This conference arises from the recent and rapid advances in genomic, isotope and archaeological research that have provided complex, but frequently contradictory, perspectives on human mobility across Bronze Age Europe (2200–800 BC). Human mobility in European prehistory has traditionally been identified through artefacts rather than people. Interpretations of movement have frequently drawn upon distribution maps of artefact types across the continent or changes in recurring artefact assemblages in graves and settlements that underpin archaeological cultures. Post-modern sociological and anthropological theories on human mobility have inspired new theoretical foundations in which archaeologists understand movement by focussing on “routes instead of roots”.
Recent technological developments in genomic sequencing and isotope analysis on teeth/ bones have meant that debates concerning mobility have now shifted to direct evidence from humans (and animals). In addition, scientific developments in archaeological materials have enabled new perspectives on production and trade. Network analyses, which draw upon these and other new avenues of data, are starting to transform the Bronze Age map from a mosaic of static archaeological cultures to a mobile world of inter-dependent polities.
The aim of the conference is to identify the different scales, patterns and societal impacts of mobility throughout Europe. This international event will bring together leading scholars from all parts of the continent and research fields tackling similar problems with different methods rooted in the humanities and natural sciences. As an inter-disciplinary forum, this event will provide room for networking and discussions to lay the theoretical and methodological foundations for future scientific advancement.
Programme
Thursday, 13thDecember
Session 1
Chair: Barbara Horejs
09:30–09:45
Introduction
Claudio Cavazzuti, Barbara Horejs, Katharina Rebay-Salisbury & Benjamin Roberts
09:45–10:15
At the interface of culture and biology – First results from a paleogenetic transect through Bronze Age populations of the Caucasus
Svend Hansen, Sabine Reinhold, Wolfgang Haak & Chuan-Chao Wang
10:15–10:45
Steppe and Iranian ancestry among Bronze Age Central and Western Mediterranean population
Ron Pinhasi, Daniel Fernandes & David Reich
11:15–11:45
Human viruses – a new frontier in ancient pathogen genomics
Martin Sikora
11:45–12:15
Genes, diseases, and migrations: what relationship? Indo-European expansions reconsidered
Kristian Kristiansen
Session 2
Chair: Reinhard Jung
14:00–14:30
Formation of the Indo-European Branches in the light of the Archaeogenetic Revolution
John T. Koch
14:30–15:00
People and interactions vs. genes, isotopes and metal finds from the first thousand years of the Bronze Age in Hungary (2500–1500 BCE)
Viktória Kiss, Peter Barkóczy, Andras Czene, Marietta Csányi, János Dani, Anna Endrődi, Szilvia Fábián, Dániel Gerber, Julia Giblin, Szilvia Gyöngyösi, Tamás Hajdu, Gyorg Káli, Zsolt Kasztovszky, Kitti Köhler, Boglárka Maróti, Eszter Melis, Balázs G. Mende, Róbert Patay, Ernst Pernicka, Géza Szabó, Vajk Szeverényi, Anna Szécsényi-Nagy, David Reich & Gabriella Kulcsár
15:00–15:30
Distinction and movements of the Bronze Age groups in the Balkans – a long search for indicators of mobility
Mario Gavranović
16:00–16:30
In search of the Dorian Invasion: Integrating settlement, material and scientific perspectives on mobility in the late Bronze Age Balkan peninsula
Barry Molloy
16:30–17:00
The Bronze Age and the flow of new technology – re-imagining innovation as a mobile phenomenon
Catherine J. Frieman
Friday, 14thDecember
Session 3
Chair: Janet Montgomery
09:30–10:00
Movements across the Bronze Age steppes: seasonal migrations and subsistence system
Natalia Shishlina
10:00–10:30
Tracing individual mobility in the Nordic Bronze Age
Karin Margarita Frei
11:00–11:30
Mobility of people in Northern Italy Bronze Age communities investigated through isotope analyses
Claudio Cavazzuti, Robin Skeates & Andrew Millard
11:30–12:00
From colonization to diaspora. Models of human mobility in the Terramare Culture between Europe and the Mediterranean
Andrea Cardarelli & Alberta Arena
12:00–12.30
Gendered mobility and motherhood in Bronze Age Central Europe
Katharina Rebay-Salisbury
Session 4
Chair: Anthony Harding
14:00–14:30
Female exogamy, patrilocality, and social stratification at the transition from the Final Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age in Southern Germany
Corina Knipper, Philipp W. Stockhammer, Alissa Mittnik, Ken Massy, Fabian Wittenborn, Stephanie Metz & Johannes Krause
14:30–15:00
How did a ‘majority’ work? Maritime technology and social mobility in the Transmanche zone during the 2nd millennium BC
Peter Clark
15:30–16:00
Island in the stream: on the scale of human mobility during the British Bronze Age
Marc Vander Linden
16:00–16:30
Metals and mobility in Bronze Age Europe
Benjamin W. Roberts & Miljana Radivojević
Informationen
Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Theatersaal
Sonnenfelsgasse 19, 1010 Wien
Conference organizers
Benjamin Roberts, Claudio Cavazzuti (Department of Archaeology, Durham University),
Katharina Rebay-Salisbury (OREA, Austrian Academy of Sciences)
The event is free, but space is limited. For more information and to register, please contact [email protected].