Dear Zooarch,
Hopefully the following will be of interest to some.
Please contact Meriel McClatchie at 
[log in to unmask] for further information

Regards,
Peter



SEMINAR ANNOUNCEMENT Living Landscapes:
Exploring Neolithic Ireland
and its Wider Context
Venue: Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen’s University Belfast
Date: Thursday 31st May - Friday 1st June 2007
Registration fee: £10 (students, unwaged/retired), £20 (waged)
CALL FOR PAPERS
For the Neolithic of Ireland and Britain, the 
main focus for many years has been on the highly 
visible ritual monuments that in large part 
define the period. Far less is known concerning 
the domestic landscape, and people’s daily lives. 
This is in contrast to the Neolithic of 
continental Europe, where settlements have tended 
to receive more emphasis. However, over the last 
decade in Ireland in particular, the discovery of 
an ever-increasing number of apparently domestic 
structures has provided the opportunity to better 
situate the domestic landscape, and to learn 
something of its nature. While the houses 
themselves have been the subject of a number of 
studies, there is still little understanding of 
how the landscapes immediately surrounding them 
were utilised. Recently, stable isotope studies 
of human bone have been used to argue for an 
abrupt and more or less complete shift towards 
new domesticated plants and animals from the 
outset of the Neolithic, carrying with it the 
implication of a significant, though perhaps 
localised, impact on the environment. To what 
extent can this impact be traced, and can more 
detail be provided on the balance between cereals 
and domestic animals? How intensively were cereal 
plots maintained, and over what duration? What 
impact did the new domestic animals have on the 
environment  an especially germane question in 
the context of Ireland, with its apparent absence 
of large grazing mammals. How did these practices 
change over the duration of the Neolithic? What 
was the appearance of this landscape and how 
might it have been perceived? We seek papers 
which address these themes, including those that 
have an Irish emphasis, as well as those that 
seek to draw attention to the similarities or 
dissimilarities between Ireland, Britain and continental Europe.
Deadline for submission of paper titles and 
abstracts (c. 300 words): 1st April 2007
We encourage papers that address the themes 
detailed above. Studies limited to the analysis 
of one or a few specific archaeological sites may 
be better suited to poster presentations (see 
below). Early submission of proposed paper titles 
and abstracts is advisable, as there is a limited 
number of speaker slots available.
Deadline for submission of poster titles and 
abstracts (c. 300 words): 1st April 2007
Posters are to be presented in an A1 format.
Proposed titles and abstracts should be sent to: 
Meriel McClatchie ([log in to unmask]).
Seminar organisers:
Nicki J. Whitehouse¹, Rick Schulting² and Meriel McClatchie³
¹ Archaeology and Palaeoecology, School of 
Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen’s 
University Belfast, Belfast, BT7 1NN. Email: [log in to unmask]
² School of Archaeology, University of Oxford. 36 
Beaumont Street, Oxford, OX1 2PG. Email: [log in to unmask]
³ Institute of Archaeology, University College 
London, 31-34 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PY. Email: [log in to unmask]
The meeting is sponsored by: National Roads Authority


-------------------------

Peter R. W. Popkin
Institute of Archaeology
University College London
31-34 Gordon Square
London, England
WC1H 0PY

email: [log in to unmask]
tel: 0207 679 4762