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Dear colleagues, we would like to draw your attention on
the session that will be held in the European Association of Archaeologists
meeting in Vilnius, on the *August 31-September 3rd 2016*.

The session titled:
*Bottom up or top down? Social and ecological drivers of the Trans-Eurasian
exchanges *(see abstract below)


The deadline for submitting an abstract is the 15th of February.
You have to become a member of EAA and also pay the conference fees in
order to submit your abstract.
Please find more information here: http://eaavilnius2016.lt/

Sincerely,

Giedre Motuzaite Matuzeviciute
Xinyi Liu

Abstract

In recent years scholarly interest has been growing in the investigation of
the origins and means of interaction across Eurasia. The processes of
translocation of foods, fibrous plants, medicine, spices, precious stones
and metals across the continent, thousands of kilometers away from their
centers of origin, have played a significant role in the territories they
influenced. In the case of domesticated plants and animals, not only did
their adoption force the lifestyles of people to adjust and change, but
also the animal and plant species had to change as they were moved into
climatically different regions.

The question remains - who received the first translocated items: the
elites or the commoners? In past literature, ecological opportunism,
economic relationships and cultural identities were put forward as possible
motivations behind the movement of food, while other research has
emphasized the social dimensions of plant translocation. The motives and
timings of many translocated items have yet to be discussed in greater
detail.
In this session we invite talks analyzing evidence of the translocation and
movement of various advances, including food, medicine/hallucinogens,
fabrics, metals and raw materials. With the application of both theory and
archaeological science we call for papers that look at social change linked
with the arrival of novel items, also analyzing the drivers responsible for
such movements.