Event

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09/26/2024 - 09/28/2024 | Halle (Saale)

A Stone Age History of Clothing

17th Archaeological Conference of Central Germany – International conference in Halle (Saale) from 25 to 28 September 2024.

The Archaeological Conference of Central Germany is held every year by the State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology in Saxony-Anhalt. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the aim of the international conference is to gain new insight on a specially selected subject by studying finds and features from Central Germany and beyond.

This year's conference is devoted to the history of Stone Age clothing and examines its evolutionary and social significance using both direct and indirect evidence. Based on early evidence of clothes and their manufacture such as the finds from the burial of a female shaman from Bad Dürrenberg in Saxony-Anhalt as well as other features from Germany and abroad, conference participants will discuss various aspects of the history of clothing in the Stone Age.

Various topics will be addressed, ranging from clothing as a necessity to their social dimension.

Thursday, 26 September 2024

Registration opens from 9.00.

Programme

9.45 to 10.00
Harald Meller (Halle [Saale]/DE), Olaf Jöris (Mainz and Neuwied/DE), Oliver Dietrich (Halle [Saale]/DE), Roberto Risch (Barcelona/ES): Welcoming.

Introduction

10.00 to 10.15
Olaf Jöris (Mainz and Neuwied/DE): Conference ›Table of Contents‹: The Multiple Dimensions of Clothing and Body Ornamentation in a Stone Age Perspective.

From Possibilism and Imagination to Science and Perception

10.15 to 10.30
Pauline Coste (Paris/FR): Clothing or Nakedness in ›Scientific‹ Reconstructions of Prehistoric Humans from the Nineteenth Century to the Present: Based on Pure Hypotheses or Archaeological Evidence?

10.35 to 10.50
Karina Grömer, Kayleigh Saunderson, Lukas Dobler (all Wien/AT): Clothes Worn by Prehistoric Societies in Popular Media (Period Films, Comics and Games).

10.55 to 11.30 – coffee break.

Clothing and Body Ornamentation in Stone Age Artistic Depictions

11.30 to 11.45
Olaf Jöris (Mainz and Neuwied/DE): Evidence for Clothing in Palaeolithic Art: an Overview.

11.50 to 12.05
Olaf Jöris (Mainz and Neuwied/DE): The Case of Palaeolithic Figurines as a Historical Source for Clothing, Hairstyle and Body Ornamentation.

12.10 to 12.25
Christina Marangou (Athens/GR): Appearance and Perceptions of Neolithic Figurines, Covered, Nude, or otherwise.

12.30 to 14.30 – lunch break.

14.30 to 14.45
Oliver Dietrich (Halle [Saale]/DE): Cloak, Belt and Loincloth. 10th–9th Millennium BC Depictions of Clothing from Göbekli Tepe and other Upper Mesopotamian Sites.

14.50 to 15.05
Simon Kaner (Norwich/GB): Wrapping the Stone Age Body: Clothing Jōmon dogū Ceramic Figures from the Prehistoric Japanese Archipelago.

15.10 to 15.20 – short break.

Human Bodily Conditions: Phylogenetic and Environmental Adoptive Benefits of Clothing

15.20 to 15.35
Cristina de Guzman Strong (Detroit/US): Evolution of the Human Skin Barrier as Innovative Clothing.

15.40 to 15.55
Andrew Kitchen (Iowa/US): The Evolutionary Context of Clothing: Implications from the Evolution of Human Lice.

Chronological Overview

16.00 to 16.15
Mark Collard (Burnaby/CA): Did Neanderthals and Early Modern Humans Dress Differently?

16.20 to 16.50 – coffee break.

16.50 to 17.05
Sibylle Wolf, Nicholas J. Conard (both Tübingen/DE): Fashion Trends, Sewing and Body Ornamentation in the Upper Palaeolithic of Southwestern Germany.

17.10 to 17.25
Ulla Mannering (København/DK): The Danish Stone Age Cloth Culture.

17.30 to 17.45
Albert Hafner (Bern/CH): Neolithic Clothing Discoveries: Waterlogged Finds from Alpine Submerged and Glacial Sites.

17.50 to 18.00 – short break.

18.00 to 19.00 – film screening
ARTE documentary film ›Ladies and Princes of Prehistory‹ (2021) with introduction by Pauline Coste (Paris/FR).

Afterwards there will be the opportunity to have dinner together (self-paying).

Friday, 27 September 2024

Materials and Technologies

9.00 to 9.15
Ivo Verheijen (Schöningen/DE): Exploitation of Carnivores for Clothing: Evidence of Carnivore Skinning from the Lower to the Upper Palaeolithic of Europe.

9.20 to 9.35
Joao Marreiros (Neuwied/DE): Micro-evidence of Animal Hide Working in the Archaeological Record: a Perspective from Lithic Use-Wear Analysis.

9.40 to 9.55
Veerle Rots, Sonja Tomasso, Dries Cnuts (alle Liège/BE): Functional Approaches to Understand Plant Processing and Fiber Technology in the Paleolithic.

10.00 to 10.30 – coffee break.

10.30 to 10.45
María Isabel Borao Álvarez (València/ES): The Palaeolithic Origins of Sewing Technologies.

10.50 to 11.05
Liliana Janik (Cambridge/GB): Weaving as an Everyday Seasonal Activity of Upper Palaeolithic Communities in Central Europe and the Russian Plain.

11.10 to 11.25
Francisco Martinez-Sevilla, Maria Herrero Otal, Raquel Piqué (all Madrid/ES): Baskets, Cords and Footwear as the most Extensive and Diverse Record of the Last Hunter-gatherers and First Farmers Fibre-based Technologies in Southern Europe: the Cueva de los Murciélagos site (Albuñol, Granada).

11.30 to 11.45 – short break.

11.45 to 12.00
Susanne Friederich (Halle [Saale]/DE): Flax – From Cultivation to Further Processing.

12.05 to 12.15
Florian Klimscha (Hannover/DE): Earliest Cotton Production.

12.20 to 12.35
Martha Görlitz (Wilhelmshaven/DE): Old Spindle Whorls – New Yarn. Series of Tests on the Functionality of Different Types of Whorls in Practical Use Based on the Case Study of Feddersen Wierde, Cuxhaven district.

12.40 to 14.20 – lunch break.

Social Signaling and the Socio-psychological Underpinnings of Clothing

14.20 to 14.35
Thomas Junker (Tübingen/DE): Clothing and the Evolutionary Meaning of Shame.

14.40 to 14.55
Mark Collard (Burnaby/CA): Patterns of Clothing Use in the Ethnohistoric Period.

How to Enter Afterlife: the Burial Evidence for Stone Age Clothing

15.00 to 15.15
Marian Vanhaeren (Bordeaux/FR): Reconstruction of Clothing Based on the Distribution of Personal Ornaments in Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Burials.

15.20 to 15.50 – coffee break.

15.50 to 16.05
Nadezhda Kotova (Kyiv/UA): Elements of Funeral Clothing of the Neolithic Population of the Northern Black Sea Region and their Social Aspect.

16.10 to 16.25
Anabel Ortiz (Barcelona/ES): Wrapped and Clothed Bodies at Tell Halula: Unveiling the Role of Fabrics and Basketwork in Funerary Practices among Early Farming Communities in the Near East.

16.30 to 16.45
Susanne Friederich (Halle [Saale]/DE): Bags and Blankets of the Corded Ware Culture.

16.50 to 17.50 – coffee break.

18.00 to 18.15
Greeting by Prof. Dr. Claudia Becker, rector, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg.

18.15 to 19.15 – keynote lecture
Karina Grömer (Wien/AT): Clothing, Messages and Identity: Theoretical and Methodological Approaches on Clothing in Central European Prehistory.

From 20.15 evening reception at the State Museum of Prehistory (Richard-Wagner-Strasse 9, 06114 Halle [Saale]).

Saturday, 28 September 2024

Social Differentiation in Burial Contexts

9.00 to 9.15
Pauline Coste (Paris/FR), Giacomo Giacobini (Torino/IT): Richness and Diversity of Burial Rituals in the Gravettian Period, and their Potential for Clothing Reconstructions in Documentaries.

9.20 to 9.35
Thorsten Uthmeier (Erlangen/DE): Differences in Social Status Expressed in Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Burials?.

9.40 to 9.55
João Zilhão (Lisboa/PT): The Lagar Velho Child Burial Twenty-five Years on: the New Evidence and Its Implications.

10.00 to 10.30 – coffee break.

10.30 to 10.45
Susanna Harris (Glasgow/GB): Sensible Clothes of the Mesolithic.

10.50 to 11.05
Kristiina Mannermaa, Riitta Rainio (beide Helsinki/FI): Animals as Providers of Identities and Sound.

11.10 to 11.25
Tuija Kirkinen (Helsinki/FI): Microscopic Feather Fragments in Mesolithic Burials.

11.30 to 13.00 – lunch break.

13.00 to 13.15
Harald Meller, Jörg Orschiedt (both Halle [Saale]/DE): Professionally Dressed – the Bad Dürrenberg Shaman Burial.

13.20 to 13.35
Annelou van Gijn (Leiden/NL): A Toolkit for Basketry: Microwear Analysis of the Bone Tools from the Bad Dürrenberg Grave.

13.40 to 13.55
Peter Vang Petersen (København/DK): Tooth and Amber Amulets – Magic Elements of Clothing in Danish Stone Age Burials.

Discussion and Resumee

From 14.00
Harald Meller (Halle [Saale]/DE), Olaf Jöris (Mainz and Neuwied/DE), Oliver Dietrich (Halle [Saale]/DE), Roberto Risch (Barcelona/ES): Final Discussion and Resumee.

Additional lecture

Shumon Hussain: Why clothing (often) is a human-animal relationship: an integrated multispecies and zoo-ontological perspective.

The exact time of the lecture will be announced during the conference.

Information on participating / attending:
Registrations are possible until 15 September 2024 at cgaertner@lda.stk.sachsen-anhalt.de. The speakers have already been registered automatically.

The conference fees are 45.00 € per person, reduced 20.00 €. Speakers and students of MLU Halle-Wittenberg are not required to pay conference fees.

Claudia Gärtner M. A.
State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt
State Museum of Prehistory
Richard-Wagner-Strasse 9
06114 Halle (Saale)
Germany
+49 345 5247-372
cgaertner@lda.stk.sachsen-anhalt.de

During the event, photo and video recordings will be made for purposes of documentation and public relations.

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