British Academy Conference

From TracingNetworksWiki

Date

October 2013

Organizers

Lin Foxhall, Anthony Harding, Colin Haselgrove, Katharina Rebay-Salisbury

Title

Tracing Networks

Rationale

The conference proposal arises out of the context of a five-year, interdisciplinary research programme funded by the Leverhulme trust, in which archaeologists and computer scientists worked together to develop new approaches to understanding networks in the ancient world. Networks of crafts-people and craft traditions across and beyond the Mediterranean region, between the late Bronze Age and the late classical period (1500-200 BCE), serve as case studies to explore and model mechanisms of knowledge transfer, innovation and technological change. While local factors contribute to broad cultural developments, extensive contacts between different groups across the Mediterranean are manifested in the regular exchange of ideas, objects, materials and techniques constitutive of individual and group identities. Studying a wide range of material objects at every stage of their production, distribution, use, and consumption across a large geographical region, over a long time period, allows us to capture the meanings and variety of the intricate socio-political, economic and cultural networks. Multiple crafts studied together enable us to locate the place of innovation through shared practices and knowledge exchange.

Sessions

Speakers