Dear Colleagues,
(Apologize for crossposting)
We would like to invite you to take part in our session “The “island laboratory” revisited: integrating environmental and socio-cultural approaches” (session #392) which will be held at the forthcoming 24th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists in Barcelona (5-8 September 2018).
The key aim of our session is to discuss the “island laboratory” analogy, as a potential means to further our understanding of human-environmental relations in the past. While there have been criticisms of this approach, as being too environmentally deterministic, we believe its full potential is still to be uncovered. Islands constitute a well-established field of archaeological research, but innovative and critical work is still needed in order to reconsider our archaeological practices and narratives dealing with people and insular environments. With this in mind, we would like to encourage you to contribute a paper considering how your own research treats islands as a “laboratory” (or not, as the case may be).
The “island laboratory” approach needs to be revised and more discussion is needed in order to move towards an actual integration of archaeological, bioarchaeological, and palaeoenvironmental sources of information, if we are to approach past social landscape practices and experiences on islands. Potential contributions dealing with (but not limited to) landscape, interconnectivity, and socio-environmental issues are welcome, adopting as broad a perspective as possible. We have omitted to specify any disciplinary or geographical boundaries, in order to encourage a more integrated discussion of theoretical/scientific approaches and geographical/historical specialties, with the aim to widen our archaeological understanding of nature-culture interactions on islands.
In the attached PDF file you will find the abstract and all the details of the session. Please, pass this information on to any colleague who might be interested in our session. Likewise, do not hesitate to contact us with any questions.
Looking forward to seeing you in Barcelona.
All the best,
Llorenç Picornell-Gelabert
Manuel Calvo Trias
Helen Dawson
Gabriel Servera-Vives
Alejandro Valenzuela Oliver
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