Ac2on: A Posthumanist Feminist Agenda for
Archaeology. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 32(2), 265-279.
doi:10.1017/S0959774321000573
Cobb, H., & Croucher, K. (2020). Assembling Archaeology: Teaching, prac2ce and research.
Oxford University Press.
Mol, E. (2021) ‘Trying to Hear with the Eyes’: Slow Looking and Ontological Diﬀerence in
Archaeological Object Analysis, Norwegian Archaeological Review, 54:1-2, 80-99, DOI:
10.1080/00293652.2021.1951830
Pétursdórr, Þ., 2020. An2cipated futures? Knowing the heritage of dri[ma]er. Interna0onal Journal of Heritage Studies, 26(1), pp.87-103.
Pétursdórr, Þ., 2017. Climate change? Archaeology and anthropocene. Archaeologicaldialogues, 24(2), pp.175-205
Organisers: Hannah Cobb (University of Manchester) and Karina Croucher (University ofBradford)

31

Teaching Archaeology and the Climate Crisis: examining the limits and promise ofarchaeological thinking
Katherine Pa]on (University of Toronto) and Steph Piper (University of York)In this paper, we examine what we can (and cannot) learn about the current climate crisis
from past human behaviours. This may seem like a simple ques2on, but it is diﬃcult toanswer and perhaps unse]ling to consider because at some level it brushes up against theques2on of disciplinary relevance. The issue is par2cularly challenging when we consider
how to incorporate discussion of the current climate crisis into pedagogy in undergraduate
educa2on in archaeology. Where is the ﬁt? Human ac2ons now aﬀect the environment at
temporal and spa2al scales that archaeological methods and constructs may fail to easily
deﬁne (sensu Pétersdórr 2017). Drawing on Leichenko & O’Brien (2020), we explore how
we can address the climate crisis in our classes in ways that foster ac2on and hope, notpessimism and paralysis. Here, we draw on recent published literature, our own
experiences, and the results of a recent EAA session to address these ques2ons.
Challenges and opportuni0es of oﬀshore development projects and upskilling First Peoples
and archaeologists
Hanna Steyne (University of Manchester/Wessex Archaeology) and Emma Rae (First People’s
State Rela2ons, Victoria)
The recent release of Australian seabed by the Commonwealth Government, without
consultation with First Peoples, for the construction of Offshore Windfarms has posed
challenges for archaeologists, heritage managers, and the Traditional Owners of Land and
Sea Country across Australia.
Proponents seek to consult and work with First Peoples to identify places of cultural valuethat may be impacted by proposed developments. A number of Traditional Owners havestories that describe the post-glacial inundation of Country, whilst many coastal
communities have ancestral places at sea, or songlines which extend offshore. At present
just a handful of archaeologists have the skills to carry out this work but there isexponentially increasing demand as part of Offshore Wind and other offshore development
projects.
This paper explores issues around teaching and learning as they relate speciﬁcally to
blending western scien2ﬁc methodologies with First Peoples ontologies. We will discuss thechallenge of providing appropriate and relevant training to archaeologists, heritage
managers, and First Peoples in the inves2ga2on of submerged
ancestral palaeolandscapes and interpre2ve approaches that combine western scien2ﬁc
approaches yet centre First Peoples knowledge and voices.
Ground rules, conven0ons and rituals: understanding the concept and language of‘Community’ in the classroom
Katherine Fennelly (University of Sheﬃeld)
In outlining the duties of a community organiser, sociologist Richard Sennet states thatparticipation requires the organiser to establish “tacit ground rules, the conventions andrituals for exchange (2013).” Sennet was talking about engaging multinational
neighbourhoods in cooperation, and in doing so he describes the challenges of aninternational classroom as a venue of linguistic exchange, engagement, and sometimes
struggle. My experience of teaching archaeological theory and critical heritage concepts inclassrooms of primarily-international postgraduate students is that English can be
ambiguous, problematic, and sometimes unclear when it comes to concepts like32‘community,’ which have a charged meaning even in English. This paper will focus on theword Community as jargon in archaeology, and in heritage practice and research. As Sennet
proposed, I will establish the ground rules of this word as it is used in UK archaeology, andwork through how the conventions and rituals of ‘Community’ can be translated, towards
creating a more inclusive, engaged, international field of study going forward.
Learning archaeology and global challenges: a student perspec0ve
Mia Coe and Krupa Sayania (University of Bradford)
How much of what archaeology students learn in their degree is relevant outside ofuniversity? How equipped are students in progressing their careers within the archaeology
and heritage sector when they graduate? It is important to reﬂect how we teacharchaeology but also impera2ve that such reﬂec2on is informed by the lived experiences oftoday’s students. In this paper, we provide this by exploring the experiences of teaching andlearning archaeology from the perspec2ve of students at diﬀerent points in their academic
journeys. We will elaborate on our experiences, triumphs, and challenges so far both inarchaeological theory and beyond and how we feel we can improve communica2on
between teachers and learners.
‘Do Diﬀerent’: Interdisciplinarity at a Time of Crisis
Lorna Richardson (UEA)This paper aims to discuss how UEA staﬀ have navigated the unique challenges of teachingarchaeology and heritage in a resource-deprived environment during an extended period of
uncertainty, redundancy and restructuring. It will provide insights for humani2es colleagues
facing similar circumstances and advocate for increased recogni2on of the value of anarchaeology educa2on as part of UEA's 'Do Diﬀerent' interdisciplinary focus. The paper will
underscore the need to build a resilient academic teaching community such as that led by
the session leaders, despite the ﬁnancial and resource constraints. Strategies for establishingconnec2ons with other disciplines, fostering digital ini2a2ves, and leveraging community
partnerships will be discussed as means of crea2ng a suppor2ve network within and beyond
the university.
Modular degrees, modular thinking? How the structure of undergraduate degrees limits ourability to think cri0cally and address global challenges.
Anna Fisher (University of Leicester)
Modules are o[en created as period or skill-based pockets of learning and assessed in termsof Learning Outcomes. The reality, however, is far more complex, especially wherearchaeological theory intersects 2me and skills. A Roman module might be assessed
through cri2qued examples of violence. But does it ques2on the deﬁni2on of violence?
How do we determine this? How can we deﬁne violence without deﬁning what cons2tutes
a body or person? Tradi2onally, we are expected to analyse conquests, slavery andgladiators as areas of violence to showcase our learning and secure the grade. But what if
there are other possible ontologies? How would these aﬀect our rela2onship with learningand the discipline as a whole?
Theory and prac2ce are indivisible. As an undergraduate student, discovering archaeologicaltheory is an epiphany that illuminates every corner of life, like evidence of misogyny and thepatriarchy permea2ng every facet of society. Archaeological theory intersects every concept
and all 2me periods. Yet this realisa2on does not necessarily change the way the33architecture of our courses, even the modules themselves, cut oﬀ the study of a singularperiod from a broader cri2que that might undermine the aims of a module. How far do
modules impose knowledge prac2ces that constrain our ability to cri2que? In this paper I
will explore how the structure of my undergraduate degree is built in a manner which
prevents explora2on of alterna2ve temporali2es and ontologies and through that limits ourability to think and learn about global challenges.
Posthuman Pedagogies and Aﬃrma0ve Ac0on: An associa0on for teaching and learning inarchaeology.
Laura Hampden (Historic England), Hannah Cobb (University of Manchester) and Karina
Croucher (University of Bradford)
We an2cipate that hearing about how we address global challenges in our teaching andlearning in this session is going to be tough; Climate crisis rages, advanced capitalism frames
students as consumers and lecturers as providing a service, whilst ﬁnancial pressuresmodularise and strip our courses and departments, which are also under pressure as culture
wars dismantle and disenfranchise the Humani2es. Within all of this, colonial models of
prac2ce are woven through our subject and the academy more broadly, and inequali2es arerife and o[en reproduced within our classrooms. There’s a lot to feel overwhelmed andground down by. But don’t despair! In this paper, we examine the value of aﬃrma2ve ac2onthat is at the heart of Rosi Braidor’s posthumanist feminism. Braidor draws upon thisapproach to address the broader crises being faced by the Humani2es across Higher
Educa2on, and we follow her lead to consider, what can we do? What posi2ve, aﬃrma2ve
ac2on is possible for how we teach and learn in archaeology? One answer, we will argue, is
to mobilise and create an Associa2on for Learning and Teaching in Archaeology! Our
proposal is also informed by cri2cal pedagogies, and par2cularly bell hooks Teaching toTransgress. In this paper we set out how these aﬃrma2ve, emancipatory, posthumanist
approaches can be woven through the crea2on of a new organisa2on which will support
teachers and learners of archaeology globally in the face of the many challenges that our
subject faces.
The great how-we-teach-global-challenges challenge! Workshop, roundtable, discussion!
Facilitators: Hannah Cobb (University of Manchester) and Karina Croucher (University ofBradford), Discussant: Eva Mol (University of York)In the ﬁrst few hours of this session par2cipants will have heard about the various,
theore2cally informed ways that colleagues across the UK and beyond are addressing global
challenges in their teaching and learning. But, as the papers will outline, these are notchallenges that we can sit back and passively ruminate upon. If we want to change ourprac2ce, we need to act! As a result this part of the session takes the format of aninterac2ve workshop in which everyone is invited to join. Taking the papers in the session asa star2ng point par2cipants will engage in a series of small group exercises to explore how
we can all take ac2on and teach and learn archaeology through a range of theore2cal lenses.

34

10.Elsewhere: Rethinking Se2lements through Non-places, Edges,
and Forge^ulness
Session abstract
As Latour (Guinard, Lin & Latour 2020) reminds us, built space has its 'ghost acres'elsewhere. Every town and dwelling is entangled with a ﬂurry of near and distant places
through vital movements of extrac2on, dispersal, and disloca2on. Yet se]lement
archaeology has tradi2onally focused on built space; durable accumula2ons of things andmemories; on the archaeological site as a deﬁned unit. Narra2ves built in this way may
revolve around centres or essences—‘what was this place like?’—reinforcing the tacit no2onthat se]lements are integral places with entrenched histories and character. Ques2ons of
movement may remain secondary, or unasked: ‘what was coming in; going out; fast
forgo]en; living on the edge?’
This session asks what se]lement archaeology might look like if we characterisedse]lements through their unravelling edges. Such ‘elsewheres’ are o[en transient, unhome-like or unwanted: in Auge’s (1992) words, ‘non-places’. Non-places are deﬁned by how
we move through them, and how they resist ‘se]ling in’. Though crucial to any se]lement,
their histories form through decidedly diﬀerent dynamics of remembering, forgerng,
accumula2on and erasure.
We invite papers that reimagine se]lements’ histories with non-places as deﬁning features.
This may include:• The literal edges and boundaries of se]lements, their hinterlands, and how
movement through these spaces textured se]led life
• Spaces entangled with se]lements at a distance, e.g. through extrac2ve ac2vi2es• 'Edges within' se]lements: non-places that disrupt our sense of se]lements as
integral or monolithic, such as 2ps, infrastructure hubs, homeless encampments
Organisers: Kevin Kay (University of Leicester) and Laurence Ferland (Université Laval)
Ruina0on and Non-places in the Neoliberal Suburb
Juan Palá Gu2érrez, University College London
The shape of recent urban interven2ons in Spain has o[en been determined by prac2ces,
networks and processes best described as neo-liberal: deregulated development fostered bydeﬁcit-averse local governments and a general move towards ﬁnancialisa2on, both at thedomes2c and ins2tu2onal level. At the same 2me, the urban built environment has been
designed to sa2sfy some governmental constraints, including the management of dangerous
or uncontrollable groups, ease of policing, and so on. Both these trends are materialised in
the design and development of Plans for Urbanis2c Ac2on (PAU, in Spanish), areas of closed
residen2al developments characterised by their homogeneity, lack of street ac2vity, and carcentric layout. Yet in the implementa2on of these interven2ons, material and social‘elsewheres’ are created. By taking a housing-bubble-era (1995-2007) PAU in Madrid as a35

case study, this contribu2on will examine Marc Auge’s no2on of the non-place and its
aﬀordances for archaeology and material culture studies. I will make a dis2nc2on between
built-in non-places, o[en a material enactment of social dis2nc2on; and those voids arisingfrom ruina2on and abandonment, and which are quickly reinterpreted and inscribed withnovel meanings. I will highlight the roles of phenomenological plurality and ephemerality incons2tu2ng non-places in the neoliberal suburb, to then draw some implica2ons about theanaly2cal poten2al of this framework for archaeology.
Taking Urbanity Elsewhere: Extending Perceptions of Medieval Urbanism
Ben Jervis, University of Leicester
Archaeologists and historians have long thought about towns and their hinterlands;
typically, geographically contiguous regions from which resources (primarily good) weresourced. Building on Lefebvre’s concept of the urban fabric, recent thinking in urban studies
has explored the concept of ‘extended urbanisation’, the stretching of the urban fabricbeyond towns and cities, identifying processes of urban exploitation far beyond familiarreference points. The concept is controversial; the metaphor of the urban fabric being
framed, on the one hand, as a narrative of colonisation and erasure and on the other as ameans of de-stabilising a dichotomous relationship between urban and rural.
Extended urbanisation (much like the non-place) is a concept grounded in capitalist
modernity, but with resonances with our understanding of the medieval past. Focussing onplaces of extraction in medieval England, this contribution draws upon posthuman andfeminist perspectives to explore these resonances in processes of urban becoming.
Critically, these places remain unknown in the urban imagination, being non-places beyond
the familiar spatial realm, yet are shaped by urban growth and demand, whilst also being
vibrant communities beyond the urban. The paper will assess the potential of an extended
urbanisation perspective for engaging with these tensions and understanding the wider
extent of medieval urbanisation.
Water & Waste – Dissonance and Disconnec0on in colonial Québec City
Laurence Ferland, Université Laval
When liquid, water swirls, gushes, engulfs, springs, goes, runs, and ﬂows. When liquid, water
moves and becomes a vector of movement, displacement, and erasure. Or so it seems. At
the Québec City docks, during the 18th and 19th century, the colonial rela2onship with waterand more precisely the St-Lawrence River is as ubiquitous as the aspects of that rela2onshipare disconnected from each other.
Large waterbodies such as the St-Lawrence River serve as drinking water source as well as
dumps; they are used as ways of communica2on and transporta2on as well as boundaries.
Waterbodies are u2lized and lived by though never truly se]led. From there stems thedissonance: the river is not a place but there were and s2ll are a]empts at accumula2on andoccupa2on of the St-Lawrence, a]empts at making a place out the river. As the usage and36interac2ons with the St-Lawrence are many, they are wrought with dissonant ac2ons
brought by the disconnec2on with the non-place nature of the river.
The Union Bank site illustrates the ongoing ﬂuctua2ng and clashing rela2onships with the StLawrence River at many scales. A semi-subterranean cistern turned trash pit embeds tracesof transatlan2c commerce, the inﬁlling of large wharves, urban water infrastructure, andpersonal hygiene and consump2on ac2vi2es.
Ghost acres and zombie plots: Neolithic se[lement as metabolic movement
Kevin Kay, University of Leicester
The produc2on of se]lements of substan2al, long-lived architecture is the most central trait
used to dis2nguish ‘Neolithic’ from ‘Epipalaeolithic/Mesolithic’ lifeways in southwest Asia.
This deﬁni2on elevates se[lement to a role of paramount importance in archaeological
grand narra2ves—while purng the focus squarely on a ﬁc2on of se]lement as bounded,
sturdy and sta2c. This paper is an experiment in seeing se]lements otherwise: as a way ofmoving rather than a way of being s2ll, and as a way of moving the world through lives,
rather than lives moving through the world. Drawing on Mol’s (2021) concept of metabolic
rela0ons and environmental history’s ghost acres (e.g. Castonguay 2023), I explore the edgesof Neolithic tells in southwest Asia as vectors for movement, and that movement as a steadyprocess of transforming larger landscapes. The result points to se]lement as a process ofunbounding and transforma2on and helps to make fuller sense of a Neolithic world that wasmore mobile on many scales than it is o[en presented.
Lithics sca[ers, Ecology and Non-places
Dr. Clive Jonathon Bond, University of Winchester and King’s Lynn Archaeological Society
Prehistory is often characterised as places with built forms; henges, barrows, hillforts, orwith stuff deposited across them. The vestiges of past human/animal/plant interaction aretoday places for us to visit and imagine or reconnect to a peopled land of millennia ago. Yet,the most common archaeology covering the longest time frame of human settlement areless intentionally ‘built,’ or modified places, but more ecology in nature now and werealways so: lithic scatters. These places are more non-places (Auge 1995), than distinct ‘sites,’with or without high concentration of artefacts. This paper will look at the examples from
East Anglia and the South-West, where cycles of settlement, abandonment and revisiting
represent the relics of a socially constructed prehistoric landscape. Perceptions of the
micro-ecology, time and movement across, and within, a lithic-land-scape come to the fore,
rather than bounded ‘sites’ or ‘off-site’ zones of activity. As archaeologists we must learn tomeditate more on an essence of being part of that world. Not just the extent of humanactivity, but more an edge-less dwelling (Rajala and Mills 2017), or perception of settling,rather than striving to just map a settlement patten. Lithic scatters are an under-theorisedarchaeology of non-place accessible by many, in our Anthropocene landscape and often
overlooked museum collections.

37Wild South-West: Land use and community-building in arid Northern Cape hinterland, South
AfricaKiah Johnson, University of Cambridge
The south-west coast of southern Africa has been arid and inhospitable for at least ten
thousand years, which has resulted in historical low population density and strategies ofseasonal transhumance and adaptive land use. The Bushmanland and Namaqualand regionsof Northern Cape South Africa officially came under Cape Colonial control in 1847, when thenational border was extended to the Orange River. However, the distance of hundreds ofkilometers from the colony combined with the extreme environment and low resources
made space for an independent hinterland, a frontier space where pastoralists, refugees,
stock thieves and runaway slaves, Oorlams, Nama, foraging Bushmen and Damara built a
dynamic new community. Mission settlements and title deeds for farms became establishedin the late 1800s, and resulting fences and property notions prompted a shift from nomadictranshumance to more settled forms of subsistence, and a decline in overall livelihoods,
especially within communities of colour, which persists today. This paper describes thelimited, ephemeral and regionally diverse archaeology of the region between the west coastof South Africa, across three distinct landscapes along the Orange River and into the arid
interior Bushmanland, where settlements are dictated primarily by access to water. I will
explore the concept and physical manifestation of borders and property, from farm fences
to national borders; how these are conceived and reconfigured by the communities who
have lived and continue to survive here, and the traces that people leave on the landscapewhen permanent structures are regionally novel and less practical than older, mobile shelter
techniques. Last, I will talk about community-building across the Northern Cape and southwest Namibia, and how the landscape shapes human movement as well as cooperative
survival strategies into the present.
“There’s no place on earth like home”: engaging with decolonial epistemologies throughcommunity-based archaeologyHéloïg Barbel, Université Laval, CEN.
Claims for Indigenous rights, frequently tightly entangled with land claims, remind thepower relationships underlying the capability of proclaiming a place being “home”. Cultural
genocide has engaged with dispossessing people from their home through colonizing
concomitantly bodies, lands, and identities. By contributing to building collective
representations through the elaboration and dissemination of narratives about peoples andtheir lands, archaeology has historically been a strong tool of such assimilationist politics.
Through the meeting of inherited interiorised racist stereotypes and exotism with thecapabilities conferred by power relationships, archaeologists still perpetuate, consciously or
unconsciously, practices that re-actualize these inherited systems of domination.
This presentation discusses an incorporated approach of philosophy as a powerful tool for
researchers to engage with decolonial epistemologies. The elaboration of a sociallyembedded conceptual framework, anchored on the land, was a condition for the existence38

of a community-based archaeological project in Nain, Nunatsiavut (NL, Canada). This
theoretical and reflexive work allowed the emergence of meaningfulness and accountability,
which appeared as fundamental conditions of the collaborative work.
“Hold her down with soggy clothes and breezeblocks: unse[led materiali0es as (other)founda0ons of se[lements
Brodhie Molloy, University of Leicester
Posthuman feminist Rosi Braidotti notes that both death and sexual difference areineluctable frames of reference of the human being (Braidotti 2013) – that is they are
inescapable parameters of being (particularly in the western Anglophone world).
Throughout my research I argue that ‘home’ is another one of these frames, with thechallenge for archaeologists coming from its defining. Seemingly, archaeologists lean into
this similar connotation that inhabitation is a referral point of human ‘being’ in thearchaeological record through the study of settlements. However, current trends in(settlement) archaeology seek to galvanise a fixed understanding of a thing and thus typify
what a settlement should be.
Acting as a discipline-imposed ineluctable frames, settlements are generally understood as afixed area of inhabitation that comprises specific structures and features (Darvill 2008). Thiselicits an assumption that people must be settled – static – in order to be recognised in thearchaeological record. Ultimately feeding from the notion of ‘pots = people’, thisexacerbates a dualism of ‘settled’ and ‘unsettled’ materialities of which we work with todemark the boundaries of a given built environment. Such rhetoric informs a process ofalienation within the record, and society more broadly, by not recognising the very real
‘unsettled’ materialities of nomadic, transient, and particularly homeless communities.
Returning to the idea of ‘home’ - something which is an historically emergent andconstituted subject, in different forms and different capacities across times and places helps us reimagine the relations people have had with places in the past. Through the lensof those experiencing homelessness, this paper will explore how such considerations over
specifically-defined spaces can afford new allowances for what a settlement can be, andwhether we need a ‘settlement’ to understand people.

11.How did we get here? Exploding the day-to-day to explore climate
rela@ons.
Session Abstract
This session will address the climate and ecological emergencies by exploring rela2onships
between humans, non-humans, things and the planet. Through archaeological and art
prac2ces, it will inves2gate issues including (but not limited to) consump2on,interconnectedness, conserva2on, extrac2ve colonialism, mutual reliance and Anthropocene
assemblages.

39

Culmina2ng in an ar2st-facilitated workshop during the conference, par2cipants will
collaborate to re-present research as an artwork. Inspired by Cassie Newland’s work (2022)
that explodes the telegraph into a rhizoma2c network of global rela2ons, in advance of theconference each par2cipant will research the mul2ple narra2ves and landscapes ofsomething essen2al to their journey to, or reason for a]ending, TAG2023 – such as a car key,breakfast cereal, ranging rod, railway track steel, pollen sample, aircra[ wing, laboratorypipe]e, walking boot sole… We will follow things where they take us, seeking to hear theirstories about the world and its condi2on.
With 20 workshop places available, the process will also include up to three preparatory
mee2ngs online in the run-up to TAG2023 to meet collaborators, share choices, brainstorm
and develop ideas together.
No prior experience in the arts is required. The session is intended for anyone who- seeks prac2cal experience of combining archaeological understanding with the arts
to s2r human responses to climate change- is interested in archaeological/art methodologies and collabora2ve social prac2ce- appreciates a friendly, suppor2ve environment to try something new, experimental
and collabora2ve.
Dixon, J. (2018) ‘Archaeology and Art.’ C. Smith (ed) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, 1-7
Donald, A. and Gorman, A. (2016) From Aerospace to Everyday Life: the Trajectory of Cable
Ties [online] h]p://zoharesque.blogspot.com/2016/08/from-aerospace-to-everydaylife.html (viewed 21 May 2023)
Newland, C. (2022) ‘The Tools of Empire?’ Industrial Archaeology Review 44(2), 80-95
Note The artwork created at the conference is open: it could be one collec2ve piece,
individual pieces, or indeed a whole that is brought together made from individual items.
The process is as, if not more important, than the result. We make no clear dis2nc2on
between ar2st and archaeologist. Par2cipants will be welcome to bring media with them tothe workshop.
Par?cipants:
Claire Boardman, University of York
Tânia Manuel Casimiro, FCSH NOVA University of LisbonJoão Sequeira, University of Minho
Alice Clough, University of Bournemouth/Museum of London Archaeology
Catriona Cooper, Canterbury Christ Church University
Helen Garbe], University of the Highlands and Islands, Centre for Island Crea2vity, Shetland
Rob Hedge, University of Leicester
The KOKRA FAMILY, line kramer and marjolijn kok
Joel Santos, University of Leicester
Sara Simões, University of Lisbon
Isabel Sturges, University of Oxford
Melissa Thomas, University of York
Organisers:

40

Lara Band (Independent researcher/University of the Highlands and Islands)
Harriet Crisp (Independent researcher)
Helen Garbe] (Social Ar2st Researcher/University of the Highlands and Islands)
Hilary Orange (Swansea University)
Janet Tryner (Contemporary Ar2st. MA Art & Archaeology, University of the Highlands andIslands)
Katherine Watson (Swansea University)
Katy Whitaker (Historic England)

12.States of Being(s): The Poli@cs of Bodies in Archaeology
Session abstract
In the last two decades, the human body has emerged as a rich ﬁeld of theorisation and scholarly
exploration in archaeology. Turns to multispecies archaeologies, material feminism, and postanthropocentrism have provided powerful new tools that cast many of our assumptions about
the world – and our place in it – in a new light. The climate crisis highlights the signiﬁcantvulnerability of our bodies, the inextricable interdependencies between bodies and landscapes,
compost and critters (to speak with Donna Haraway) and our unequal culpability for the current
state of the world.
With a focus on bodies in the broadest sense, this session invites papers that explore the multiplicity
of bodies from manifold perspectives – be that the physical, literary, or iconographical body:from the entanglements of physical bodies and material processes to multispecies bodies;
marginalised bodies, including other-abled, subaltern, and queer states of being; body ontologies;
and politics of the lifecourse.
In this session we want to encourage new and creative thinking on the politics of the body inarchaeology, including but not limited to ideas of gender, personhood, and power as theyintersect with the bodies of the past, the politics of the excavation and curation of bodily
remains in the present, and the vulnerability of bodies. Ultimately the session asks: which bodies
come to matter – and why.
Organisers: Emma Tollefsen (University of Leiceter), Kate Olley (University of Norngham),
Melanie Giles (University of Manchester)
The Oak and the Acorn: Cyclical Bodies and Temporali0es of Social Memory
Madeleine Fyles (University of Toronto)
Archaeologists o[en dismiss trees as natural or non-social aspects of the archaeologicallandscape, and they tend to relegate trees to fuel, resources for architectural construc2ons,
or markers of landscape. However, the posthumanist turn has invited scholars to incorporate
mul2species bodies as subjects of inves2ga2on and to approach them as agents and persons
in past cultures. For the Moche people (AD 100- 850) of modern-day Peru, landscapes in theform of non-human beings were engaged as ancestors including mountain beings and bodies
of water. In later cultures, curated mummies were called ‘mallqui’- a Quechua word with
mul2ple meanings including ‘mummy’, ‘ancestor’, and ‘young sapling’. The e2ology of
mallqui points to a dis2nct ontological con2nuum linking family, lineage, and the41

environment, especially trees. Archaeological evidence indicates that the revered algarrobo
tree (Prosopis pallida) was worshiped by the Moche as a non-human ancestor.
Through an analysis of the archaeological and iconographic record of the Andean North
Coast, this paper will explore mallqui as both ancestral bodies and sylvan guardians of social
memory, where encounters with the environment cons2tuted dedicated interac2ons withthe familial past. By examining the algarrobo tree as a living person, this paper will address
Andean concep2ons of bodies that were deﬁned by both their endurance and cyclicaltransforma2on. Just as the oak tree grows from the acorn, so too are ancestor mummies
desiccated and interred as the seeds of family lineages.
Mul0species Vikings – Disrup0ng the Human/Non-Human Binary in Archaeology
Renate Larssen and Marianne Hem Eriksen (University of Leicester)
Human bodies are not the only bodies preserved in the archaeological record. The past was
decidedly more-than-human, with animals living alongside people, sharing the same spaces
and par2cipa2ng in the same prac2ces. Conven2onally, archaeology tended to reduceanimal remains to proxies for human consump2on pa]erns and ritual prac2ces, valuable
because of what they can tell us about human behaviour. Recently, however, archaeologicaland interdisciplinary research have disrupted the human/non-human binary and opening
avenues for thinking about animal bodies in new ways. This presenta2on will argue for theneed for a new approach to animal remains in archaeology, in the context of the
Scandinavian Viking Age. We ask: what roles did animals play in Viking society? How werethese roles decided – and by whom? In what ways did their roles in life correspond with
their treatment in death? We will discuss ways through which we can access more complex
animal-human rela2onships in the past and illustrate our approach with examples from the
Scandinavian Viking Age; with a par2cular view to the poli2cs of animal bodies.
The Archaeological Posthuman Child: Exploring a New Approach to Studies of Childhood in
the Past
Brad Marshall, University of Leicester
Archaeology of children and childhood is a rapidly growing and diversifying sub-discipline.
However, theore2cal approaches to inves2ga2ons and concep2ons of children andchildhood in the past remain fundamentally humanis2c and con2nue to, o[en uncri2cally,
posi2on the child as a binary opposite to the ‘transcendental adult’ and understandchildhood essen2ally as a social and cultural construct. Through this the child is implicitly or
explicitly incomplete, immature, or un(der)-developed, disempowered, and individualised.
Post-humanist, alongside cognate ontological and New Materialist turns withinarchaeological theory can provide a much needed counterposed approach apposite to thestudy of children who sit outside post-Enlightenment and Euro/Western-centric concep2onsof the human and its place in the world.
This paper will draw on research in childhood philosophy, psychology, pedagogical andsociological theory, alongside wider philosophical and archaeological theory andmethodologies, to suggest a new way to ontologically understand, conceptualise andexplore children and childhood in the past. It will reframe the child as a posthuman‘forma2on’ which exceeds a bounded body and is redeﬁned by its being subjec2ve andrela2onal with human, non-human and more-than-human en22es, objects and forces. This42

approach will then be applied and explored through mortuary and bio-archaeology and a
Viking Age case study.
Resurrec0ng Transhuman Ghosts
Jess Thompson (University of Cambridge)
This paper is situated ﬁrmly in the dislocated space between a theore2cal archaeology whichis striving for a trans- and post-human ontological approach to the past, and a rapidly
domina2ng age of -omics in bioarchaeology. From this standpoint, I a]empt to do twothings. Firstly, to address ‘which bodies come to ma]er’ through an explora2on of theﬁltering processes which extend taphonomic biases from the ﬁeld to the lab and traverse
not just the poli2cs of who gets buried, but the poli2cs of current research. Secondly, I argue
that it is 2mely to reconsider how bodies come to ma]er. Current biomolecular techniques
have resulted in the ‘body’ becoming siloed once again in archaeology. Too o[en, opposing
philosophical tradi2ons lead simultaneously to theore2cal understandings of bodies andpersons as complex, more-than-human assemblages and to bodies as essen2ally biologicalmaterials. There is li]le room for overlap in these divergent perspec2ves. Yet, theentanglements of researcher-philosophy-archaeological bodies and scien2st-machinearchaeological bodies each produce transhuman bodies. While some theorists argue thatbodies are always-already naturalcultural Cyborgs (to borrow from Haraway), despite theenmeshing of body-machine involved in biomolecular analyses, the output typically reduces
past persons to the stuﬀ of nature. I ask: how do we escape this loop, and resurrecttranshuman ghosts which present alterna2ve visions of the past?
Assembling Bodies: Aﬀect, Gender and More-Than-Human Personhood
José Chessil Dohvehnain Marnnez-Moreno (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México)
By assembling diverse archaeological, ethnographic, ethnohistorical and documentary data,
we can explore the virtual mul2ple composi2on of human and non-human bodies in thecomplex sedentary, nomadic and semi-nomadic socie2es of pre-Hispanic northern Mexico.
These peoples may have shared concep2ons of a mul2ple and rela2onal bodily and personal
composi2on, where the human and more-than-human was assembled through diﬀerent
prac2ces and contexts, to become in ongoing change and movement throughout life, andeven beyond death, thus ac2vely contribu2ng to the construc2on of individual and collec2ve
history, as well as to the aﬀec2ve movement of the cosmos. This paper will present
reﬂec2ons on the mul2ple composi2on of pre-Hispanic hunter-gatherer bodies, taking as astar2ng point recent archaeological reﬂec2ons ar2culated from posthuman archaeology, thearchaeology of personhood and the archaeology of the body.
The Cost of Gendered Death in Viking Age Denmark
Emma Louise Thompson (University of Leicester)This paper examines who could access a “gendered” death in the Viking Age and the barriers
restric2ng others from the same. The study conducted mul2variate analyses of several
mortuary characteris2cs – osteological data, burial forms, and associated ﬁnds – on 735
inhuma2on burials from 139 sites in Denmark. This highlighted poten2al gender or rank
indicators and interrogated the intersec2ons between these. This paper argues that theseburials were largely non-gendered, with most graves conforming to similar pa]erns. Where
gender indicators are visible, typically only inferable through varia2ons in grave goods, thesefrequently interface with signs of high rank. This suggests gender is more explicit the greater

43

the status of the individual or respec2ve mourners. These individuals would have been moreable to aﬀord the loss of high-value objects associated with speciﬁc genders (such as
elaborate metalwork). Alterna2vely, this may reﬂect more rigid expecta2ons of genderpresenta2on amongst the elite. Subsequently, lower-ranking families could have also placedthese symbols within the graves of the deceased to further their social capital when thepoli2cal climate of Denmark was changing signiﬁcantly. These ﬁndings provide exci2ng
avenues for further research on how gender was constructed more broadly across diﬀerent
levels of Viking Age socie2es.
The Pregnant Body and Archaeologies of Absence
Katherine M. Olley* (University of Norngham), Emma Tollefsen*, Marianne Hem Eriksen
and Brad Marshall (University of Leicester); * presen2ng authors
There is limited evidence pertaining to the pregnant body in the Viking Age. Representa2onsof the pregnant body (both material and literary) are scarce, while historical pregnant bodies
are diﬃcult to iden2fy in the bioarchaeological record. The pregnant body in the Viking Age,then, is largely an absent body – but this absence is not neutral. Rather, we contend that theabsen2ng of the pregnant body from the grand narra2ves of history has been deeply
poli2cal, helping to naturalise the ontological complexity of the pregnant body and render it
unremarkable and trivial.
This paper confronts this absence, centering the pregnant body as a vital and legi2mate
subject of analysis in order to understand the ontological posi2onings of the pregnant bodyin Viking Scandinavia. The pregnant body is recovered via an array of interdisciplinary
evidence, both material, literary and osteological; including the only known visual depic2onof a pregnant body from the Viking Age (the Aska ﬁgurine), later saga literature, and ahandful of possible mother-infant/adult-fetus cointerment grave contexts from acrossDenmark and Sweden. Such evidence suggests that there were mul2ple ways ofconceptualising pregnancy in the Viking Age, which co-existed simultaneously, rather than asingle dominant ontology for the pregnant body in the Viking Age.
Deep Cuts: Determining the Mark of the Sword on the Body in Later Prehistoric Britain
Catherine Jones (University of Manchester) and Ma] Hitchcock (University of Leicester)
Drawing on a selec2on of case studies from Later Prehistoric Britain, this paper intertwines
concepts of the body as both human and non-human, and takes an interdisciplinary
approach to illustrate the violent capabili2es of bladed weaponry in an2quity. Throughosteological analysis of human remains, and microwear analysis of oﬀensive and defensive
weapons, it is possible to inves2gate marks from various kinds of blades; allowing forinterpreta2ons of combat styles throughout the disparate regions of Britain.
The funerary record for Later Prehistoric Britain reveals a vast array of burial prac2ces for
those who exhibit clear signs of sharp force trauma; from fearful, prone burials containing
deliberately broken weaponry, to sumptuously adorned graves devoid of armament. The
disparity in cura2on of certain bodies and apparent dismissal of others invites ques2ons as
to who and what was seen to ma]er within Later Prehistoric society and why. Here, we draw
on post humanist and feminist approaches to reconsider the graves of those who experience
violence, or were buried with violent objects. Did the violent traces on these human andnon-human bodies mean that they came to be valued (or de-valued) diﬀerently than bodies
without?

44George: The Head from Holderness
Melanie Giles (University of Manchester)This paper navigates the history of a decapitated Iron Age head found in East Yorkshire by afarmer over forty years ago. It discusses the body poli2cs of these remains in rela2on toboth the violence he suﬀered at the end of his life, and the mortuary context of the Arras
burial rite from which he was excluded. The study will interrogate how landscape was used
to nego2ate violent death, and how speciﬁc body parts were used to shape discourses ofpower, place and iden2ty. Yet it also follows his more recent history in the care of his ﬁnders:
tracing how he has become kin in the present. It will discuss the poli2cs of naming andcura2ng the ancient dead, proposing that George is an unappreciated example of whatfolklorists o[en refer to as ‘screaming skulls’, arguing they could be more appropriately
reconceptualised as ‘charming heads’. Finally, it encourages us to think about the future ofsuch fragments and who cares for them, in light of museological debates over the display ofhuman remains.
Bodies in Death and Bodies in Art: Diﬀerent Ways of Cons0tu0ng Leaders and Ancestors
John Robb and Jess Thompson (University of Cambridge)
Before power can be exercised by individuals, it has to be cons2tuted ontologically,
and this is done in ways diﬀused throughout cultural systems. This paper brings
together two sources of evidence normally considered separately, art and deathways,
to understand the power of the body in prehistoric Europe. We compare three
periods. In the Neolithic, bodies were cons2tuted rela2onally as assemblages ofcita2ons and quali2es. In iconography, this manifests as a melange of clearly humanbodies, body fragments, and human a]ributes combined with other things,
some2mes clearly gendered but o[en not, some2mes doing things, some2mes mixed
with cosmology. Similarly, deathways slowly dissolved the body into villages andlandscapes, with selected fragments o[en recontextualised for other uses. In the
Copper Age, the stable individual body became more clearly deﬁned, withstandardised representa2ons of essen2alised personhood in both deathways andstatuary. Iconography suggests that cosmological forces seem increasingly to havebeen channelled through these bodies. As this developed into the Bronze Age, theindividual body lost its cosmological force; instead, it increasingly became a locus for
performing social dis2nc2on. This reconstruc2on suggests that the ways poten2al
leaders understood their own capabili2es evolved con2nually, changing the nature ofboth ancestorhood and poli2cal leadership.
‘Beyond the Binary’: Funerary Archaeology, Gender Iden0ty, and Its Impact on Mental Healthand Wellbeing
Dulcie Newbury (University of Bradford)
Archaeology can be used to cri2cally engage with the present, inform our views of genderiden22es, and challenge contemporary biases, as well as enhance our understanding of thepast and improve contemporary mental health and wellbeing. Today, gender inequality anddiscrimina2on impact mental health and wellbeing, with individuals in the queer community
showing higher rates of mental illness, o[en linked to issues faced as a result of theiriden2ty.

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This research uses archaeological materials to challenge interpreta2ons of gender by
elimina2ng predetermined ideas of iden2ty based on binary sex and gender, with the aim ofu2lizing archaeology in gender debates today. The binary idea of sex and gender is not
representa2ve of iden22es and limits our understanding of people and iden2ty today, and in
the past. To determine the inﬂuence archaeology has in contemporary society and on
wellbeing, academic and public facing workshops were conducted in May-November 2022 in
Bradford. The aim of these workshops was to determine the role archaeology can play in
informing, accommoda2ng, and enhancing contemporary discussions surrounding sex andgender iden2ty, with the goal of using these discussions to enhance mental health andwellbeing. The workshops required par2cipants to work in small groups to engage witharchaeological and contemporary case studies focused on sex and gender. The materials
used challenge the binary concepts of sex and gender. This can provide individuals with asense of history and community, which is proven to improve mental health and wellbeing.
The workshops showed that par2cipants feel that the sessions and the use of archaeology
can improve contemporary mental health and wellbeing by challenging cultural norms andhighligh2ng diversity beyond the binary, both in the past and present.
Things in Jars: Museum Goers A{tudes Towards the Display of Fluid Preserved Medical
Specimens, the Archaeological Skeleton and Mummiﬁed Remains
Aoife Su]on-Butler and Karina Croucher (University of Bradford);
Across Britain, many ins2tu2ons hold collec2ons of historical ﬂuid preserved po]ed humanremains, some2mes referred to as ‘wet specimens.’ This paper will present data collected at
the Surgeons Hall Museum (Edinburgh) and the Old Opera2ng Theatre Museum and Herb
Garre] (London) on the display of these types of remains. This paper will compare this datawith data collected at a museum exhibit which exclusively displayed archaeological skeletonsand with a study which focused on public artudes towards the ancient, mummiﬁed dead.
Although po]ed specimen collec2ons are s2ll being used in teaching and research, somesuggest they are now ‘obsolete’ (Lee and Strkalj 2017). These collec2ons are unique
resources as they have so[ 2ssue a]ached, despite being a couple of hundred years old.
They diﬀer from archaeological remains on display in museums which are skeletonised or
mummiﬁed in appearance.
The visitor surveys at the two medical museums revealed that the public ﬁnds these po]ed
collec2ons interes2ng, not upserng to see on display, and that they o[en ‘see themselves’in these collec2ons through shared pathologies. Po]ed specimens of the past have thepoten2al to open up conversa2ons linked to themes such as death, ethics, organ dona2on,the body on display, the preserved body, and socioeconomic status (Richardson 2006).
Bodyscapes: A 3-Body-Solu0on for a Categorical Problem
Sabrina Authenrieth (Leiden University)
Archaeological objects are tradi2onally categorized as tools, weapons, or adornments. These
classiﬁca2ons o[en ignite instant interpreta2ons and assump2ons about past beings.
However, we can classify objects in a more neutral and non-func2onal approach by directly
connec2ng them to the respec2ve parts of the human body. This breakdown allows us tocategorize objects into only three less interpre2ve categories.
By mapping objects to their rela2ng Body-Zones, past ac2vi2es, such as deposi2onal
prac2ces, can be studied in a novel and more intui2ve approach. This method and how it is46

applied to metalwork deposi2ons in the river landscapes of the Rhine during the Early
Bronze Age will be discussed in this paper.
Voluptuous, Obese, Too Large? Fat Objects in the Archaeological Record
Theodore Muscillo (Independent Scholar)
Over the last couple of decades, Fat Studies has established itself in the humani2es andsocial sciences. The journal Fat Studies, which was launched in 2012, has brought a cri2cal
approach to fatness in health, media and visual culture, queer and trans poli2cs, sociology
and other areas of contemporary society. In doing so, the ﬁeld has drawn a]en2on to thesocial factors shaping fat people’s lives and deaths, ques2oning individualised, medicalised
approaches. Despite this, discussion of fatness in archaeology has been very limited.
This paper explores how fatness is, and could be, talked about through two case studies.
First, it draws a]en2on to some ways in which fatness has been passed over in thediscussion and presenta2on of the Bronze Age ‘East Cambridgeshire’ torc (PAS CAME5D871). This is compared with archaeological discussion of Neolithic ‘Venus’ ﬁgurines. It
then reappraises the torc through a fat lens. This lens is also applied to a set of medieval
English face jugs, considering the possible implica2ons of fatness in the homosocial drinking
prac2ces that these jugs are thought to be associated with. Thus, this paper demonstrates
that an openness to fat narra2ves can expand interpreta2ons, par2cularly when considered
together with issues of status and gender. Finally, it proposes the term ‘fat objects’ as astar2ng point for building fatness back into interpreta2ons of the archaeological record.

13.Past Responses to Climate and Environmental Change Through the Lens
of Mythology
Session abstract
Archaeology can reveal much about human responses to environmental change, as can
mythology. Whether long-term or rapid-onset, previous ‘adapta2on events’ show the scaleand violence of societal responses if impacts are managed badly.
Disentangling the environmental changes behind such narra2ves as the Biblical Exodus isenlightening about social and poli2cal change – and collapse. Climate jus2ce is key:
adapta2ons could disenfranchise vulnerable members of global society. The 17th-century
witch hunts had a root in societal reac2ons to a cooler climate.
The disappearance of Doggerland involved both gradual and sudden habitat and lifestylechanges. What happened to people’s dei2es? Could Nehalennia, known from Roman-era
Dutch altars, have evolved from an ancient deer-goddess to oﬀer safe sea-passage as thelandscape changed? Could the Norse Ge•on, ploughing Sjæland from Sweden, or Welsh
Ladies of the Lake, with underwater ca]le, be memories of the arrival of farming as the land
ﬂooded?
Equally, anthropogenic environmental change is not new, just that the scale of today’s
climate change is unprecedented. The coming of agriculture was a massive upheaval, with
habitat change, land-use conﬂicts, the emergence of city states and new ‘gods of civilisa2on’.
‘Old-fashioned’ lifestyles were misrepresented, hence the legendary Amazons.
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Tying mythological mo2fs to environmental changes does not devalue the mythology; itbrings a richer understanding and allows us to chart the evolu2on of myths and ﬁt orphan
legends into wider narra2ves. Understanding past adapta2ons can warn of dangerous
impacts of climate change today, from wars to ‘witch hunts’. It is a mul2-disciplinary,imagina2ve endeavour.
Organiser: Chris Wood (Independent researcher and curator of the Ickney Collec2on)
Climate Change narra0ves and the long tradi0on of mythologising submerged landscapes: astory from, and of, Doggerland
Micheál Butler, University College Dublin, James Walker and Vince Gaﬀney, University ofBradford
Doggerland provides an evoca2ve tes2mony to the changing world in which we live.
Fic2onal and non-ﬁc2onal accounts of life in now-submerged landscapes resonate
powerfully in a world where climate change is recognised as a Grand Societal Challenge. Yetlong before the science of climate change became established as a phenomenon of broader
societal concern, clues from submerged places gave sense to the idea that the world we
inhabit is not sta2c. Stories of submerged forests (‘Noah’s wood’), great ﬂoods andAntediluvian man are just some of those recent enough not to have been lost to history; we
may only imagine what earlier peoples may have understood. Today, the marriage of mythos
with logos (i.e. scien2ﬁc data) validates the resonance of these stories, but it is such stories
themselves that predated and drove the scien2ﬁc inves2ga2ons that legi2mised theirsalience. As disciplines concerned, by diﬀerent turns, with narratology and historicism, it
should be no surprise to either mythologists or archaeologists that blunt scien2ﬁc valida2on
is not the only epistemologically viable means of deriving truth-of-the-ma]erunderstandings about the world around us. A[er all, it is the “myths which are believed in[which] tend to become true”.
Through the Myths of Time
Mar2n Bates, Pleistocene Geoarchaeologist, University of Wales Trinity Saint David,
University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Peter Stevenson, storyteller and Jake Whi]aker
Folk tales and myths may carry memories of past events and of dreams and reality, fantasy
and truths. Cataclysmic events like ﬂoods, storms, tsunamis and war may be remembered instories alongside personal emo2ons. O[en, these stories are transposed from one event to
the next through 2me. A catastrophic ﬂood may be remembered in a story un2l the next
ﬂood, when the older tale will be adapted to tell the newer one. It is diﬃcult to date folk
tales, as they are con2nuously adap2ng and changing to the world around them in the
telling.
In Cardigan Bay, West Wales, the ﬂood myth exists in the story of the lost hundred ofCantre’r Gwaelod. Other tales include the drunken mermaids at Tanybwlch, the Tylwyth Teg
at Llanrhystud and many Dynes Hysbys in the Aeron Valley woods. Ceredigion’s rich cultural

48

heritage forms a body of informa2on that sits alongside and poten2ally interweaves with
our archaeological record.
The Portalis Project uses the tales to illuminate archaeological narra2ves of Mesolithic and
Neolithic Ceredigion, linking sites to individual stories, as produced by local storyteller, Peter
Stevenson. In Y Dilyw (The Flood), a Mesolithic character encounters the old toad of Cors
Fochno to explain the passage of 2me. Plant Rhys Ddwfn looks at people's endless dreams ofa be]er world. The Hen Wrach reveals medical issues of the past. And the Tylwyth Teg(Hidden People), living on the edge of mainstream culture, are a metaphor for Mesolithic
people as Neolithic lifestyles appeared.
This presenta2on outlines our approach and includes video clips of Peter storytelling at anoutreach event in the Aeron Valley in July 2023.
Taciturn Cave and the Hunting of the Quark: A Journey into the Void. A 20 minutemultimedia presentation
Filippa Dobson, Independent scholar and artist
As a crea2ve response to seas rising and the threat of ex2nc2on, Taciturn Cave remembers
acts of violence so grave that silence has prevailed for millennia. Nothing exists except atoms
and the void, neither subject nor object, past nor present when ac2ve worlds are in violent
collision. Ar2sts, archaeologists, and folklorists interpret collision diﬀerently. Each isinterested in the spaces between people, places, and “things”. The experimental aim of thispresenta2on is to visualise “thing-power” by examining the rela2onships between people
and stones at two prehistoric archaeological sites, the Little Skirtful of Stones, Ilkley Moorand High Pasture Cave, Isle of Skye (UK). A giant’s wife drops stones from her apron whilst
crossing the River Wharfe. Hundreds of miles away, across the Atlan2c seaboard, a goddess
quietly slumbers. Two thousand years later she awakens to the sounds of digging. How
might the vulnerability of people to climate altera2on impact cultural materiality? And how
might the deposi2on of portable stones represent women as nomads and actants within thecontext of archaeological interpreta2on and mythological storytelling? My prac2ce-led
research emerges from a “bricolage” methodology, intertwining philosophical ideas fromJane Benne], Karen Barad and Donna Haraway with the “sound” archaeologies of Timothy
Darvill, Geoﬀrey Wainwright and Aaron Watson (and others). Ecocatastrophe can disruptpa]erns of human and animal behaviours leading to compe22on for resources, violence andeven “sacriﬁce”.

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14.Grief for the past and for the future: heritage, climate, anddecolonisa@on
Session abstract
This session will explore the emo2onal impact and resonance of grief, loss and mourning forarchaeologists and other heritage workers engaging with extrac2ve histories of racialisa2on,
empire, neocolonialism, and/or the impact of climate change. We’re par2cularly interested
in the rela2onship between grieving and our labour.
We’re seeking responses that explore personal experiences of environmental, material andpostcolonial grief in museums and archives, at archaeological ﬁeld sites, and other heritage
spaces. Responses may explore themes described below, but are not limited to them.
-Feelings of anxiety or loss associated with damage to heritage sites or cultural
materials resul2ng from climate change, par2cularly from those working with sites orcollec2ons aﬀected by climate change, or environmental harm.
Grief and resilience in rela2on to the labour of ac2vism in an ins2tu2onal context.
Emo2onal responses from heritage workers who have faced denialism on racism
and/or climate change from audiences.
Grieving media misrepresenta2on of your work.
Mourning cancelled or indeﬁnitely delayed projects related to themes of social
jus2ce.
Tes2monials about changes in professional prac2ce as a result of grief.
Crea2ve responses for complex emo2ons related to grief, mourning, loss or decay,
including the roles of anger and hope.

Contribu2ons from any discipline are welcomed, including those that might be ar2s2c,cathar2c, medita2ve, and/or geared towards community-building. Personal narra2ves anddata-driven approaches are welcome, as well as work that combines them. The session will
be hybrid, and proposals from heritage workers in the Global South are very welcome.
Organisers: Danika Parikh (University of Cambridge Museums) and Ayesha Fuentes(University of Cambridge Museums)
Grieving the Unknowable: Object Research as Mourning
Nathalie Cooper, University of Warwick, and Horniman Museum and Gardens“The loss of stories sharpens the hunger for them. So it is temp0ng to ﬁll in thegaps and to provide closure where there is none. To create a space for mourningwhere it is prohibited. To fabricate a witness to a death not much no0ced.”(Saidiya Hartman, Venus in Two Acts, 2008, p.8)
This paper seeks to reframe object research of colonial-era museum collec2ons as a labourof in2macy, capable of evoking feelings of grief, anger, loss and longing. With speciﬁc
reference to a collec2on of objects from southern Africa compiled by Henry J. Hodgson in
the late-nineteenth century and held at the Horniman Museum in London, I explore theways in which researchers experience and navigate feelings of loss and distress wheninterac2ng with in2mate objects for which there is li]le provenance data. In the case of the50

so-called ‘Hodgson collec2on’, despite containing a number of deeply in2mate and personal
objects likely chosen for their easy portability, we know li]le about the collector and evenless about the people from whom the objects were sourced. Yet, despite their century-longconﬁnement in museum storage, these in2mate objects nonetheless retain what Katherine
McKi]rick might term “psychic impressions of life and livingness” and it is precisely these
impressions that cause us to grieve for lives we will never know. For example, a beaded
child’s charm typically worn to ensure strength and health forces us to ques2on whatbecame of the child without the charm for protec2on? Is it possible (or even appropriate) tomourn a child we will never meet?
This paper draws from Black feminist methodologies to ques2on the role of grief and longing
in object research. What role does emo2on play in object research? To what extent can thein2mate act of handling and researching objects provide alterna2ve avenues of ‘knowing’,and is feeling the same as knowing? Finally, what are the pi^alls of inven2ng in2macy in thespaces le[ behind by archival omissions, and in which scenarios is it more appropriate toheed calls for what Saidiya Hartman terms “narra2ve restraint”?
In Search of the Vanishing Heritage: Comba{ng Loss of Urban Archaeological Heritage
through Ci0zen Archaeology in Postcolonial India
Simran Kaur, Speaking Archaeologically
India, a palimpsest of various urban historic layers, has been experiencing a rapid loss ofarchaeological heritage in the context of increased development needs and climate change.
Alongside the rampant urban concre2za2on, the postcolonial bureaucra2c archaeologicalprac2ce in India is s2ll haunted by the colonial monument-centric approach and a
disjuncture between the ﬁelds of archaeology and heritage management. The paper seeks
to look at the loss of heritage structures to climate and development changes in the context
of an archaeology governed by the “ivory tower”. For this purpose, the paper will be taking
the case of the Badshahpur Fort and Baoli (stepwell), medieval period structures in the cityof Gurgaon, Haryana. While only one bas2on of the fort survives at present, the stepwell isunder a cri2cal threat from both environmental damages as well as modern construc2on inits vicinity. By looking at the loss of public empowerment and collabora2on in archaeology,
the paper aims to discuss the role of ci2zen archaeology as a response for the sustainable
future of both the archaeological sites and the ﬁeld of archaeology in India.
“The Once was a Mountain Valley………”
Mar2n Callanan and Einar Kristensen, Department of Historical and Classical Studies,
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
In this paper, we will lay out recent examples of lost natural and cultural resources from themountains of Central Norway and Sweden. The examples date from the 1950’s un2l today
and include the loss of mountain snow and ice due to unstable and warmer weather, theloss of whole landscapes due to hydroelectric lake development, and the more recent loss ofreindeer pasture due to the construc2on of windfarms.

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In each of these cases we shall look at the how the destruc2on has taken place. We shallalso look at some of the narra2ves and expressions of grief from those aﬀected by these
events. The destruc2ve events in these examples follow diﬀerent pathways and 2mescales.
How can we relate these expressions to relevant theories and ideas about grief. How do thediﬀerence temporal processes impact on the grieving process itself?
Museum death fe0sh: Lessons in entropy and the conserva0on of material heritage
Ayesha Fuentes, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge
This presenta2on will consider the limita2ons and challenges of object integrity - the ideathat a speciﬁc thing should be preserved unchanged as an investment or expression of its
value - as a founda2on for preserva2on ethics and museum prac2ce. Based on professional
experience as a researcher and conservator specialising in the care and study ofarchaeological and ethnographic collec2ons, this paper will explore how the author engages
with feelings of a]achment, loss, damage, deteriora2on and disassocia2on when faces withmaterials which are uniquely vulnerable, many of which have been shaped by colonial
knowledge produc2on. This will include an idiosyncra2c vocabulary for documen2ng
material change which is heavily inﬂuenced by the author's work with Buddhist
communi2es, and explora2ons of alterna2ve paradigms for ar2cula2ng the value of museum
collec2ons. Finally, this presenta2on will consider how it might be possible to care formaterial heritage given the increasingly precarious environmental, economic and social
context of cultural ins2tu2ons.
Grief and crea0vity workshop
Ayesha Fuentes, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge
Danika Parikh, University of Cambridge Museums
As part of our session, we are facilita2ng a workshop to explore crea2ve responses to grief.
This will include collaging to share personal narra2ves as well as reﬂec2ons on the papers inthe session. Our hope is that this collabora2ve and crea2ve approach will allow for
medita2ve, spontaneous, and cathar2c explora2ons of grief in our labour as heritage
workers. We’ll use this 2me to collec2vely express our grief and other emo2ons, with theaim of building community together.

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15.[Re:]Assembling Artefacts for the Anthropocene
Geologists a]emp2ng to frame the impacts of human ac2vity in terms of the Anthropocene
have essen2ally rediscovered human-made artefacts as ‘technofossils’ (Zalasiewicz et. al.
2014; 2022) – re-engaging frameworks familiar from the origins of Archaeology. This session
asks how we might engage more recent conceptual developments to reframe ourengagements with, and understandings of, artefacts in response to the challenges of the
Anthropocene.
Over recent years, an escala2ng series of conceptual developments including various aspectsof post-humanism and the new materialisms, assemblage theory, the ‘ontological turn’ andconsidera2ons of the animacy and vibrancy of material things have suggested a movebeyond object biographies and artefact agency towards perspec2ves on the lives andpowers of things less embedded in contemporary western metaphysics.
In this session, we will include studies of artefacts and assemblages from diverse
geographical and temporal contexts that seek to employ novel theore2cal approaches inorder to present fresh perspec2ves on manufactured material things, whether complex
valuables or mundane everyday items.
Achille Mbembe (2021, 88-89) recently combined a call for a return to “big ques2ons” and“deep history” with an appeal to consider the con2nuous topological folds of the whole’.
What be]er star2ng point than the intersec2on of archaeology and geology to a]empt tograpple with this topological challenge?
References
Mbembe, Achille (2021) Out of the Dark Night. Columbia.
Zalasiewicz, J., Williams, M., Waters, C. N., Barnosky, A. D., & Haﬀ, P. (2014). The technofossil
record of humans. The Anthropocene Review, 1(1), 34–
43. h]ps://doi.org/10.1177/2053019613514953
Zalasiewicz, J, P K Haﬀ, M Edgeworth, J Ivar do Sul, D Richter (2022) The Technofossil Record:
Where Archaeology and Paleontology Meet. In: Rosol C and Rispoli G (eds) Anthropogenic
Markers: Stra2graphy and Context, Anthropocene Curriculum. Berlin: Max Planck Ins2tute
for the History of Science. DOI: 10.58049/e1bg-ab83
Organisers: Abigail Moﬀe], Chris Wingﬁeld (both University of East Anglia) and Julian
Thomas (University of Manchester)
Systems, cumula0vity and the emergent power of material things
John Robb, University of Cambridge
Most material culture theory has worked outwards from single objects. This works well with
its tradi2onal philosophical focus, exploring human-thing rela2onships and how theyinﬂuence human subjec2vity. However, important conceptual and methodological gaps
remain. Conceptually, we have thought about material culture as a total system only in themost abstract sense. This is partly mo2vated by a methodological gap. For example, it is
widely recognised that material culture forms a system whose ability to structure human life
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does not emanate from any par2cular object but from the rela2ons between them all andpeople, but beyond drawing impressionis2c diagrams of rela2onal networks, we lackmethods for inves2ga2ng how this works. This in turn limits our ability to understand theemergent quali2es of material culture as a system (for instance, where its iner2a or
momentum lies, how it constrains some direc2ons of change and promotes others, andwhether a system with 100,000 objects structures human lives diﬀerently than one with
1000 objects. This paper explores the problem of cumula2vity and how we can inves2gate it.
I present the problem, discuss some poten2al direc2ons for solu2ons, and present a brief
real-world example based on ethnographic data of what analysis of a complete material
system might look like.
Making and assembling beads: reﬂec0ons from beaded materials in the Anthropocene
Abigail Moﬀe], Sainsbury Research Unit, University of East Anglia / University of Cambridge
This paper builds on some exploratory thoughts drawn from the assemblage of beaded
materials in the Anthropocene. Beads have a long an2quity of use in the archaeologicalrecord, with the perfora2on of Nassarius kraussianus shells represen2ng some of theearliest evidence of ‘symbolic behaviour’ associated with behavioural modernity. O[endurable and widely used, the study of beads has been an important avenue for exploring
ques2ons of personal and group iden2ty across a range of geographical and temporal
periods. Beads con2nue to proliferate in the material record of the Anthropocene, withcertain types (shell, clay, glass and stone) combined or subs2tuted with newer materials,
such as plas2c, or objects of similar appearance, such as bu]ons. While o[en found andstudied as a singular object type by archaeologists, the study of the making of composite
beaded objects and the subs2tu2on of certain bead types with newer ones, reveals theentanglement of bead value within a broader context. By addressing the value of beads
within the process of composi2on and assemblage, I explore the poten2al of bead studies tocomplicate a range of ‘big ques2ons’ asked of beads in the archaeological record.
A Silent Witness? Examining modern engagements as future heritage at Billinge Beacon,
Merseyside
Lewis Jones, University of Manchester
This paper explores the perceived divides between historic and modern engagement withlocal heritage through mark-making prac2ces at Billinge Beacon, Merseyside, and how theirappearance and erasure cause the tower’s associated assemblage to be redeﬁned over 2me.
Billinge Beacon is an 18th century sandstone tower whose walls are host to a tradi2on of
mark-making da2ng back to the tower’s construc2on; from declara2ons of love tostatements of an2-authority, the Beacon is an ac2ve par2cipant in the crea2on of local
heritage. However, there is a dis2nct divide in community responses to the historicengravings and the modern spray-painted ‘graﬃ2’, the presence of the la]er causing thetower to be perceived as uncared for in the public eye, with the subsequent erasure of thesemarks by authorised bodies itself redeﬁning the heritage of the site. The term ‘graﬃ2’54

however is misleading as both these historic and modern “calliglyphs” (Daniell, 2009) arepart of an unbroken sequence of mark-making enabled by diﬀerent technologies. These
perceived divides will be explored through a rela2onal new materialist approach combinedwith theories on contemporary ritual behaviour to exemplify how the percep2on of thisassemblage by the community changes over 2me. The visibility of modern engagementswith heritage sites is receiving wider cri2cal examina2on, and the long held preserva2onist
ethics present at many Bri2sh heritage sites are star2ng to be subverted by alterna2ve
engagements with such heritage, and this paper asks whether the erasure of modern
engagements with heritage by human actants is beneﬁcial to future genera2ons.
Artefact or technofossil or both? Past and future aspects of archaeological objects frommodern landﬁll
Ma] Edgeworth, University of Leicester
The terms ‘artefact’ and ‘technofossil’ may refer to the same object, but help to focusa]en2on on diﬀerent aspects. When we call an archaeological object an ‘artefact’ we arethinking mainly of the events and processes in which it is inferred to have been made orused, and our basic orienta2on is towards its past. The 2mescale implicit in our thinking is
rela2vely short (just a few decades in the case of objects from modern landﬁll).
When we call the same object a ‘technofossil’, on the other hand, we envisage its poten2alfor survival as a human trace fossil in the physical stra2graphic record, and our basic
orienta2on is towards its future. The 2mescale involved is rela2vely long and of an en2rely
diﬀerent magnitude (up to millions of years, or even hundreds of millions of years).
The meanings of the two words overlap yet are neither en2rely equivalent nor wholly
incompa2ble with each other. One implies thinking on archaeological 2mescales and theother on geological 2mescales. For a rounded view of objects that combines inference about
its past with specula2on about its future, however, we need to consider both aspects.
Artefacts are not (always) ‘objects’ and (almost) never ‘technofossils’
Chris Wingﬁeld, University of East Anglia
The term ‘technofossil’ has recently been used to imagine the persistence of human-madeartefacts in the geological record as essen2ally equivalent to evidence of plant or animal
forms from earlier geological strata. This geological reframing serves to shi[ our perspec2ve
on the everyday things of contemporary life to that of an object rela2on – imagining theirsurviving remains as literally ‘thrown before’ the minds of future geologists in the manner ofancient fossils emerging from the chalk cliﬀs of England’s Jurassic Coast. In many ways, this isli]le diﬀerent from the conven2onal way in which archaeology regards (or makes) its
objects.
While an object rela2on emerges as a natural artude of study in rela2on to remains of thepast when encountered in the present, it may also form a signiﬁcant barrier tounderstanding the complex entangled processes from which artefactual forms take theirshape. This contribu2on seeks to promote and revive ‘artefacts’ – literally things made by55

skill – as a more frui^ul framing for human-made things than either ‘objects’ or‘technofossils’. It situates the work of archaeology itself (as well as other forms of science) as
themselves examples of processes of skilful construc2on, in which things and knowledge arebrought together to make sense of, but also at 2mes to remake the world.
To paraphrase Bruno Latour on the construc2on of scien2ﬁc knowledge, we can then start toask important ques2ons about not only whether things have been made by humans, butrather also how skilfully they have been made in order to develop forms of cri2que, but also
science, that are adequate to the challenges of the Anthropocene.
Material Things in a More-Than-Human Anthropocene
Julian Thomas, University of Manchester
The Anthropocene, while a rela2vely new concept, is also a contested one. It may be seen asa chronostra2graphic unit, an unfolding and escala2ng process, or a contemporary ecologicalcrisis. It may be understood in the terms of human mastery over nature, or a circumstance inwhich the separa2on of humanity from nature can no longer be sustained. Within thisdebate, the place of material things remains to be fully elaborated. The characterisa2on ofartefacts as ‘technofossils’ has the u2lity of acknowledging their place in the forma2on andcharacterisa2on of recent strata, but it also poten2ally threatens to return us toconven2onal archaeological concep2ons of material culture: as a passive outcome, productor reﬂec2on of human ac2on. Ma] Edgeworth has recently emphasised that the‘archaeosphere’ may be an ac2ve and transforma2ve ecological force, which forms
contemporary environments. In this contribu2on, I hope to draw on recent arguments
concerning the vibrancy and sociality of ma]er to address the place of things in a morethan-human Anthropocene.

16.Environments of Equity, Climates of Work
Session abstract
While many archaeology conferences are turning their a]en2on to the climate, this session
aims to keep equity, diversity and inclusivity on the agenda. It recognises the needs for thoseengaged in EDI to connect with each other and compare notes. The session thus seeks toaddress the current status of work on EDI across the sector, including commercial
archaeology, universi2es, museums and na2onal cultural ins2tu2ons. The ul2mate goal is toenable EDI leads to reﬁne their work toward making meaningful changes that result ingreater inclusivity and equity for disabled, underrepresented and marginalised people. It
par2cularly encourages par2cipa2on from those with lived experience of disability or
minority representa2on in the ﬁelds.
Organiser: Catherine M. Drayco] (University of Durham)

56

Enabling Archaeology for Everyone: A Call to Ac0on from the Enabled Archaeology
Founda0on
Abigail Hunt, University of Lincoln, Emily Stammir, Harlaxton College, Sarahjayne Clements,
University of Her^ordshire, Alex Fitzpatrick, Science Museum
Although there has been progress in crea2ng a more accessible and inclusive archaeology
since Theresa O’Mahoney ﬁrst established the Enabled Archaeology Founda0on (EAF),
disabled archaeologists con2nue to face substan2al barriers to being truly enabled to takepart in the ﬁeld. However, these barriers are not impenetrable, and there is much that canbe done collec2vely by disabled and non-disabled archaeologists alike to ul2mately
dismantle them. This paper is a call to ac2on by members of the EAF, in which we hope toinspire others to take proac2ve steps towards a more inclusive and accessible ﬁeld by
sharing updates on our current work and what we have learned thus far. We will focus on
barriers to accessing archaeology that have been iden2ﬁed through our research and share
the ac2ons we have taken to reduce or remove these barriers. To conclude our paper, we
will call for a more intersec2onal and collabora2ve approach across organisa2ons withinarchaeology to make further progress on dismantling barriers to inclusion and truly enableanyone to become an archaeologist.
DWP Assistance for disability inclusiveness in archaeological employment.
Ms Kymberly Elizabeth Jones (formerly Mr Timothy Edward Jones), Cardiﬀ University,
Research Assistant Swansea University Egypt Centre, EAF commi]ee member, independentscholar
In 2018 I gave a paper at TAGDeva on schemes available for unemployed people withdisabili2es to help them break through the barriers to their employment in archaeology. I
wish to present an update of how these schemes have changed both in terms of how they
are administered and what is available in terms of assistance. I also wish to outline what haschanged in terms of employer engagement.
There have been considerable changes in part as a result of my interac2on with various
schemes administered through the DWP.
I will be discussing in outline:
1) how these schemes have now become more accep2ng of the needs ofarchaeologists in terms of recruitment into the profession2) Exactly what these projects entail in terms of tackling recruitment into commercial
archaeology3) A discussion of why it’s not working
The CIfA-HE Inequali0es Report
Penelope Foreman, CIfA/Historic England
In 2022 CIfA received funding from Historic England to conduct qualita2ve research amongst
the archaeological profession and student popula2on studying archaeology. The research
aimed to improve understanding of the issues aﬀec2ng equality of access to careers within
the archaeological sector. The results were a sobering reﬂec2on of the limita2ons ofprogress in the profession towards equitable access to archaeology as a career, and57

challenges both CIfA and the wider profession to recognise the need for change. This paper
will highlight elements of the report, and bring construc2ve recommenda2ons to theprofession to break the barriers iden2ﬁed, with the challenge - what will you do to makesure we're not in the same state 5, 10, 20 years down the line?
The CIfA EDI Survey: insights, answers and ambigui0es
Cathie Drayco], Department of Archaeology, Durham University/current CIfA EDI Commi]ee
Chair
In late 2022 and early 2023, the CIfA EDI Commi]ee ran an online survey ques2onnaire,
which asked members mul2ple ques2ons about their experiences of their workplaces,
rela2ng to issues of equality, diversity and inclusivity. The survey ques2onnaire was based on
surveys developed for Athena SWAN ac2vi2es in UK HE. Overall, 158 members responded.
This presenta2on will outline the sets of ques2ons asked, pa]erns in responses, how these
relate to other project results, such as those of the CIfA Inequali2es Project, and what thismeans for meaningful ac2on in the sector.
Black Archaeo: Community engagement as a form of social and cultural jus0ce
Mercedes Bap2ste Halliday, Founder and Director of Black Archaeo / University ofCambridge
Black Archaeo is an organisa2on that seeks to increase the engagement of Black and Brown
people in Archaeology, heritage, the arts and outdoor spaces. We have run workshops with
the Museum of London and Maslaha, and recently ran a week-long summer school for 11
Black and Brown 16 -19 year olds in London, a[er receiving funding from the Climate, Healthand Community fund.
In this paper, I would like to present the work of Black Archaeo, alongside my own
experiences as a Black Woman in Archaeology. I intend to discuss the importance of diversity
in archaeology, thinking about how engaging historically marginalised communi2es can beseen as a form of social jus2ce.
Archaeological Horizons II: moving forward with par0cipant research into the intersec0ons ofinterest in archaeology and social groups
Anita Da]a, Department of Anthropology, Durham University, Cathie Drayco], Departmentof Archaeology, Durham University
At TAG 2019, ini2al results from a pilot ques2onnaire survey carried out in Bermuda thatyear by Drayco] were presented. The ques2onnaire was designed to supply missing
empirical data per2nent to understanding reasons for the very low propor2on of non-Whiteiden2fying people working in archaeology, both in academia and in professional archaeology
in the Global North, in par2cular the UK and US. The pilot, which asked mul2ple ques2ons
about the exposure of par2cipants to archaeology, their knowledge about it and theirinterest in it as a discipline and profession, was intended to test ques2onnaires as a methodof gathering useful data. Findings showed that there was a great deal of individual varia2onin responses, but it was also clear that the sampling strategy, online survey with random
convenience sampling, was problema2c.
58

Phase II of Archaeological Horizons represents a post-pandemic re-invigora2on of the project
together with Da]a, revisi2ng the survey and honing the sampling strategy to focus onsecondary schools. This presenta2on will cover work in progress and plans toward this end,
with a focus on the session’s ques2ons about methods of gathering data and resultant
meaningful ac2ons.
References:
Drayco], C. 2019: “Inves2ga2ng Intersec2ons of Race and Public Percep2ons ofArchaeology: a pilot survey run in Bermuda, 2019”. TAG 2019 session 45: The Decolonisa2onof Archaeology and Archaeological Collec2ons in Museums TAG 2019, UCL, London:h]ps://youtu.be/zswBIxL6bvU?si=htrDfTT8OvZ0V5TIWhite, W. and Drayco], C., 2020: Why the Whiteness of Archaeology is a Problem, SAPIENS,
July 7 2020: h]ps://www.sapiens.org/archaeology/archaeology-diversity/
The emo0ons of ethnic diversity in archaeology
Shantol Campbell, Engagement Project Manager, Museum of London Archaeology,
Marvin Demicoli, Archaeobotanist, Museum of London Archaeology‘Together we Flourish’ is a pilot project that aims to promote a healthy engagement withthemes related to ethnically-diverse archaeology, archaeologists, and immigra2on by
exploring the role of Museum Of London Archaeology (MOLA), and archaeology as a whole,in fostering inclusion and connec2on. To this aim, we collaborated with Wild in The City
(WiTC), a London-based non-proﬁt community-interest-company focused on enhancing wellbeing and community cohesion among black and immigrant communi2es through nature
engagement and provide support to organiza2ons in engaging with EDI themes.
The ini2al phase of the project targeted MOLA staﬀ through reﬂec2ve workshops. A safe andinclusive environment was carefully curated for in-person workshops by applying an
innova2ve approach based on in-nature workshops. Skilled WiTC psychotherapists facilitatedthese sessions with the aim of fostering a climate where staﬀ members felt secure and freefrom judgment. This encouraged deep emo2onal reﬂec2on on topics of diversity, race,
immigra2on, psychological-wellbeing, challenges, barriers, as well as the engagement andmessaging strategies of the organiza2on.
A Thames foreshore walk was organized for members of the public within the WiTC
community, oﬀering an opportunity to engage with the themes of ethnically diverse
archaeology and provided a unique experience exploring a loca2on 2ed to this theme.
Overall, this project aims to increase awareness of ethnic diversity in commercial
archaeology, enhance community engagement, and inform in restoring ethnically-diverse
cultural heritage and archaeologies. The project emphasized the well-being and safety of all
par2cipants and implemented safeguarding measures to protect conﬁden2ality and theiden22es of the par2cipants.
Socioeconomic diversity amongst Ancient Near Eastern archaeology student cohorts in UK
higher educa0on
Neil Erskine, University of Glasgow
Though many ini2a2ves seeking to quan2fy, qualify, and improve equality, diversity, andinclusivity in archaeology courses have been undertaken or are ongoing in the UK, thesehave understandably priori2sed protected characteris2cs, par2cularly gender and ethnicity.
Li]le work has sought to assess or address the socioeconomic background of archaeology

59students, and very li]le of either has been conducted with a view to iden2fying pa]erns instudents of ANE archaeology speciﬁcally.
This paper will present the results of a pilot study collec2ng data concerning thesocioeconomic backgrounds and course-choices of students studying ANE-speciﬁcarchaeology degrees, students studying ANE-courses as part of general archaeology degrees,and students undertaking general archaeology degrees but who opt not to undertake any
elec2ve ANE courses.
Combining this data will iden2fy rela2onships between the socioeconomic background of
students and their degree programme decision-making, and provide the basis for a morecomprehensive research project addressing ANE archaeology's socioeconomic diversity (orhomogeneity), its pedagogical consequences, and poten2al solu2ons.
Changing Climates, Changing Classrooms, Changing Minds: Precarity and Higher Educa0on
Stephanie Piper, University of York, Katherine Pa]on, University of Toronto, Katerina
Velentza, University of Helsinki, Lindi Masur, McMaster University
This paper explores how “short-termism” in Higher Educa2on (HE) curtails importantchanges that need to be taking place in undergraduate teaching and learning. We draw upon
examples and observa2ons from our recent EAA conference session on Archaeology and the
Climate Crisis: Resilience, Ac2vism and Pedagogy. Courses which require rethinking
archaeological prac2ce and/or community engagement are complex, long-term projects thato[en extend beyond the “tenure” of the contract faculty that develop them. For this reason,
Lopes and Dewan (2015) argue that the “casualiza2on” of academic faculty has nega2ve
impacts on student learning. This is perhaps par2cularly true for courses that might beconsidered “peripheral” to a core set of courses in undergraduate educa2on in archaeology,
such as those on climate change and social jus2ce. Here we provide several examples ofcourses on archaeology and climate change that are developed by contract faculty and thus
not sustained within the curriculum. In other words, Western neoliberal educa2on
structures preclude the establishment of long-term rela2onships that are vital as “afounda2on for more inclusive, interconnected theories and methodologies that disrupt
systemic inequali2es” (San Pedro & Kinloch 2017:391-392).
References:
Lopes, A. and Dewan, I.A. (2014). Precarious pedagogies? The impact of casual and zerohour contracts in higher educa2on. Journal of Feminist Scholarship, 7(7): 28-42.
San Pedro, T. and Kinloch, V. (2017). Toward projects in humaniza2on: Research on cocrea2ng and sustaining dialogic rela2onships. American Educa0onal Research Journal, 54:
373S-394S.
The BAJR Poverty Impact Report: the voices of the 755
Lu Stanton-Greenwood, Liz Tideswell, David Connolly, Gwilym Williams, BAJR
The Bri2sh Archaeological Jobs and Resources (BAJR) Poverty Impact Report was released in
September 2022, following a sector-wide survey on the ﬁnancial, physical and emo2onal
health of par2cipants working in archaeology. 755 people responded to that survey, and theresults were collated, analysed and published in the report, which remains open access. As
the authors prepare to reprise the survey for 2023, this talk is a reminder of the human costof poverty and barriers to sustainable careers in archaeology.

60

This paper has never before been presented in person, and so this is the ﬁrst walkthrough of
the headline numbers and the verba2m comments of archaeologists. The report outlines theaverage ﬁnancial situa2on of archaeologists working in various corners of the industry, andgoes on to explore the impact on their mental and physical health, their percep2ons of their
future in their chosen career and the outlook for the industry if the status quo is maintained.
The data has been split by demographics, which enables us to take a real look at the needfor greater EDI focus as we answer the call for change from the 755 people whose voices
were entrusted to the report.
Change Makers. Historic England's Inclusion team projects and their poten0al for change inthe sector
Penelope Foreman, CIfA/Historic England, penelopicon@gmail.com
Historic England's deﬁned purpose is "To improve people’s lives by championing andprotec2ng the historic environment." However, we know that the people currently engaging
with the historic environment aren't representa2ve of the wider popula2on - and that's
across employment, home life, school and educa2on, and leisure 2me. The Inclusion Team's
strategy is an ambi2ous, sector-facing collec2on of projects that aims to tackle inequality ofaccess to heritage, from guiding sector organisa2ons to diversify their Board andgovernance, to facilita2ng Everyday Heritage grants to fund grassroots, community-driven
projects, to building a one-stop Advice Hub for EDI in heritage - freely accessible forvolunteer, community, non-proﬁt, and commercial organisa2ons across the sector. This
paper will showcase our ambi2ons and plans, but also act as a listening point, invi2ng frankand open discussion on what the needs of the sector are, and how HE can build resources,
partnerships, and rela2onships across the sector to make the future one more accessible,
more equitable, and more inclusive.

17.Archaeology can save the future in Africa
Session abstract
Climate and climate change are among humanity’s greatest challenges. The climate andhuman adapta2on is major research topic in archaeological theory and prac2ce. In Africa, it
is sub-Saharan areas that sees increasing impact, in par2cular on vulnerable people.
We hope to dedicate this session to introduce archaeology and its importance to addressing
current world problems. How do archaeologists contribute to sustainable development
goals (UNSDGs)? In general, we hope that this session will address some of the goals ofsustainable development through archaeology. We want to show how we can beneﬁt frompast evidence to improve the present and prepare for the future. Examples of these issues
are food security, climate, Resilient systems, adap2ng Africa’s food system to climate change,
women in agricultural prac2ce, past and present, indigenous knowledge and technologies.
We believe that archaeology provides examples of the past that can lead to increased yields
produc2on (lessons from the past). How to make some areas a hub for producing crops that61

go beyond the poli2cal borders. Water problems for human use, and adapta2on to diﬃcult
acute and severe situa2ons (people adapta2ons to climate in their household organisa2on,recycling of agricultural residues, use of palm leaves for various purposes etc.). How hasarchaeology accurately told us about climate change? Our research can help incontextualising current and future climate change. The use of archaeological models to
predict the impact of future climate change can help us to prepare for climate ahead, notjust look back. We need also to look at the case of the impact of climate change on
archaeological sites, on riverine desert and coastal areas. What archaeologists discovered
about climate change in prehistoric and historic Sudan, for example. We are invi2ng ourcolleagues to address such issues, whether tackling large area e.g. Sahel, sub-Saharan Africa
or speciﬁc areas.
Organiser: In2sar Soghayroun (University of Khartoum/ Freelance)
Reconsidering the place of archaeology: tangible climate narra0ves among Kenya’s Ilchamus
community
Nik Petek-Sargeant, University of Cambridge
Archaeologists have been studying human-environment interac2ons for decades with theinten2on to use insights from the past to apply to the present and address issues ofsustainability and climate change. More recently, however, it has been pointed out that,aside from a few instances, archaeological insights into climate change and adapta2on are
not being taken up outside the discipline. This is promp2ng a discussion about the relevancy
of archaeology, especially in Africa where it is expected to address and understand people’s
needs and concerns. In my posi2on paper, I will argue that while inves2ga2on of pasthuman-environment-climate rela2onships are worthwhile and necessary, archaeology also
needs to reconsider its strength as a means to crea2ng powerful narra2ves that engage
communi2es, their histories, and landscapes. Archaeology is unique in that it makes the pasttangible, decreasing the distance between past and the present, and poten2ally making
conceptual challenges, like climate change, feel real. By embedding archaeology in oral
histories and rela2ng these to modern experiences of changing weather pa]erns, I will
demonstrate how we are making tangible climate narra2ves among Kenya’s Ilchamus
community that address local values and concerns, leading to be]er understandings of new
climate and weather regimes.
Preliminary Title: Bees for the Future: A Historical Ecology of Beekeeping on the Cherangani
Hills, Elgeyo-Marakwet, Kenya
Benny Q. Shen University of Cambridge | Secretary (Execu2ve) and Convenor of
the Indigenous Studies Discussion Group (ISDG)
Despite of its high economic and cultural importance, pollina2on services to some of themost important cash crops, and broader ecosystem services that enhance forest biodiversity
and soil stabiliza2on, beekeeping and beekeeper communi2es in sub-Saharan Africa haveo[en been overlooked in development and conserva2onist literature for their roles inshaping their inhabited landscapes and ecosystems over longue durée. Simultaneously,
despite of its well-a]ested an2quity, apiculture has been generally overlooked inarchaeology. Current methods that traced the origin of beekeeping to early agriculturalist

62

Near East, relying on either the remains of apicultural structures or lipid analysis of beeswax,
become unfeasible when encountered with sub-Saharan African apiculture where hives andreceptacles were mainly made from perishable materials and where beeswax was not widelycollected un2l recently.
Following earlier proposi2on of the concept of ‘beescape’ to embrace the meshed processesof mul2species intra-ac2ons/co-becomings that reiﬁed ecosystem, landscape, and material
memories, this study uses historical ecology-minded, mul2disciplinary approaches toinves2gate the living beescape of the Cherangani Hills in Elgeyo-Marakwet, Kenya, by
coalescing oral historical, par2cipatory mapped, GIS-based, and remote-sensed, andarchaeological materials. The study revealed a complex history of shi[ing land and forest
uses partly dictated by apicultural concerns that provided a preliminary scope into how longterm beekeeping had mediated the landscape modiﬁca2on in East Africa and pointed
direc2ons for further historical ecological studies of African beescapes. This study also
examines how learning from the ecological and landscape past of beekeeping in Kenya may
inspire future policy-making concerning food security, forest conserva2on, and climatechange reac2ons in both the local and global scales.
Challenges in an arid environment: Some insights from Jebel Moya, Sudan
Ahmed Adam, University of Khartoum, Visiting fellow - USI - Switzerland
Located in Sennar province, the village of Jebel Moya has very limited water resources. The
present inhabitants rely on seasonal rainfall to replenish hafirs and bring in water fromother sources. The village relies on sorghum agriculture and herding for subsistence.
Excavations in the mountain valley above the village have shown fairly rapid climate change,
resulting in the need for societies to adapt. The domestication of sorghum (2500-2200 BC)
enabled a relatively secure food source. In the present, as the climate becomes increasingly
arid the community is facing a number of challenges. Archaeology can contribute in many
ways. First, directly involving the community with the archaeological project provides anopportunity to learn about past climate change and adaptation. Second, by understanding
the past it is possible to better manage the present, for example by adapting different
subsistence strategies. Third, the project currently offers employment to a number of
inhabitants. Before war disrupted our work, we set up an annual heritage festival. This
enables the local community to actively share their heritage while attracting visitors (andincome) from surrounding areas. Fourth, as increasing aridity affects the site, community
engagement is vital in helping protect the site which, thanks to this project, is now seen as
an asset.
Ancient Food Exploita0on and Adjustment in Light of Climate Change: An Archeological
Evidence from El Ga’ab Depression
Yahia Fadl Tahir, University of Khartoum
El Ga’ab Depression is located in the northern Sudan. A large number of archaeological sites
were reported dating from Paleolithic to recent periods.
Paleolithic 2mes are dominated by MSA projec2le technology. The diﬀerences in size andshape of the spear and arrow head stone tools indicate developing over long mul2ple
periods; this might be aﬀected by the climate changes. The hunters groups occupied the wet
area from late Acheulean to Upper Paleolithic.

63

During Mesolithic, aqua2c economy dominated indica2ng a wet climate; people used water
sources, which were ﬁsh, snails and aqua2c animals. Fishing bone harpoons and tetheringstones for hun2ng animals found in the Depression.
During the Neolithic the culture of food produc2on appeared and humans became farmers
and ca]le herders. The most prominent archeological features are bones, polished axes,
stone rubbers, and sickle tools which were used in farming.
During the Kushite period the area became dry and harsh and was abandoned; only few
Kushite forts with limited archaeological material are known. Forts probably were for
defence and/ or commerce.
In Chris2an and Islamic sites, many irriga2on wells; water wheel pots and carbonized seeds
and fruits were found indica2ng farm nourishing 2me. In addi2on to animal herding.
Nowadays pivot irriga2on schemes and solar energy water pumping are common.
Underground storage methods among subsistence farmers: present and past.
Thembi Russell, University of the WitwatersrandThis paper presents research into the disappearing technology of underground storage
methods for food crops as recorded among contemporary Swazi subsistence farmers in
Eswa2ni. The prac2ce of storing grain crops such as sorghum, millet and, later, maize
underground, frequently in a central ca]le kraal, is documented in the archaeology ofapproximately the last 1700 years in southern Africa and is linked to the spread of the ﬁrst
agro-pastoralist Bantu-language speaking farmers. It has proved its resilience as a prac2ce.
What were its advantages for early and recent farming communi2es? Why is the prac2ce
disappearing? Interviews suggest the fragility and resilience of farmers in the recent past to
sudden clima2c events.
While the direct impact of archaeology may not always be obvious, it plays a crucial role inachieving several SDGs, par2cularly those related to cultural and natural heritage
management, environmental sustainability, economic development and social inclusivity.
The research has the poten2al to contribute to the SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 4 (Quality
Educa2on), SDG 11 (Sustainable Ci2es and Communi2es) and SDG 13 (Climate Ac2on).
Protect and Learn from the Past: Using Great Zimbabwe World Heritage Site as aninnovation hub for the Development of Heritage-based Climate Change Solutions.
Mr. Tatenda Tavingeyi , Sapienza Universita di RomaBased on the observations of the IPCC (2014), Southern Africa is projected to warm up
faster than the rest of the world. Consequently, rainfall patterns in SADC are characterizedby high and unpredictable variations over the course of seasons, years, and decades. The
continent is one of the few regions in the world that will experience significantly drier
conditions, more severe and unpredictable dry spells, and severe droughts. Against thisbackground, this study intends to conduct a research project to examine how climatechange may impact the fabric of Great Zimbabwe World Heritage site. A further aim of mywork is to draw upon traditional heritage-based solutions that can be derived from Great
Zimbabwe's rich history, diverse community, and archaeology to cope with climate change.
It is expected that the solutions will help address the issue of malnutrition, hunger/foodshortages, and water shortages as well as establish awareness, preservation, andconservation interests among stakeholders in the site's fabric and intangible aspects, thus
contributing to climate culture. Hence building an understanding and highlighting todifferent stakeholders including policymakers the roles of World Heritage in achieving

64targets 2.1, 2.4, 6. b, 11.4, and 13.1. Princess Dana's statement on ICOMOS JORDAN
workshop 1 2023, reinforces this idea by noting that: climate resilience will not be achieved
without cultural heritage.

18.Ques@oning Posthumanism: Archaeological Approaches to Climate
ChangeSession Abstract
Taking direct inspiration from last TAG’s session on Climate Archaeology, we invitepresentations that explore how our discipline can reveal insights into climate change. In
particular, we will explore the potentialities and pitfalls of posthumanist approaches toclimate change archaeology. For some, posthumanism introduces valuable ideas that canenhance our conceptualisation of climate, while for others, posthumanism might
compromise proper climate research. Here, we aim to confront a multitude of visions to
sketch an improved theoretical approach based on posthumanism that can be applied toarchaeological research on climate. Therefore, we warmly invite posthumanist, antiposthumanist, or posthumanist-ambivalent speakers that explore archaeologicalinvestigation into climate change.
Furthermore, we would like to interrogate how approaches based on Human Ecodynamics,
Historical Ecology, and Political Ecology can complement or nuance postulates from flat orsymmetrical ontologies. We are first and foremost interested in complex systems and humanenvironment or human-nonhuman entanglements. All of these approaches, moreover, point
to large and multiple scales of temporality: temporalities that unite past and present. We
invite serious archaeological investigation into the material remains of both our deep andcontemporary pasts for insights into climate change. Therefore, we also seek proposals that
use Archaeology either to understand the past to ameliorate climate change or that explore
contemporary archaeological records that enhance our understanding of the dynamics
contributing to global warming.
Organisers: Brandon Fathy (University of Reading) and Pablo Barruezo-Vaquero (Universityof Granada)“Object-Oriented Ecology: Life (and Archaeology) in the Margin of Hyperobjects”
Dr Peter Campbell (Cranﬁeld University)
The liminal existence caught between the ocean, atmosphere, and land allows 2dal pools tobe among the most biodiverse ecosystems on Earth. The ocean, atmosphere, and land are
objects of vast temporal and geographical scale, or hyperobjects to use Timothy Morton’sterm, which interact with each other at the 2de line. In the midst of the limitless forces ofwind and waves caused by the interac2on of these objects, the 2de pool ecosystems –counterintui2vely – thrive. Today, Earth’s species are caught on the edge of anotherhyperobject: global warming.

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Kyle Harper writes that the Romans, “had no idea of the con2ngent and perilous
environmental founda2ons of what they had built”, which is an understanding that everyone
living in this period of anthropogenic climate change is coming to grips with. This paper
examines a ﬂat ontological approach to climate change and archaeology, advoca2ng that
contemporary theory is needed for contemporary issues. Drawing on contemporary
philosophy such as Object-Oriented Ontology and theories such as Symmetrical Archaeology,
the author examines how humans have poorly deﬁned vast ecological objects, whether the
Romans or socie2es today, and asks “Can humans thrive along the 2de line of the
Anthropocene?”“The Anthropocene as an Event: Posthumanism, Processes, and Poli0cs”
Andrew Bauer, Stanford University
Recent proposals to deﬁne the Anthropocene as a geological Event (e.g., Gibbard et al.
2022), as opposed to an Epoch of geological 2me, have signiﬁcant implica2ons for theconceptualiza2on of human-related climate change and archaeology’s contribu2on to its
study. In this presenta2on I address some of these implica2ons, and speciﬁcally how an
event framework ar2culates with posthumanist paradigms, which in ques2oning human
excep2onalism have also complicated concerns for poli2cal responsibility. In doing so, I also
oﬀer several sugges2ons for how archaeology might more produc2vely contribute to thepoli2cs of contemporary climate change.
“Ritual and Social Adapta0ons to Climate Change in the Neoglacial of Southern African
Mountains”
Sam Challis, University of the Witwatersrand and Brian Stewart, University of Michigan
Southern African San have a sophis2cated and elas2c belief system that allows fornego2a2on of, and with, their environment. Because environments and their resource
availabili2es change, foragers must con2nually broker rela2ons with the non-human beingsin their dynamic world. In this case, supernatural nego2a2ons eased the ecological changes
and logis2cal challenges faced by upland communi2es via the crea2on of new ontologicalassocia2ons from a pre-exis2ng ‘grammar’. The outcomes of these adapta2ons are bothmaterial and intangible, infusing key aspects of ethnographically a]ested Mountain San
ideology and its expression through a spectacular new mode of pain2ng – the famous‘shaded polychrome’ images of eland antelope, as well as depic2ons of the ‘taming’ of game
animals, ﬁsh and the supernatural en22es to whom they belong. New radiometric dates 2ethese images to the Neoglacial, when resources were in ﬂux and the environmental ontology
in which they were encapsulated had to change course.
“A Response in Responsibility: Archaeology in Rela0on to Climate Change”
Marcy Rockman, University of Maryland, College Park and Li[ing Rocks
At the opening of the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, Elie Wiesel said "thismuseum is not an answer, it is a ques2on mark. If there is a response, it is a response in66

responsibility." Archaeology has long understood itself to study the sweep of 2me fromevolu2on of humankind through historical colonial expansions and development ofindustrializa2on. But archaeology is also shaped and externally understood by policies andlegisla2on that have been enacted around it for more than a century. As the challenges anddisrup2ons of contemporary climate change take ever clearer shape, it is the responsibilityof archaeology to see these histories and the ques2ons their ac2ons and interac2ons pose.
This paper explores these histories and shares landscape learning as an approach to building
new knowledge and care for a changing world.
Is this the Road to Hell? Money and its implica0ons in the mid 1st millennium BCE
Andy Hutcheson,
Sainsbury Ins2tute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Culture, UEA
The advent of cash money in the middle of the 1st millennium BCE marks a change in theway that exchange was conducted. It is argued in this paper that this change went beyond
just a new means for facilita2ng economic transac2ons. In addi2on, it changed the way thatvalues were applied to the world more generally. It also altered rela2onships both between
people and their environment, leading ul2mately to the climate crisis that we now ﬁnd
ourselves in.
Karl Jaspers proposed the idea of the Axial Age in Vom Ursprung und Ziel der Geschichte (Theorigin and goal of history) published in 1948 and translated into English in 1953. His
concerns revolved around the human mind and concepts of transcendence. His argument isthat the period between 800–300 BCE saw a ﬂuorescence in philosophy and religion in India,
China, the Achaemenid Empire and Greece, with the Upanishads, Buddha, Confucius,
Zarathustra and Aristotle to name a few texts and thinkers. Cri2cs have pointed out the
weaknesses, Jaspers seems to suggest that these changes took place simultaneously inseveral diverse loca2ons. Now, archaeologically, we can start to see a poten2al back-story tothese changes.
The nature of mind and material meld in the later conceptualisa2on of the Axial Age byDavid Graeber in Debt: the ﬁrst 5,000 years. These changes across Afro-Eurasia were linked
by Graeber to new innova2ons in the way that money was used, with the advent,par2cularly, of coinage. Money also seems to have strengthened ideas regarding the self,
perhaps breaking down the previous views of personhood and aﬀec2ng the way that kinshipnetworks operated. It is notable therefore that Buddhism reacted against this and teaches
the prac2ce of a]emp2ng to think beyond the self and to see it as an illusion—the doctrineof non-self. Money, arguably, was at the heart of these religious and philosophical changes.
The values associated with cash money put a price on everything leading 2,500 years later toa climate crisis and a biodiversity crash.
“2027: Waking the Aku”
Candace Gossen, Ronin Ins2tute
Un2l recently, the majority of archaeology has been object centred, deﬁning humaninterac2ons and using the environment as a proxy. Climate Archaeology puts humans in thenature picture rather than nature in the human picture. Some events merge together toform cosmic rela2onships where great civiliza2on collapse is ushered in by a supernova andstamped onto a rock with a handprint. Scien2ﬁc data cored from the depths of the crater
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lake Rano Kao, Rapa Nui, where a living quagmire of slowly decomposing plants and fossil
pollen have revealed a 15,000 year climate history telling of repea2ng cycles of extreme coldand hot events occurring every 637 and 719 years respec2vely. One event, the last extreme
cold period peaking in 1456 AD, is foretelling of another event coming in 2027. With the lensof Environmental Archaeology, the idea of awakening the Aku relates to an awakening of
events, direct or indirect, that can change nature and humans within it. On Rapa Nui, Akus
have many meanings including being lesser gods and spirits both of human form and ofnature. Simultaneously in the appearance of Akus are also Tapu/Taboo which seek to ﬁnd
resiliency within the changing landscape. Many have used the story of Easter Island as amodel of Collapse Theory, but with new evidence and technology, the details have unfoldedwith a diﬀerent story about what really happened to the giant palms and diversity of ﬂora
and fauna on the island.

19 What Belongs in a Museum Belongs to Archaeology: The Perils andBeneﬁts of Studying Museum Collec@ons in Archaeology andArchaeological Sciences
Session abstract
The intention of this session is to examine the role that museum collections have in current
archaeological research and how they can contribute to archaeological knowledge. We
invite speakers to present instructive case studies that can shed light on the potentials aswell as problematics that characterize collection-based research, welcoming critical andtheoretical considerations that aim to situate their significance and limits for the discipline.
Recently, museum collections have witnessed a renewed attention in archaeology (e.g.,
Finlay 2016). For a long time, museums and their collections had fallen out of mainstreamarchaeology, which had instead become primarily conceived as a field-science, focused on
excavation as the field-practice par excellence. However, museums were the birthplace ofarchaeological studies, as they were home to the first classificatory attempts at artifacts’assemblages, as exemplified by Christian Jürgensen Thomsen’s ‘three- age system’, the firstprehistoric cultural chronology based on his seminal classification of artifact assemblages
at the Royal Museum of Nordic Antiquities in the early 19th century. Moreover, colonialera collections were acquired as part of major expeditions that included excavation
projects which served an overarching collecting purpose. Professional archaeologists
numbered among the members of these expeditions, and they were tasked with gaining
hold of antiquities for the benefit of European and North American institutions.
Archaeological practice has deeply changed over intervening years and so have theobjectives and methods guiding museum practices. Archaeologists are now finding novel
ways to investigate historical collections, which span a wide array of research approaches,from revealing silenced indigenous voices to implementing scientific analyses that allow for
new questions and the re-conceptualization of previous classifications and interpretations.
Thus, how can historical museum collections be repurposed to meet the requirements ofcurrent archaeological research? And what archaeological practices can be implemented ina museum setting?
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Speakers are invited to critically engage with these questions drawing from their personalresearch as archaeologists and/or museum curators. Whether theoretically conceived as akind of field site (Harrison 2011), as “archaeological archives” (Baird and McFadyen 2014),
or as assemblages that can be creatively and constantly re-assembled (Wingfield 2017),
museums and their collections can be and are the object of productive studies. Speakers
are also invited to consider issues inherent to this type of research, which range from
artifact contamination due to conversation practices, the impact of time and climate on
materials, the lack of information about the history of collections, to their lingering colonial
legacy. Contributors would ideally present creative and theoretically relevant ways tofruitfully think about and deal with these aspects.
Organisers: Samuele Tacconi, Anne Haour (UEA) and Helen Anderson (Bri2sh Museum)
How to move a museum, archaeological archives and research at the Bri0sh Museum.
Dr Beccy Sco], Dr Sally Fletcher (Collec2on Projects and Resources, The Bri2sh Museum)The removal of objects from Blythe House and the rehousing of much of this collec2on has
been the most complex research and moves project undertaken by the Bri2sh Museum since
the wholesale evacua2on of objects from Bloomsbury in the Second World War. Since 2017
the project has researched, ra2onalised, documented, and moved around 1 million objects
comprising archaeological and ethnographic collec2on, casts, replicas, and models. These
ac2vi2es have taken place within the na2onal debate concerning the lack of resource for the
storage of archaeological archives (deﬁned as both paper records and objects fromexcava2on) and ethical dilemmas concerning the collec2ng and curatorial prac2ces of thepast. This paper will consider the theore2cal frameworks within which the large
archaeological assemblages were excavated, how these determined their subsequentstorage needs and aﬀected their accessibility. It will also discuss the intellectual and ethicalchallenges in working with large assemblages, avoiding data loss and the u2lity of applying
modern data deposi2on standards to historical archaeological archives. Finally, we will
reﬂect on new research and museum prac2ce that has emerged because of the project.
Museum Collections in a time of conflict: Some challenges from Sudan
Ahmed Adam, University of Khartoum - Department of Archaeology, and Visi2ng fellow- USI– Switzerland
Before the Sudanese Civil War, museum collections across Sudan suffered from unevencataloguing and curation, largely as a result of limited finance. The recent and ongoing war
has compounded the situation. This paper will outline the situation in museums before thewar; difficult as it was, valuable work was undertaken in archaeological and regional
museum archives, and I will provide some examples from my research. These include the
National Museum, Khalifa House Museum, and natural history museum. To highlight thecurrent situation, I will discuss the wilful destruction of collections by armed militias, forexample, the attack on National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums (NCAM) offices,on the Khalifa House Museum, and the destruction of historic libraries in Omdurman, andthe Ministry of Higher Education in Khartoum, and outline the implications for Sudan’s69patrimony. The paper considers a future free of conflict and proposes a way forward. This
includes a nationwide assessment and recording of patrimony that will involve training a
new generation of people to safeguard Sudanese heritage. This paper is also an appeal forhelp from the wider museum community to help rebuild a nation in distress.
Forming a Cohesive Understanding of the Rise and Fall of a Classic Maya Polity ThroughMuseum-based Research and Archaeological Fieldwork
John P. Walden (Postdoctoral Scholar, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University),
Saige Kelmelis, April Mar2nez, Frank Tzib, Julie A. Hoggarth, and Chris2na Warinner.
The Late Classic (AD 600-900) Maya poli2cal center of Lower Dover sits on the southernbank of the Belize River in Cayo District, Belize. While the civic-ceremonial center andsouthern hinterlands remain rela2vely unscathed from contemporary agriculture anddevelopment, the northern hinterland of Barton Ramie is now all but destroyed bycontemporary bulldozing and agriculture. Fortunately, Barton Ramie was intensively
inves2gated in the 1950’s by Gordon Willey and colleagues as part of the Harvard Peabody
Project. Barton Ramie was the venue for Willey’s pioneering establishment of se]lement
archaeology in the Maya lowlands. The signiﬁcant scale of these excava2ons and thesizeable museum collec2ons they generated oﬀer a valuable opportunity to form a holis2c
archaeological understanding of the rise and fall of Lower Dover and the role of the Barton
Ramie commoners and elites in regional poli2cs. Despite the signiﬁcant research
opportuni2es aﬀorded by these collec2ons, the study of materials excavated using older
recording systems and exported under colonialism requires some considera2ons. We
present on our ongoing analysis of these materials which were fortunately curated by theHarvard Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. We document how we overcame
sampling issues by integra2ng historically excavated materials into modern datasets,
conducted archival work to remedy cataloguing discrepancies, and sought to counter ethicalissues through collabora2on with indigenous Maya and Belizean scholars. Our experiences
may prove useful to others seeking to integrate data from valuable museum-based
collec2ons into broader archaeological research.
Un0l the Cows Come Home: The problems and possibili0es of using archived faunal remains
from Anglo-Saxon Jarrow
Megan Leake, University of Newcastle
During the Covid-19 pandemic, 44 boxes of animal bones from the Anglo-Saxon monas2c
site of Jarrow were found in an English Heritage store in Berwick and subsequently returnedto the museum responsible for their cura2on. Not available during the site's publica2on, andnever studied using modern scien2ﬁc techniques, a new project was developed to study
these bones and readdress the ques2on of the site’s abandonment. This research exposed
the poten2al of archived bulk ﬁnds when new tes2ng is developed, but also the problems
associated with mul2-year excava2ons and changing archival prac2ces. This paper will
highlight both the poten2al and problems encountered during this project.

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The original stra2graphy at Jarrow was complex and hindered interpreta2ons (Cramp 2005).
However, with the returned bones, a detailed sequence of radiocarbon dates was planned
for the workshop area. This has the poten2al to narrow the date of ac2vity at the site,
addressing the ques2on of Jarrow’s abandonment due to raiding. Similarly, isotopic analysis
was designed to reconstruct animal grazing loca2ons and husbandry pa]erns. Unfortunately,
gaps in the archival material have widened the scope of this research and highlighted
broader problems with using this type of material.
Digging through Museum collec0ons and archives: Reﬂec0ons and Lessons from Begho,
Ghana
Daniel KUMAH, Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies, University of Ghana,Legon.
Begho, an ancient market town in Ghana, had trade links with Jenne in the Niger Bend
during the Trans Saharan trade. Its importance is recorded in some Arabic manuscripts andnarrated through oral accounts of the Bono people at Hani.
In the 1970s, archaeological digs were conducted in Begho. The study uncovered several
cultural materials that related to the technological, poli2cal, economic, and socioculturalac2vi2es at Begho. These objects stored in museum storages have not been inves2gatedsigniﬁcantly since the last excava2on in 1979. It is in this context that a[er 40 years, I visitedthe three Museum collec2ons at the Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies,
University of Ghana.
A varied approach involving the examina2on of archives such as ﬁeld notes, illustra2ons andphotographs from the 1970s was undertaken. Based on the archival data source, a thoroughsearch and analysis of the Begho artefacts in museums were conducted. Furthermore,
photogrammetry was used to produce 3D images of par2cular objects.
This study sheds light on how a site can be re-constructed using archaeological archives andmuseum collec2ons. This study derives its signiﬁcance from the fact that it contributes tothe crea2on of an archaeological repository in Ghana and West Africa.
Con0nuous archaeological context: collapsing dis0nc0ons between ﬁeldwork and museum
work in archaeology.
Alice Stevenson, UCL Ins2tute of Archaeology, Professor of Museum Archaeology
Developments in the history of science have collapsed dis2nc2ons between laboratories,
ﬁeld sites, and museums, underscoring for archaeologists how archaeological data evolves in
its surrounds and is never ﬁxed. Archaeological context here is an ongoing process thatinvolves a cri2cal awareness of the histories and agencies that form assemblages, and areﬂexive prac2ce for ongoing archaeological documenta2on and analysis. In this paper I
argue that understanding the site forma2on processes of museums – numbering,cataloguing, conserving, displaying – is not just a historical framing exercise or a means ofiden2fying data but also a central part of construc2ng contemporary archaeologicalinterpreta2on by challenging the assump2ons that are baked into that data and the very71

tools we use to interpret it, including archaeological theory. Using case studies of museum
collec2ons of Egyp2an archaeology, I will demonstrate how understanding the poli2cal
subtext of collec2ons’ arrangement can contribute to big archaeological ques2ons such thenature of theories of state forma2on and archaeologies of 2me, and how the minu2ae ofobject marking can have larger historical implica2ons.
Beyond record keeping: khipus as assemblages of knowledge.
Lucrezia Milillo, PhD Candidate, University of St Andrews.
Khipu scholars call “khipu archive” a group of khipus archaeologically excavated in situ.
Khipu archives are crucial to be]er understand the social role and func2oning of this object(Urton and Chu 2015). O[en, khipus help archaeologists understand and categorize anarchaeological sector, deﬁned “storehouses”, or working places adjacent to them (Eeckhout2012). However, the vast majority of khipus known to date (around 1200) lack precise
provenance. Once extracted from their archaeological context, khipus begin a new journeyas exchange goods, trophies and relics of the past (Gänger 2014). During this journey,
manipula2on, an aerobic environment and the light start aﬀec2ng their integrity, while thesepara2on from their fellow traveling objects once arrived in a museum serng (and moreo[en before then) inevitably aﬀect our capacity of understanding them (Milillo 2020, Milillo,
Hacke, Norrehed, Degano, Gherardi and Gunnarsson 2023). What can be done when nocontext is le[ for khipus in ethnologic and archaeological collec2ons today, in order to value
their presence in these collec2ons? How can we make up for the gaps excavated by former
extrac2on prac2ces?
By looking at individual khipus not only as record keepers, but as “assemblages” (Wingﬁeld2017) of knowledge, this work aims to present the possibility of producing and revealing
new knowledge about uncontextualized khipus as a museum archaeology prac2ce drawing
from my research on khipus in European collec2ons, their associated archival documents,
morphological study and scien2ﬁc analysis.
Museum collec0ons are synonymous with archaeological artefacts: An examina0on of Dr.
Stanger's Niger Expedi0on collec0ons from the Wisbech and Fenland Museum, East Anglia,
United Kingdom.
Abdulmalik Abdulmalik, PhD student, University of East Anglia.
In a similar way to archaeological work, that engages with artefacts to gain insights into past
events, whether they occurred recently or many centuries ago, museum collec2ons caneﬀec2vely disseminate informa2on pertaining to historical events. They shed light on thesocie2es from which the objects were acquired and provide valuable insights into theunderlying mo2va2ons for collec2ng and the enduring signiﬁcance of these collec2ons for
future endeavours. One such example of an archaeological collec2on is that made along the
Niger River by the geologist Dr. William Stanger, who was part of the expedi2on mounted by
Bri2sh missionary and ac2vist groups in 1841–1842. These collec2ons can be consideredarchaeological data due to their an2quity, and they hold the poten2al for reconstruc2ng

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past events that occurred between European and West African communi2es. This paper
inves2gates the signiﬁcance of Dr. Stanger's collec2on, which is currently housed at the
Wisbech and Fenland Museum, in shedding light on the interac2ons between West African
communi2es and Europeans. It sets this within the wider framework of the underlying
mo2va2ons of Europeans in their eﬀorts to explore the Niger River.
Neil Gordon Munro: The Role and Responsibility of Museums in the Care of Indigenous
Ancestral Remains, a case study
Nathaniel Thomas Sydenham (University of Edinburgh)
If nothing else, the role and responsibility of the (ethnographic) museum is to safeguard anddisseminate archaeological knowledge, but can the same be said of their human remains
collec2ons? Par2cularly the ancestral remains of Indigenous communi2es, which, on the one
hand, have divided agency between museum professionals involved with the exhuma2on,storing, and some2mes displaying of these remains, and, on the other hand, the innate
stories o[en contained within this postmortem material rela2ng it to violent and trauma2c
histories.
Unlike the dominant Anglo-American tradi2ons, Japanese archaeology and anthropologicalprac2ce entwined themselves with foreign inﬂuence, profoundly shaping Indigenous
knowledge and persistence within the region. By presen2ng a case study of northern Japan’s
Ainu inhabitants, this paper introduces the work of Neil Gordon Munro (1863-1942), an
Edinburgh-trained physician whose keen interest in archaeology and anthropology led tohim living in Japan for many years. During that 2me, Dr Munro became an assiduous scholarof Ainu culture and collected their artefacts, many of which are in the Na2onal Museum of
Scotland (NMS) collec2on.
Early in his career and due to developing an interest in prehistoric archaeology, Munro
excavated many artefacts, including human remains at the Mitsusawa shell mound site justoutside of Yokohama. Fast forward to the present day, and the Mitsusawa remains, now inthe care of the NMS, index a manifesta2on of disputed intellectual history and territory
between the Japanese na2on-state, which all too o[en adopted a silencing agenda born of
its se]ler colonialist ambi2on with that of the imperialis2c Bri2sh academy who aspired todominate archaeological knowledge produc2on.
The NMS’s Munro collec2on a]ests to the emo2ve materiality of human remains and thedisrup2ve social construc2on of past lives that supports a (re)ar2cula2on of how Ainu
iden22es are understood, experienced, represented and remembered. This paper shallargue that in a]emp2ng to understand the aﬀec2ve and symbolic presence these humanremains have bestowed upon the development of museology and the emergence ofarchaeology and anthropology of both countries, we should strive not to invent reduc2onist
narra2ves but to embrace the cri2cal ethical and epistemological ques2ons rela2ng to theirprovenance by taking note of previous a]empts to study Indigeneity.
Legacy collec0ons: A vital ingredient in studying sub-Saharan African foodways.

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Steven Ma]hews, German Archaeological Ins2tute, Berlin
The Connec2ng Foodways project begun in 2019, inves2ga2ng technological transmission inearly Iron Age food tradi2ons across sub-Saharan Northern Africa, with an emphasis on theanalysis of handmade cooking pots. With depressing inevitability, we focussed on thecollec2ng samples from new excava2ons. However, an unprecedented series of events –revolu2on, coups, and internecine wars – erupted across the region, combining with the
COVID-19 pandemic to render us a ﬁeldwork project with nowhere to go, and no ability totravel.
Legacy collec2ons became essen2al. Variously distributed across European academic
ins2tu2ons and other loca2ons, and o[en informally stored, they provided a vital resource…
if we could ﬁnd them: the unloved and neglected remnants of old projects, the salvaged
collec2ons of deceased colleagues, or of long-ﬁnished doctorates.
This presenta2on will cri2cally review some of the pi^alls of pots from such collec2ons but
also of successes achieved, of ethics, and future conundrums, in the hope of contribu2ng toa much-needed transforma2on – a greater apprecia2on of our own old things – vast stores
not only of old pots but enormous research poten2al.
Whose nature are we conserving anyway?: Archaeological objec0vity, the construc0on of theidea of nature in museums and the perpetua0on of climate injus0ce
Charlo]e Woods, University of Cambridge
The discipline of archaeology has historically relied on the no2on of objec2vity to legi2miseits claims to authority and shape expert opinions on what ‘nature’ is, o[en disregarding thepoli2cal and social dynamics in which nature is constructed. By comparing how ‘nature’ isconstructed in museums in the UK and Tanzania, this paper argues that archaeology
contributes to the expulsion of Indigenous peoples from na2onal parks and promotes thenarra2ve of Africa as a wilderness devoid of people. The methods include Cri2cal Discourse
Analysis of museum labels and exhibi2ons, and 14 ethnographic interviews conducted atthree museums: the Natural History Museum in London the Powell-Co]on Museum in Kent
and the Na2onal Natural History Museum in Arusha, Tanzania. Analysis of how theconstruc2on of nature varies according to the poli2cal and social contexts of each museum
reveals how archaeological frameworks authorise hierarchies of access to na2onal parks andprivilege a singular European Enlightenment framework for understanding nature, such as
the binary between experts and poachers. For archaeology to overcome its colonial origins
and advocate for climate jus2ce, the classiﬁcatory systems of archaeology and its theore2cal
frameworks must be recognised as a form of cultural meaning-making formed in a set ofsocial and poli2cal rela2ons, in this case, Tanzania and Kenya’s Maasai community.

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20.From Bogs to Beaches: Naviga@ng Water(scapes) in the Past andPresent
Session abstract
Waterscapes are environments which are natural, and constructed; they can divide, as wellas bridge communities; and they can be destructive, yet vulnerable. These liminal and fluid
spaces are the battlelines of a rapidly changing climate and can offer insight into how pasthuman interaction has understood and responded to these changes, as well as contemporary
perceptions of them. These environments can transcend everyday life and can be deeply
imbued with ritual and symbolic meaning. How do we navigate these complex waters withincontemporary practice? And what are the challenges and opportunities by doing so?
This session will inves2gate how various waterscapes can inform thinking about climate inarchaeology, as well as people's engagement with their past and present environment. How
do current popula2ons interact with these watery spaces? How has the rela2onshipbetween people and these various waterscapes changed over 2me? How can past evidence
of interac2ons with waterscapes change our current rela2onship with these liminal spaces?
Organisers: Alison Norton (Canterbury Christ Church University), Grace Conium-Parsonage,(Canterbury Christ Church University, Museum of London Archaeology), Angie Majnic-Lane,(Canterbury Christ Church University), Lara Band Aﬃlia2on (Independent Researcher)Through the eyes of a boatbuilder: Uncovering local knowledge of the Aegean Sea
environment through mari0me cultural heritage
Katerina Velentza, University of Helsinki, Department of Cultures
Wooden shipbuilding has been practised on the island of Samos, in the eastern Aegean Sea,
Greece, for at least two thousand years. The mountainous nature of the island, theavailability of timber, and the key location of Samos as a passage for various sailing routes inthe eastern Mediterranean, encouraged the development of shipbuilding over the
centuries. This activity along with the maritime heritage assets produced are expressions oflocal knowledge, namely a system of deep knowledge, understandings and skills developed
by individuals and populations specific to the place they live (IPCC 2022, Annex II).
Currently, despite the rapid reduction of traditional wooden boats observed in Greece year
by year, the island of Samos preserves some of the last few shipyards where traditional
wooden boats are still constructed. However, due to policy negligence, governmentalpressures to turn island economies solely to tourism, and new challenges brought up by theclimate emergency and environmental breakdown, the traditional craft of wooden
shipbuilding struggles to survive.
This paper presents preliminary results of the project ‘Re-imagining the use of traditional
watercraft in the Aegean Sea for a sustainable environment and economy’. Through anassessment of the surviving tangible and intangible data related to the shipbuilding
traditions, the significant links between traditional boats and local knowledge of the75maritime communities of the Aegean is explained. The analysis closes with future
consideration regarding the preservation of maritime heritage and traditions to transition
towards sustainable and climate resilient ways of living in the waterscape of the Aegean.
Timescapes and Waterscapes of the North Kent CoastMark Harrison, Historic England and University of Kent
The archaeological landscapes and waterscapes of the North Kent coast form arich and varied tapestry of time. The archaeological record will show that ourancestors have been present in this area of Britain for over 30,000 years.
This paper will highlight recent research that illustrates how the population
were able to exploit the natural and physical environment in order to survive
and latterly to thrive with the development of new and innovative technologies
and industrial processes that would facilitate the growth of settlement along
the coastline and marshlands of the North Kent coast; a growth set within thecontext of the ever-present threats of conflict, rising sea levels and a chaotic
and ever-changing climate. Examples will include the development of:• Inshore fishing• Salt production• Water transport in particular the discovery of two intertidal wrecks at
Seasalter and Tankerton• Manufacture of green vitriol• Defence works and fortification to counter the threat of amphibious
invasion.
Calcareous Kent: rediscovering importance of our sacred chalk waters
Jay Ingate, Canterbury Christ Church University
The Downland of Southern Britain represents a unique landscape that has shaped life fromdeep prehistory. The porous nature of its underlying chalk geology creates a dynamic
topography and waterscapes with distinctive attributes. Over 90% of the world's chalk rivers
are in Britain and these water courses have historically been focal points of intense
biodiversity and human occupation. Due to their origin in the chalk, these rivers emerge at
consistent temperatures, leading to increased numbers of invertebrates, with the knock-on
effect of more fish, more predators, and subsequently greater potential food sources forhumans. It is therefore unsurprising that such features became focal points for worship in
the ancient world - the Roman site shrine site of Vagniacis in Kent is the most obvious
example of this, but the origin of the city of Canterbury may well also be deeply connected
to its calcareous water.
Kent is predicted to suffer some of the most severe effects of climate change in the UK, due
to its geographical location and high population density. A pivot between dramatic floods
and increasingly severe droughts is already necessitating changes in habits and greater
investment in water infrastructure. However, for several reasons, the public appetite for76such investment is not high. This paper will explore how archaeological evidence from the
Roman period can help communities in Kent identify with their unique water and feel agreater sense of local ownership. In turn, it can start a conversation about howarchaeological understanding of landscapes can play an active role in addressing thebiodiversity and climate crises.
Lessons from Contested Seascapes: Fishing, Sewage Disposal and Seaside Tourism in South
Wales
Katherine Watson, Swansea University.
Honing in on the upsurge in environmental regula2ons from the 1980s, this paper explores
the triadic rela2onship between ﬁshing, coastal tourism, and sewage disposal in South
Wales. Unlike the correla2on and tension between the popularity of the Bri2sh seaside andthe prolifera2on of eﬄuent discharge, the impact of pumping raw sewage on ﬁsheries hasreceived limited oﬃcial and public scru2ny. The management of South Wales’ inshore
waters reveal the priori2sa2on of human users and uses. This prompts reﬂec2ons on theways in which the sea, ﬁsh, shellﬁsh and other marine life have been perceived andconstructed by and in rela2on to humans. Following decades of concealment, environmental
lobbying, and ul2mately unacceptable levels of pollu2on for Bri2sh holidaymakers, the past
30 years have seen the UK government take systema2c ac2on to return inshore waters to
pre-industrial purity. However, I ques2on whether these percep2ons of transforma2on holdtrue to marine ecosystem health. This paper oﬀers tenta2ve sugges2ons on what thissequence of events indicates about the values that underpin our consump2on of food andculture in the Anthropocene, or Capitalocene.
Shiving sands: Ken0sh coastal communi0es in transi0on
Grace Conium, Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU) in collabora2on with Museum ofLondon Archaeology (MOLA)“Coasts are dynamic, but historic assets are ﬁxed” (Murphy, Thackray and Wilson 2009:9).
The vulnerability of the coast to damage through coastal erosion is being seen at anincreased rate because of climate change (Caﬀrey and Beavers 2008; Murphy, Thackray andWilson 2009; Daly 2011). Because of the deteriora2on of these coastal heritage sites,
organisa2ons and na2onal projects have arisen to tackle this problem, including at East Kent.
Community archaeology and ci2zen science projects have arisen to try and record historicalinforma2on before it is lost in these landscapes. This paper explores the impacts andoutcomes of the work that is being carried out in these coastal serngs, and how people
respond to the recognised threat of coastal landscapes. Two case studies, East Wear Bay at
Folkestone and a CITiZAN event at Sandwich Bay will discuss how volunteers respond tothese changing coastlines and will explore some of the opportuni2es that these projects
oﬀer those involved. This paper examines the eﬀorts to mi2gate the vulnerability of coastal
heritage sites in the face of increasing coastal erosion due to climate change, focusing on the77community archaeology and ci2zen science projects in East Kent and their impact onpreserving historical informa2on and engaging volunteers.

7821. Archaeological Theory in Dialect: rethinking narra@ves in archaeology
through accents, language, and communica@on
Session abstract
English is the lingua franca, not only for academia but also for almost all international
infrastructures and global communications. It comes as no surprise then that the dominant
and assumed normative voice in archaeology is standard British English (SBE) for narrativesof various times and places. This language is ‘majoritarian’- by this we don’t mean that it isspoken by most of humanity but that it is the imposed “ideal” others are measured againstand that is an issue.
Categories, terms, and ways of interpretation are all done from a privileged majoritarian
position. These do not translate and are certainly not applicable in all the different places
where archaeology takes place. But unfortunately, this is mostly the case for archaeologists
from Asia, Africa, and Latin America who are forced to use these narratives to make theirresearch 'valuable' or to translate their own theories to be able to have a voice in theacademic world. This majoritarian notion is further echoed when considering the inherent
disproportionate impacts communities in these areas face due to climate change.
In this session, we want to explore the different ways we can harness regional dialects,
language, and forms of communication to undermine and disrupt the majoritarian status of
SBE as the normative voice of archaeological narratives. We welcome papers thatexperiment with these concepts and look to forge new narratives in archaeology.
As Adkins (2015, 17) highlights, ‘Everyday usage, borrowings from other languages,
literature, and slang continually disturb the stability of a major language’.
Organisers: Brodhie Molloy, Judith López Aceves, and Jonny Graham (all University ofLeicester)
Ey, Ay? What are the implica0ons of AI technology for research/ knowledge produc0on
and consump0on?
Judith López Aceves and Brodhie Molloy, University of Leicester
Academic production in archaeology, like in other fields of knowledge, is predominantly
conducted in English. However, there are scholars who write and share their findings intheir native languages, which hinders these from being accessible to the wider academic
community. At times, there is a perception of research gaps from an Anglophone
perspective, which have actually been investigated previously in other linguistic spheres
where English is not the dominant language.
Translation has served as a solution to bridge the gap between knowledge produced inlanguages other than English. Nevertheless, it's worth noting that many concepts orperspectives referred to may not be easily "translatable" into English and vice versa.
This problem becomes evident with the use of artificial intelligences, such as ChatGPT or
Snapchat's AI. ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence that is trained on texts and information79

from Wikipedia, books, news, and articles from academic journals (e.g., Wikipedia, books,
news articles, scientific journals)." (Where does ChatGPT get its information from?, 2023).
If, as we have noted, the information is more extensive in English than in other languages,
how will the artificial intelligence's responses vary? If the topic has been researched morein another language than in English, will the responses be contradictory between theselanguages? What are the implications of having different responses and sources of
information for both the audiences and those producing research itself?
Can equivoca0ons be controlled in archaeology?
Aldo Accinelli, University of Amsterdam
The Brazilian anthropologist Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, with the aim of addressing thecommunication gap that exists between interlocutors, namely social scientists and thepeople under investigation, introduced the concept of controlled equivocation.
Equivocation, in this context, refers to the notion that interlocutors may employ the same
vocabulary, yet their referents diverge, often without them knowing. Exercising control overequivocation means refraining from transforming or translating a given concept into
something dissimilar. This acknowledges that words are not mere concepts but canconstitute diﬀerent worlds. Such worlds are constructed through the interplay of concepts,
grammatical structures, and practices, constituting the equivocation in which interlocutors
are situated and through which they communicate. How can such a method be used inarchaeology? To answer this question, examples of how equivocation exists between
archaeologists of diﬀerent areas of the world are put forward. This is not only related to theconcepts used for theorizing archaeology but also to what constitutes being anarchaeologist. Therefore, it is crucial to scrutinize the process by which we select theconcepts we use to think other concepts. Ideally, this method can allow us not only a better
understanding between archaeologists but also a better understanding of the past.
Archaeological theory in transla0on: some reﬂec0ons
Ma]hew Johnson, Northwestern University (Evanston, IL)
The first edition of “Archaeological Theory: An Introduction” was published in 1999. Since
then, there have been second and third revised editions, and the book has been translated
from English into Spanish, Chinese, Serbian, Polish, Estonian, Greek, Korean, and Persian.
The reception of the book by different communities, and its multiple translations, have
had consequences both intended and unintended. This paper is intended as a criticalreflection by the author on relationships observed and noted between Anglophone andnon-Anglophone theoretical and cultural discourse. I will comment on the following
themes, among others. First, the structure and organization of the publishing business inrelation to Anglophone dominance. Second, specific issues that arose during thetranslation process and what these specific issues may suggest about general tensions inarchaeological thought, for example around “empiricism”. Third, how translations
intersect with generational debates and tensions in academies and within national80

traditions.
"I thought Bri0sh policy was make the world England? Sir."- Bri0sh Industrial Archaeology
concepts in Portugal.
João Sequeira, Universidade do Minho, Tânia Casimiro, University of Lisbon
It is known that the very ﬁrst time that the concept of Industrial Archaeology (Archéologie
industrielle) was published, was by Marie Pierre Le Pelletier, a French scholar, back in 1842.
This very known fact is however very unknown to the generality of researchers since
Industrial Archaeology is still today methodologically and theoretically framed by British
scholars, the so-called founders of Industrial Archaeology and sons of the Industrial
Revolution, who use English as their language. The problem, nevertheless, is not the use ofEnglish as a form of communication, but how those concepts and ideas – which werecreated by British scholars, researchers, or simply enthusiasts, concerning British territories– had no consideration for other than British cultural, social, ideological, and technicaldevelopments. To make things even more tricky most scholars from non-English speaking
territories use these concepts almost as methodological concepts without questioning how
these must be considered with the climate, environmental, social, political, economic,(de)colonial challenges, just to mention a few. Having all these disputes in mind the purposeof this paper is to debate, using Portugal as a case study, how the use of English concepts issometimes not only lost in translation but also lost in application.
Gannin’ hyem: Geordie dialect, the virtual, and Neolithic South Shields [Pre-recorded paper]
Jonny Graham (University of Leicester)Standard British English is the voice through which narratives of the Neolithic are primarily
written. Yet within English itself are a multiplicity of diﬀerent regional dialects which, whenspoken broadly enough, can sound almost like a language in their own right and go
unheard in archaeological narratives. One such dialect is Geordie, from the Tyneside areaof north-east England. Nevertheless, like Brummie and Scouse dialects, Geordie is oTen
portrayed as a comical dialect that is a lesser form of English because of how it sounds andits diﬀerence from SBE.
Taking inspiration from Harry Josephine Giles’ Deep Wheel Orcadia (a sci-ﬁ novel written in
Orcadian dialect), I diﬀerentiate a short speculative narrative from a Neolithic site in South
Shields (my home town) using Deleuze’s concept of the virtual diagram as my structure
and the Geordie dialect as my voice. In doing this, I hope to help disrupt the stability ofEnglish and work towards opening lines of ﬂight for diﬀerent Anglophone voices in the
past.

81

Found in translation: towards a richer archaeological language
Marianne Hem Eriksen, University of Leicester, Eva Mol, University of York, ÞóraPétursdórr, University of Oslo
English is the academic lingua franca which allows us to share ideas across linguistic
borders, enabling transnational discourse and communication. However, the significant
disadvantages and challenges this brings to non-native English speakers is largely ignoredor even acknowledged in our Anglophone dominated field. Many non-native speakers feellike they can never express themselves fully, can never be as eloquent or nuanced or
precise as in their own languages: we can never say quite what we want to say. It isevident that much invisible labour (in terms of time, energy, and extra financial costs)
goes into teaching, publishing, and expressing oneself in a second or third or fourth
language, while native English speakers occasionally correct, make jokes of pronunciation,or else enact language policing and control in different ways.
In this paper, we urge for more awareness of these issues across the board and argue thatrather than policing the boundaries, archaeology can harvest creativity and richness by
allowing expressions, idiosyncrasies, and turns of phrase from non-English languages seep
into ‘accepted’ archaeological writing. This can only be a positive we believe: not only
would this lower the bar for non-native English speakers, most of all it will enrich thearchaeological language with concepts, tools, words, and phrases that allow diversity inanalytic perspectives

22.Repe@@on, repe@@on, repe@@on: archaeological applica@ons of
repe@@on beyond the norma@ve
Session abstract
At the last TAG conference, we held a session examining archaeological approaches todifference. This time around, we aim to consider applications of a related concept:
repetition.
In Difference and Repetition, Deleuze radically rethought both concepts. Difference was nolonger a measure of lack between terms but became an affirmative and productive force.
Similarly, repetition is now productive. A repetition isn’t a copy that could be swapped foranother – a production of the same – but more a ‘reflection’, ‘echo’, ‘double’, or ‘soul’(Deleuze 1994, 1). Your reflection cannot replace you, and in the very ways that it is not you
it emphasises your uniqueness, your singular existence (Hagen 2013). Creativity andtransformation results from the repeated production of difference in this way; in otherwords: ‘To repeat is to begin again; to affirm the power of the new and the unforeseeable’(Parr 2010, 225).
We see huge potential for archaeological engagements with repetition in this sense. Twoclosely related handaxes can resemble one another, but they are not copies, they haveunique lives. Constructing a house at Çatalhöyük where one previously stood is not the82

production of the same house, but a repetition, with its own immanent properties andrelations. Similarly, ‘climate change’ is not an event that comes from nowhere but is only
observable because of many repetitions of difference.
In this session, we welcome papers that explore repetition beyond its conventional
understanding as repetition of the same.
Organisers: Jonny Graham and Andy Rogers (both University of Leicester)
Repetition-for-itself in the indigenous Caribbean
Andy Rogers, University of Leicester
The same Wold story? Communities of difference at Rudston Wold
Jonny Graham, University of Leicester
In Difference and Repetition, Gilles Deleuze’s (1994) reconceptualisation of repetition sees it
as the return of difference rather than the same. Given this understanding, how do things
ever persist or remain relatively stable over long periods of time? This is something Rachel
Crellin (2020, 1) addresses at the opening of Change and Archaeology: ‘Why do somecommunities appear to carry out the same practices over thousands of years? These things
are hard to explain because our worlds are constantly changing and so we have to explore
how some things do manage to remain relatively similar’.
To explore the persistence of practices across centuries rather than millennia, I want toconsider the difference and repetition of Neolithic pit digging at Rudston Wold in East
Yorkshire. Rethinking the groups of humans and nonhumans who lived, feasted, and dug
pits in this landscape as ‘communities of difference’, I want to show how repeated acts ofdifference making can lead to the long-term persistence of not only practices but also of thecommunities that were engaged in them.
Repe00on, Persistence and Generality: Problema0sing the endurance of medieval urbanity
Ben Jervis, University of Leicester
Deleuze’s Diﬀerence and Repe00on begins with the statement that ‘repe22on is not
generality’. Throughout this book rela2onships are ques2oned; between representa2on andrepe22on, between the general and singular and between intensive and extensive, forexample. Archaeological thought and prac2ce o[en suﬀer from a desire to generalise from
speciﬁcs, to pick out points of similarity and resemblance rather than diﬀerence, to ﬂa]en
intensive repe22on into extensive representa2on. This is par2cularly true of urban
archaeology, where the long shadow of debates about deﬁni2on, or generalisa2on, hangsover our prac2ce and percep2on. To take our lead from Deleuze, deﬁni2on has been cast as
a problem requiring a solu2on, but which can only be solved in rela2ons to the terms that it
is framed.
Debates over the ‘decline’ of towns in later medieval England can be understood as aproblem of generalisa2on; of places which no longer meet the deﬁni2on. Yet, these are83places which persist, which remain as apparently stable extensive phenomena (streets,buildings, ins2tu2ons). Here we see a tension; persistence implies repe22on yet decline
implies discon2nuity and diﬀerence; a breaking away of places from the perceived
representa2on of urbanity. In this paper I propose that a Deleuzian approach to diﬀerence
through repe22on provides a solu2on to this paradox; that it is through mapping intensive
processes of repe22on that we can perceive of urbanity as the ongoing produc2on and redeﬁni2on of the speciﬁci2es of urban space and 2me which call into ques2on the prevailingra2onale of generalisa2on and representa2on.
Revivals: Going Back to the Way Things Used to Be in Neolithic Turkey
Kevin Kay, University of Leicester
Neolithic Turkey was a key venue for the development of practice theory in archaeology.
Sites like Çatalhöyük and Aşıklı Höyük comprise centuries-long stacks of buildings built andrebuilt, in the same place, with the same layout, supporting practice theory’s vision of anendlessly recursive cycle of habitus structuring and taking structure from the material world.
Yet more recent excavations trouble this picture, showing that sequences of identicalbuildings were often in fact punctuated by periods of abandonment. Rather than steadyrepetition, we’re invited to envision a world where living arrangements changed, new statusquos settled in—and then were disrupted again to put things back as they had been before.
This paper puts its spotlight on the act of revival, not as a habitual repetition but adeliberate production of difference. It thus seeks to situate practice and habitus more firmly
in the politics of change.
Live, Die, Repeat: Archaeology for Today and Tomorrow
Craig N. Cipolla, Tu[s University, Rachel J. Crellin and Oliver J.T. Harris, University of Leicester
What should we learn from the past to deal with present and future crises? Should we learn
how to live? That is, does the past provide us with models of how to adapt to climatechange, or to eat more healthily, or to build new socie2es? Or should we learn how to not todie? That is, can the past teach us how to avoid repea2ng the “collapse”, say, of the Romanor Mayan worlds? Examples of these sorts of claims pepper the archaeological literature,
either lauding or decrying the possibili2es of repe22on.
Yet repe22on in both these cases is what the philosopher Gilles Deleuze would call ‘bare
repe22on’. That is, it is superﬁcial and representa2onal, and reduces the power of the past
to allegory, fable and mirror to the present.
In contrast to this, we draw on our new book (Archaeology for Today and Tomorrow) tosuggest that another way of engaging with archaeology and the past emerges when weembrace the transforma2ve power of diﬀerence. Rather than repe22on merely providing
superﬁcial parables from the past, instead we can embrace the produc2ve power that therepe22on of diﬀerence brings. With this archaeology oﬀers not lessons, but tools forcrea2on. It oﬀers not stories of what might happen again, but opportuni2es to create new84

worlds. Thus, by roo2ng our understanding of the past in diﬀerence AND repe22on, we cancreate an archaeology that helps to transform today and tomorrow.
CTRL+C and CTRL+V? Thinking about hillforts as a repeated phenomenon.
Kelly Davies, Cardiﬀ University
Hilltop enclosures, o[en referred to as ‘hillforts’, have been built by diﬀerent socie2es aroundthe world for millennia. They are o[en a dominant feature within their landscapes,
archaeological interpreta2ons, and public percep2ons of heritage. There are up to 30,000
later prehistoric hillforts across Europe, as well as numerous prehistoric and historic examples
in Asia, Africa, Oceania, and North and South America.
No two hillforts are alike – far from it – yet the act of enclosing space upon prominent
landscape posi2ons is a much-repeated phenomenon. This ongoing research project aims toconsider the signiﬁcance of this repeated act. Why have so many diﬀerent and unconnectedsocie2es chosen to undertake this act? What diﬀerence(s) and repe22on(s) can be seen
between these socie2es and their hillforts? And moreover, by studying this repe22on, what
insights might we gain for understanding and interpre2ng Bri2sh later prehistoric hillforts?
U2lising diverse range of archaeological, historical, and ethnographic case studies from New
Zealand, USA, and Japan, analysed using an assemblage theory approach, this research isaiming to address understandings of the roles of hillforts across these cultures. By analysing
hillfort repe22on from an assemblage perspec2ve, this research aims to examine what we canlearn about life, violence, and ritual prac2ces within these sites and the socie2es that built
them.
Repeat aver me? Exploring similarity and varia0on in Late Neolithic funerary architecture
Kirsty Lilley and Lusia Zaleskaya, University of Edinburgh
The apparent ubiquity of monumental architecture in Late Neolithic Europe has long
fascinated archaeologists. Countless theore2cal and methodological approaches have been
employed to understand the emergence and spread of monumentality, and scholars havewidely explored the rela2onship between architectural form and social, ritual, andcosmological signiﬁcance. In central-western Europe, dis2nct funerary monuments havecome to typify social groups, with their classiﬁca2on into discrete ‘cultures’ a primarymethod of da2ng sites, par2cularly where funerary deposits and other associated materials
are scarce. Such approaches o[en stem from priori2sing similarity, thus overlooking thepoten2al to discuss diversity within these tradi2ons, and implying that their designs are li]lemore than cycles of repe22on. But are they really ‘repe22ve’?
Drawing on two very diﬀerent case study areas, the authors propose a cri2cal re-evalua2onof similarity and diﬀerence in the architectural design of Late Neolithic monuments. From
engaging with repe22on through the lenses of aesthe2cs and communi2es of prac2ce, tousing sta2s2cal similarity to explore pa]erns of diﬀerence, we aim to demonstrate thatfunerary monuments of prehistoric Europe are not simply imita2ons or reproduc2ons.
Supposedly straigh^orward typologies are more complex than they seem; the repe22on – or85

lack thereof – propelling the development of architectural design, tradi2ons, and varia2ons
within, and between, socie2es in this period. Travelling between the cairns of north-eastern
Scotland and the rock-cut tombs of Sardinia, this study highlights the beneﬁts of nuanced
explora2ons of diﬀerence amongst apparently ‘repea2ng’ designs, and proposes diverse
theore2cal and methodological approaches with which to do so.
The power of repe00on and rock art [Virtual presenta0on]
José Chessil Dohvehnain Marnnez-Moreno, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Repe22on is also the crea2on of diﬀerence. Repe22on is crea2ve, because although it may
not seem so, it is never the same. Human and non-human assemblages, which inarchaeology we also usually call material culture, express themselves suitable to beapproached from repe22on, because repe22on is also one of their main material quali2es.
The de/re/territorializa2on of lithic ar2facts or rock art can be cases of reﬂec2on on suchrepe22ve and diﬀeren2al quali2es, which stra2fy tradi2ons, regions, styles, sites, sets,groups, types, and singulari2es; scales of analysis with their own vitali2es, codiﬁca2ons, anddiﬀeren2al aﬀec2ve expressions of power and desire. To guide such reﬂec2ons, as well as tovalue their relevance in contemporary interdisciplinary archaeological prac2ce, two casestudies will be addressed: rock art and lithic technology. Both phenomena widely andmaterially recognized among nomadic and semi-nomadic hunter-gatherer socie2es thatoccupied the fer2le deserts and semi-deserts of northern Mexico, lands beyond thenorthern border of Mesoamerica.

23.How can archaeologists take climate ac@on?
Session abstract
Discussions surrounding the impact of climate change on archaeology and heritage havelargely focussed on preserva2on and adapta2on of monuments and collec2ons, with policies
being developed to address these issues at both na2onal and interna2onal levels. We now
recognise archaeology’s contribu2on to the Anthropocene. Museums and other cultural
ins2tu2ons are moving towards net zero and some have divested from fossil fuelsponsorship.
How can we, as individuals, within our ins2tu2ons, and collec2vely as representa2ves of thediscipline, take climate ac2on? Can we take an ethical stance on the work we do? How can
we create a just transi2on away from the destruc2ve commercial sector which enables
increased fossil fuel usage and degrada2on of the natural environment? How can museums
and heritage professionals teach sustainable development through their collec2ons andsubjects? How and when do archaeologists become ac2vists?
Further than this, concepts of going beyond sustainability and developing regenera2ve
archaeologies are beginning to emerge as a topic of debate. Can we create a genuinely
restora2ve prac2ce which re-engages people with the landscape, the past and each other?

86Organisers: Natasha Harlow (University of Norngham), Daniël van Helden (University ofLeicester), Sarah Scoppie (State Oﬃce for Cultural Heritage - Regional Council Stu]gart)
Archaeological Climate Ac0on? Navel-gazing a way forwardDaniël van Helden, University of Leicester
Archaeologists are all members of a society that urgently needs to change its lifeways in amanner that for some is quite drama2c. At this stage, I believe there is a moral obliga2on of
all members of society to get into ac2on to eﬀect the necessary changes wherever they canand to move others to do so as well. Be that as it may, we can ques2on whether thisimpera2ve aﬀects us qua archaeologist or simply as humans. Are our climate ac2ons, eventhose within archaeology, undertaken as archaeologists? In my contribu2on I want to reﬂect
where the boundaries between archaeology and wider humanity lie in rela2on to climate
ac2on.
Archaeology and Plas0cs [Virtual presenta0on]
Nina Crummy, University of Reading
The ﬁrst two stages of the three-stage deﬁni2on of the Anthropocene coincide with thegrowth of archaeology: 1) 1800-1945, the Industrial Era = the rise of 'gentleman' excavators;
2) 1945-c. 2015, the Great Accelera2on = the rise of professional archaeological units. Stage
3 is deﬁned as humankind's awareness of the damage it has inﬂicted on the world anda]empts to halt and at best reverse this, but how are archaeologists rising to the challenge?
Well before 2015 units have been trying to run paper-free oﬃces, reuse as many items as
possible and recycled others via local authority collec2on schemes, but are they trying toﬁnd more eco-friendly alterna2ves to the plas2cs they consume simply to enable them, by
today's standards, to do a good professional job? Archaeological must-haves range fromhard hats right through to polythene bags and polypropylene boxes, and over 99% of plas2cs
are made from chemicals sourced from fossil fuels. Quan2fying the number of items bought
during the course of a year by a number of excava2ng bodies may make the profession
aware of its contribu2on to the plas2c and fossil fuel problems, stop shrugging its shoulders
or wringing its hands, and demand change.
“No-Dig” Archaeology? Resistance and regenera0on in archaeological prac0ce.
Natasha Harlow, University of Norngham
An existen2al threat currently exists to life on Earth, with strong indica2ons that“civilisa2on” as we know it will be impossible to sustain for more than a few decades.
Archaeology can be viewed as a net contributor to the biodiversity and climate crisis. The
commercial sector, in par2cular, facilitates house and road construc2on, extrac2ve industries
and large scale infrastructure projects, all of which increase fossil fuel usage, disrupt wildlife
habitats and disconnect people from place and from each other.
A cultural and ethical shi[ is necessary to include the rights of the natural world and future
genera2ons when carrying out our work. Climate ac2on for archaeologists can form part of a87

proac2ve and fair transi2on. We can reduce carbon release from large-scale earth
movements by using remote sensing and geophysical techniques. We can switch tosustainable materials instead of plas2cs and other petrochemical products. We can rethinkmodes of transporta2on and move towards carbon neutrality. We can develop aregenera2ve archaeology which produces social and ecological beneﬁts.
This alone is insuﬃcient to impact on our global over-reach of planetary boundaries.
Scien2sts and other professionals worldwide are already raising their voices to resist thedeadly complicity and inac2on of governments and other ins2tu2ons. Should archaeologists
boyco] work which contributes to the climate emergency and focus a]en2on on pushing forsystemic change? “No-dig” archaeology can also mean standing up and saying no toengaging with detrimental projects, bringing development to a halt and raising awareness ofthe harm being done.
World Heritage and Sustainable Development – Partners against crime or long-standingnemeses? [Virtual presenta0on}
Sarah Scoppie, State Oﬃce for Cultural Heritage - Regional Council Stu]gart
UNESCO was founded following World War II as “an organiza2on that would embody agenuine culture of peace” and “to establish the ‘intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind’
and thereby prevent the outbreak of another world war” (www.unesco.org/en/brief). In
2023, “UNESCO's programmes contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable
Development Goals deﬁned in the 2030 Agenda, adopted by the UN General Assembly in2015” (idem). The protec2on and safeguarding of the world’s cultural and natural heritage
may not be at the core of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agreed upon as partof the 2030 Agenda, however as target 11.4 they are fundamental to SDG 11 “Make ci2es
and human se]lements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”. So far the theory…
Prac2cal monument protec2on and cultural heritage management, on the other hand,appear to clash with approaches to the sustainable development of heritage sites moreo[en than not. From regula2ons preven2ng the installa2on of solar panels on listedbuildings to protec2ve zones limi2ng the areas usable for the construc2on of wind farms.
The integrity and authen2city of a World Heritage Site as integral part of its Outstanding
Universal Value seem to be incompa2ble with aims to provide aﬀordable and clean energy(SDG 7) as part of climate ac2on (SDG 13). Therefore, I will ask how UNESCO World Heritage
can contribute towards sustainable development – as partners against the crime ofdestroying our environment, and thus more than just our cultural and natural heritage.

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24.On the Wetland’s Edge: Iron Age Se2lements, Environments andCultural Interac@ons.
Session abstract
Wetlands form an integral aspect of the study of the Iron Age. As archaeologists, they oﬀer
us the poten2al for incredible preserva2on of organic artefacts, human remains and ecofacts
which can provide insights into en2re past landscapes. Beyond this, they provide evidence
for ac2vi2es in the Iron Age which were restricted to the context of these environments. The
development of se]lements on the fron2er of wetland oﬀers us the chance to explore
economic, social, cultural and symbolic rela2onships between site and landscape.
This session invites a range of presenters to showcase some of the recent discoveries anddevelopments in theory surrounding the diverse range of Iron Age se]lement types locatedon the wetland’s edge. Focusing on the dynamic interac2on between socie2es and theirenvironmental contexts, it inves2gates how Iron Age communi2es adapted to and exploitedwetland environments and formed cultural iden22es. By integra2ng archaeological evidence
and interdisciplinary approaches, this session aims to unravel the complex rela2onships
between Iron Age se]lements, their surrounding environments, and the cultural dynamics
which shaped their development.
Organisers: Theo Reeves and Freddie James (both University of Birmingham)
A Great Bri0sh Marsh-fort Programme? How interpre0ve categorisa0ons can beneﬁt our
understanding of Iron Age wetland enclosures
Theo Reeves, University of Birmingham
The study of marsh-forts is s2ll in its infancy, yet our interpreta2ons of these sites
perpetuate some of the same generalisa2ons that have aﬄicted hillfort studies for decades.
The ﬁrst is the category of ‘marsh-forts’ as it currently stands; a simple, descrip2ve criterionof earthworks and wetland, which has formed a residual grouping of sites which share few
similari2es. The second notable issue is in the induc2ve approach, using the site of Su]on
Common, where the term was ﬁrst established as the archetype for deﬁning the category. It
seems improbable that there was a widespread building programme of marsh-forts acrossIron Age Britain, following a shared vision for the morphology and func2on of these sites.
This paper ques2ons whether this approach is useful to us as archaeologists, and proposes amore nuanced, interpre2ve framework for categorising these sites which will enable a be]er
understanding of the sites, the people who used them, and their rela2on with their wider
wetland surroundings.

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Reconstruc0ng an Iron Age Crannog
Mark Hoyle, AOC Archaeology
This paper aims to look at the crea2ve process of the reconstruc2on ar2st and understandthe methodology and workﬂow behind developing visuals created for both the generalpublic and academics. Through this, it hopes to s2mulate discussions and help evolve ideas.
The paper will look at the ini2al stages of gathering data sets, using site recordings (bothdigital and physical) in the ordering process, and how the ar2st must interpret and observe
the subtle2es gathered from site data. This leads through to developing the concepts andvisual look of the piece, with the aim of conveying, in a single image, the feeling and scale ofa place and a culture.
Within this, I aim to discuss how the ar2st must work within speciﬁc parameters whilst
trying to u2lise as much archaeological evidence as possible within the reconstruc2onprocess to create a visually appealing and accurate representa2on of the site in ques2on.
Building or Burying the Past? Memory in the Iron Age Fens
Sheridan Clements, Cardiﬀ University
From the later 3rd millennium BCE, the northwestern edge of East Anglia around the bay
now known as The Wash, saw drama2c changes as water levels rose and marine incursion
spread upstream into the basin. This led to extensive peat forma2on in the lowlands and thedevelopment of the Fen landscape. Throughout the Bronze and Iron Ages, theseenvironmental changes forced people to re-organize their se]lement pa]erns, both
physically and socially, to adapt.
As part of ongoing PhD research, this paper aims to inves2gate the inﬂuence theseenvironmental and social changes, as well as the landscape itself, may have had on memory
prac2ces in the Iron Age. Memory prac2ces are some of the ways in which groups create
dis2nct iden22es and treat and understand the past. The Fen landscapes provide an
uncommon opportunity to inves2gate memory prac2ces in an environment in which thepast is quite literally buried.
Whereas many archaeological inves2ga2ons of memory prac2ces focus upon site/object‘biographies’, this paper a]empts to move beyond this approach by u2lizing a mul2stranded analysis of contexts such as se]lement structure and landscape rela2ons,
subsistence and economy, and treatment of the dead.
These preliminary results show the important roles of landscape, place, and ritual inmaintaining memory. In the Fens, the shi[ from the Bronze to Iron Age is accompanied bysedentary se]lements and structural emphasis placed on durability, reﬂec2ng a shi[ insocial structure, with a new emphasis on land and tenure. This is then related to the needfor these claims to be expressed through visible connec2ons to the past, real orconstructed/imagined.

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The mnemonic and cogni0ve func0ons of Bri0sh Iron Age deposi0on prac0ce in Wales andScotlandDr Tiﬀany Treadway, Pontypridd Museum
Prehistoric wetland deposi2on served as a dynamic func2on for prehistoric communi2es.
Research focusing on Bri2sh Iron Age Wales and Scotland has revealed that deposi2on was
performed to represent iden2ty. Subregional diﬀerences in the material symbolised diﬀerent
cultural elements within these socie2es that were held integral to their individuality.
Methods of prac2ce were for2ﬁed through cogni2ve connec2ons to the landscape, items,
materials and performance of deposi2on. Somatosense and method of loci, amongst others,
would have enabled individuals to form and establish cogni2ve connec2ons to the landscapeand item/s, which would become vital to the collec2ve memory. Thus, this paper discusses
the theore2cal symbolic nature of certain objects and the eﬀorts individuals or communi2es
made to reﬂect connec2on, iden2ty and community within wetland deposi2on throughBri2sh Iron Age object assemblages sourced from Scotland and Wales.
‘Enchanted garments’ from the bog
Melanie Giles, University of Manchester
This paper considers a few threads, strands and bands found with a number of late Iron
Age/early Roman bog bodies which have created mul2-temporal encounters. From the fox
fur armlet of Lindow man to the thread caught on the hole in Amco]’s woman’s shoe, to theli]le squares snipped from a stocking found on a bog body at Grewelthorpe moor, thesesmall and in2mate fragments have the poten2al to shed light upon the lives of those who
were remarkably preserved by the bog. Yet this paper uses an2quarian and literary texts, aswell as folklore, to show how such materials did not merely embody cultural capital asremarkable materials that deﬁed 2me; they also had powerful, even apotropaic value,
following their discovery. Finally, it suggests that they can thus play a renewed role as‘aﬀec2ve’ artefacts which can engage us with past lives, in current debates over whether todisplay the dead, including well-preserved human remains, in museums and galleries.

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