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After the great feedback we got recently about the most significant civilizations that never existed... ...we are now inviting paper proposals for a planned session at the EAA conference in Zadar, Croatia, 19-23 September 2007. Please all of you who sent these many great suggestions (some of which you will find reocurring in the abstract) think about participating!! INVENTED CIVILIZATIONS Organised by Michael Jasmin (CNRS – France ; Harvard University - USA) and Cornelius Holtorf (University of Lund, Sweden) Western civilization has not only brought about the discipline of Archaeology but also an astonishing number of invented civilizations in the visual arts and creative fiction. Ever since the invention of Atlantis and El Dorado, it has been popular to thrive in fictitious cultures. Among the most prominent examples are in literature: J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth. H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos, C.S. Lewis’ Narnia; in the contemporary arts: Anne and Patrick Poirier’s imaginary ruin sites, Charles Simmonds’ remains of the Little People, Civilisation Pessinoise of Marc Pessin, the Arenot civilizations of Beauvais Lyons, the BaPe's of Richard Purdy, or the works of Joan Fontecuberta, and the Glozel site-civilization by Emile Fradin/Antonin Morlet. One may also think of Mu, Lemuria, Camelot, the Kingdom of Prester John, the lost civilization of Teegeeack, the Klingons in Star Treck, the Khuza culture, as well as Arcadia and the ancient gods on Mt Olympus. This session investigates the characteristics of constructed civilizations such as these. Intriguingly, there is often a great deal of documentation available in either primary or secondary literature about these invented worlds: descriptions, sketches and drawings of sites and architecture, even entire writing systems. Sometimes material culture exists too, whether bones, pots or the remains of entire sites. The issues to be addressed in this session include the social reality of invented pasts, the experience of aura and authenticity, the relations between artistic freedom and scientific fraud, and new deliberations concerning art and archaeology: is there anything archaeologists can learn from the success and popularity of invented civilizations? What are these fictions telling us about the public’s interest in the past or about the archaeological way of documenting and exhibiting archaeological sites and finds? We are inviting stimulating papers discussing any kind of invented civilization. (Subject to acceptance of the session by the conference organizers.) If you are interested in participating, please contact us! Michael Jasmin: [log in to unmask] Cornelius Holtorf: [log in to unmask] Further information about the conference: http://www.e-a-a.org/2007.htm http://www.e-a-a.org/first_announcement_2007.doc -------------------------- contemp-hist-arch is a list for news and events in contemporary and historical archaeology, and for announcements relating to the CHAT conference group. ------- For email subscription options see: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/archives/contemp-hist-arch.html ------- For CHAT meetings see: http://www.bris.ac.uk/archanth/events/chat.html --------------------------