As promised - Mark

-----Original Message-----
From: Aleksander Pluskowski [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: 25 October 2009 14:59
To: [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]
Subject: Call for papers: session on religious transition for the 16th meeting of the EAA, September 2010

Dear Sir or Madam,

I would be grateful if you could forward this session announcement to your list.

Many thanks,

Yours faithfully,

Aleks Pluskowski

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Dear Colleagues,

Apologies for cross-posting. Below are the details of a proposed session for the 16th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists at The Hague in the Netherlands, 1-5th September 2010, organised by Aleks Pluskowski (Department of Archaeology, University of Reading). If you are interested in contributing please email a title and brief abstract (no more than 250 words) by the 15th December to [log in to unmask] Further details of the conference can be found here: http://www.eaa2010.nl/

If you have any questions regarding this proposed session please do not hesitate to get in touch,

All the best,

Aleks Pluskowski

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Title: Slaying Old Gods, Exalting New Gods: Transitions between Religious Systems and Cult Praxis in Prehistoric and Historic Europe

Keywords: Religion, Cult, Conversion, Syncretism, Europe

The development of European human societies is associated with, perhaps even defined by, transitions in distinct religious systems and their expression in cult praxis. Such expressions may have appeared as early as the Upper Palaeolithic and developed into elaborate systems in the Neolithic and Bronze Age. The expansion of the Roman Empire saw the proliferation of multiple religious systems within the first pan-European cultural sphere; the rise of Christianity from the early centuries of the first millennium AD saw the gradual replacement of indigenous prehistoric religious systems in Europe with a supra-regional vision of spirituality. The appearance of Islam in the Mediterranean has often been framed in opposition to Christianity, marked by dramatic cultural episodes such as the contraction of Byzantium, the Crusades in the Middle East, the Reconquista in Iberia and the expansion of the Ottoman Empire in south-eastern Europe. Within Medieval and Early Modern Europe, seemingly united under Christianity, diverse expressions of spirituality flourished, in particular Judaism, which came to be conceptualised as 'other' by the unifying religious establishment. Some historians such as Carlo Ginzburg have even suggested that prehistoric religious systems and cult practices continued as a submerged cultural stratum within historical European societies. In some parts of northern Scandinavia and the eastern Baltic this certainly appears to be the case.

The transition from one religious system to the next has been a topic of considerable debate amongst archaeologists and historians in recent decades. Much of this debate has focused on specific cultural episodes and regions, although inter-regional and temporal comparisons are becoming increasingly common. Indeed, there is a growing sense of a European perspective on this process. This session aims to contribute to this rapidly developing research network by creating a point of contact between prehistoric and historic discourses on religious transformation, exploring the nature of changing cult praxis on the basis of material practices. With the longue durée perspective offered by archaeology, to what extent is it possible to see religious transformation as a gradual or sudden process? Which aspects of cult praxis change and which do not? 
Is the process always confrontational? Can we invoke models of cultural diffusion and syncretism in explaining the proliferation of new religious systems and cult practices? Is the transition from polytheistic to monotheistic religions a fundamental watershed in the development of European societies?

Papers are welcome on any aspect of religious transition from any region of Europe addressing these issues, in prehistoric and historic contexts. 
The intention is to publish the papers in a single volume.




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