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Paper Abstracts 

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Investigating the Composition and Application of an Ancient Adhesive Material Discovered on the Qin Terracotta Army Statues

Ruochen Ge, School of Cultural Heritage, Northwest University, Beilin, Xi’an

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For the first time, the composition and application of an adhesive material, which is widely used on the Qin Terracotta Army Statues (Xi’an, China), was investigated as an important material during the statue production. X-ray fluorescence spectrometer, X-ray diffraction spectrometer, polarizing microscope, and gas chromatography-mass spectrometer were used in this study. The analyses have revealed this adhesive material consists of a protein binder made of animal glue and eggs and inorganic fillers of ground pottery grains. The material was mainly used for bonding and flattening, facilitating the gorgeous decoration of the terracotta warriors and the strict arrangement of the Qin army. Meanwhile, the addition of inorganic fillers into organic binder was an innovative and practical invention by the craftsman during that time. This material also shows the harmony between “imperfection” and “perfection” in the Qin Terracotta Army that although the damage was inevitable and building period was very urgent, the pursuit of detailed carving and color painting had never been abandoned.

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Application of Scientific Methods for the Analysis of A. Isenbrant’s Painting “The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine”

Maria Elisavet Samoili, Sapienza University of Rome, Department of Environmental Biology

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During Bruges’ Golden Age, the 15th and 16th century, the fine arts prevailed and the great Flemish Primitives made a name forthemselves. This paper focuses on the scientific physicochemical analysis of the painting “The mystic marriage of Saint Catherine”, dated around 1520, by the Flemish Andriaen Isenbrandt. The analysis was carried out with the combination of both in-situ non-invasivetechniques and laboratory micro-destructive techniques. Specifically, non-invasive examination included the elemental analysis technique Energy Dispersive X-ray fluorescence (ED-XRF) and technical photography (VIS, UV, IR, IRFC), whereas micro-destructive analysis was conducted by microscopic technique (light microscopy- OM). The paper proves that these techniques form a combined scientific method approach of archaeological and art analysis, based on a complete characterization of components and pigments identification. Thus are able to identify the materials that were used in the past to manufacture an artefact. The obtained results revealed that the painting was painted with typical Flemish painting techniques and materials of the 16th century and it was undergone at least four previous restorations. The traditional structure of the painting- stratigraphy- was revealed and the painter’s palette came to light (cinnabar, malachite, azurite, lead-tin yellow, ochre, lead white). This study became a first venture of scientific examination on an Isenbrandt’s painting. For the first time the color palette and the materials have been decrypted, a fact that can help us identify other anonymous paintings belonging to him in the future and enhance our knowledge of paintings during the 16th century. Due to the lack of archival material and the bibliography gaps, the application of the above analytical techniques and study’s conclusions, should be an excellent tool for the Art of History in order to answer the questions that couldn’t be answered before.

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Provenance and Diffusion of White Marble in the Area of Roman Thrace (Modern Bulgaria)

Vasiliki Anevlavi, University of Salzburg

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Stone, and more specific marble, is one of the most permanent materials preserved during antiquity. By examining the working traces in combination with the geological characteristics, answers can be given concerning both the manufacture as well as the origin of the stone. By studying the marble’s ‘circle of life’ (demand, extraction, distribution, use) an insight into the mechanisms of the wider economy can be offered. The research aims to examine, analyse and deepen the subject of production and use of white marble in Roman Thrace. The main domains of the research will be focused on both regional and long-distance trade in white marbles, which represented a significanteconomic-historical component in the Roman imperial period (1st-3rd centuries AD) in the region of Thrace. Through investigation of the Thracian quarries and Roman architectural elements in the main urban centres in the region of Thrace, theories regarding marble trade and the cultural and technological transfer between the Roman world, Asia Minor and Thrace will be examined. During this programme, extensive campaigns are organised and extensive sampling will be held. The analytical methods applying to these samples include isotope analysis, chemical analysis (atomic absorption spectroscopy), fluid analysis (ion chromatography), ICP-MS, and petrographic microscopy. Statistical treatment for each sample is applied. The artefacts are compared with a database of 4000 quarry samples from locations known in antiquity. An overview of epigraphic and literary evidence is also taken into consideration, giving valuable information in the research.

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A Techno-Typological Analysis of the Middle to Later Stone Age Transition at Daimane Rock Shelter, Maputo Province

Énio Tembe, University of Pretoria, South Africa

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Southern Africa’s transition from the Middle (MSA) to the Later Stone Age (LSA), c. 40 – 20 KYA, is enigmatic (Wadley 1993; Jacobs et al. 2008). Few sites contain assemblages dating to this phase and even when they do exist chronology is persistently a problem. Moreover, we have a very limited understanding of regional distribution patterns for these assemblages (see Lombard et al. 2012). In Mozambique, for

example, no study has attempted to understand, define and describe this transition. So, Daimane Rock Shelter in southern Mozambique has an MSA to LSA transitional assemblages with great time depth in a stratified context with datable material. In an attempt to better understand regional patterns and chronological shifts during the transitional period, this project will analyse and contrast the late MSA levels with the eLSA layers at Daimane. A techno-typological analysis of the stone assemblages will be used to examine shifting production technologies and techniques, explore changing preference of manufacturing technology, artefacts representation and behavioural patterns. These findings will be compared directly with Border Cave’s MSA to LSA assemblages, west of Daimane, and other well-dated sites in southern Africa see Lombard et al. (2012). Developing this understanding is important from a regional perspective because it will also develop our understanding of the Stone Age in this side of Mozambique, which has seen significantly less attention than Iron Age studies. In doing so, the project will provide a rare insight into this transition from the MSA to the LSA, transformation of the regional and Mozambican archaeological landscape by exploring a site with great time depth.

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Singing Trees and Glass Mountains:

Do Increased Numbers of Counterintuitive Concepts Aid in the Transmission of Folktales?

Helen Ridout, University of Cambridge

This research investigates the importance of minimally counterintuitive (MCI) elements in the transmission and spread of folktales within Europe and the Middle East. Two research questions are posed to explore how far MCI elements contributed to the spread of narratives both spatially and linguistically. Methodologically, this paper draws on a range of theories of cultural and psychological evolution, discussing the link between human memory and counter-intuitiveness. This work also discusses the link between abstract and material culture. The hypothesis for this research focuses on the impact of increasing numbers of MCI elements in the recall and subsequent transmission of narratives. This relationship was visualised and analysed using histograms and significance tests against a sample set of 51 folktales from the ATU Index, with linguistic and spatial data drawn from the work of Bortolini et al. (2017). Ultimately, this analysis revealed that increasing numbers of MCI elements in a folktale has a positive effect on the transmission and spread of that narrative.

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Exploring Foodstuffs from Classical/ Early Hellenistic Sikyon: 

The Study of Macro and Micro Remains

Kyriaki Tsirtsi, The Cyprus Institute

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Food procurement, consumption and dietary patterns in the Classical world have been broadly explored in order to understand agricultural management practices, farming and the socioeconomic structure of a society. The chaîne opératoire of food production and consumption is reconstructed through the study of macro and micro archaeobotanical remains. It is the purpose of this paper to elucidate the dietary patterns and agricultural practices of the 4th century site of Sikyon in Greece based on the archaeobotanical remains retrieved in the recent excavations undertaken by the collaborative ‘Old Sikyon” Project (2017-2019) between the National Museum of Denmark, the Ephorate of Antiquities and the Danish Institute in Athens.

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Agricultural Resilience and the Collapse of Bronze Age Citadels in Western Anatolia

Tom Maltas, University of Oxford

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Reckonings with agricultural resilience were potentially powerful drivers of socio-cultural change that are only now beginning to receive attention within archaeological literature. In this paper, we present preliminary results from an investigation of agricultural resilience and socio-cultural development in prehistoric western Anatolia. Utilising a diverse suite of analyses on archaeobotanical remains from five sites, we assess how crop husbandry and arable land management practices were adapted to local ecological and socio-political environments. We focus on how practices employed during the third and second millennia BC may have contributed to the susceptibility of arable economies to the rapid climatic drying of the 4.2ka and 3.2ka events. Our results indicate a decrease in resilience between the Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age due to both a loss of drought tolerance attributes and the expansion of cereal cultivation by citadel elites. We suggest that this increased the impacts of the 4.2ka event and contributed to the collapse of the citadel as a corporate entity. Middle Bronze Age farmers responded by shifting to a reduced range of drought tolerant crops that became the focus of large-scale monocultures within Late Bronze Age elite agro- economies. We suggest that this ‘overinvestment’ in drought tolerance at the expense of crop diversity increased the vulnerability of elite agriculture to the 3.2ka event and contributed to the ‘Late Bronze Age collapse’. Our study thus demonstrates how past socio-cultural change can be understood through the lens of agricultural resilience.

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Maintenance or Cultivation? Woodland Management Strategies in the Late Neolithic Pile Dwellings of Lakes Mondsee and Attersee and in Surrounding Settlements.

Thorsten Jakobitsch, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU)

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Due to the excellent preservation of organic material in a waterlogged, anaerobic state, the Late Neolithic pile dwellings in the lakes Mondsee and Attersee in Salzkammergut (Austria) offer a deep insight in the plant use of the prehistoric farming communities. This research aims to investigate the impact of agricultural practises, fruit gathering and fodder management for domestic animals on the primeval forests of the region. The main research question is, if the pile dwellers practised a certain form of woodland management. Research methods include the analysis of weed spectra which are associated with crop plant remains. Phytosociology of the weed spectra can provide information about the growing conditions on the field. The intensity of fruit gathering is estimated by quantitative determination of large-seeded fruit remains, which occur abundantly in the archaeological layers. Finally, animal husbandry can be analysed by the following materials: investigation of macro- and microremains in dung, which is constantly found in the waterlogged material from the pile dwellings, as well as the analysis of thin twigs (possible tree-hay), which also occur in the layers. Bringing together the research methods mentioned above, in combination with palynological analysis, it will be possible to make a conclusion for a better understanding of the woodland management strategies of the Neolithic pile dwellings at lake Attersee and Mondsee.

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What Goes Around Comes Around:

Tracking Plague Epidemics and Changes in Climate, 400-1400 CE

Elliot Elliott, University of Cambridge

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In order to develop a research model that can allow for further research into the relationship between climate changes and pandemic disease outbreaks, such as COVID-19, archaeologists should take on an increasingly multi-disciplinary approach that engages with geological, environmental and paleoepidemiological sources and evidence. Current approaches have been narrow in scope and do not adequately investigate the role climate change has had and continues to have on the spread of disease. This paper examines the avenues through which the climate/pandemic question can be investigated and how they can contribute to a future research model. The paper reviews studies on climatic events such as the 536 CE dust veil event and the Medieval Climate Anomaly, histories and epidemiology of plague outbreaks, genomic evidence of Yersinia pestis, the archaeobotanical and geological evidence of land cultivation and abandonment, as well as on the osteological evidence of stress and disease in affected communities. It ultimately calls for paleoepidemiological profiles of cemetery populations with genomically identified Y. pestis, further testing for the bacillus in historical populations, and the synthesizing of geographical approaches to demographic and land use changes due to global pandemics and climate change. Multi-disciplinaryresearch into the effects of climate changes on disease outbreaks is more pertinent than ever, and by studying evidence from the past, we can work towards future solutions.

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The Lifeways of the Early Medieval Karawanken Slavs: State of Research

Magdalena Srienc, Austrian Archaeological Institute-Austrian Academy of Sciences

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The Eastern Alpine region in Austria and Slovenia during the early medieval period (7th-10th centuries CE) is characterized by instability and socioeconomic changes following the fall of the Roman Noricum in approximately the 6th century CE. The Karawanken mountain ridge in the Eastern Alps, separating the regions of Carinthia and Carniola, represents the border between present-day Austria and Slovenia. During the early medieval period, the settlement of this area was determined by Slavic groups, such as the Carantanians and the Carniolans, which within the archaeological record show many similarities. Osteological analysis of early medieval human remains from Austrian Carinthia and Slovenian Carniola is limited, and no osteological comparisons of human remains from the two regions have been conducted. This research project aims to analyze the socioeconomic position of individuals and societies through macroscopic analysis (paleodemography and paleopathology) and biomolecular approaches (such as isotope and ancient DNA analysis) to determine the inter- and intra-populational differences and similarities in health and diet as well as genetic make-up of three early medieval populations in Austria and Slovenia. This project will apply an interdisciplinary approach to study the human skeletal remains from the north of the Karawanks in Austria: Jaunstein (130 individuals) and Grabelsdorf (20 individuals), as well as south of the Karawanks in Slovenia: Župna cerkev (150 individuals). Historic, cultural, and socio-economic interpretations from data that is compiled from archaeological, historical, and osteological analyses will enhance the understanding of the communities living in the Eastern Alpine region.

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Telling Stories of Bodies in Transition. The Biocultural Identity of the Byzantine Population of Amathus, Cyprus, on the Verge of the Arabic Invasions, 7th c. AD.

Anna Karligkioti, The Cyprus Institute

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Archaeological Sciences are continuously extending our knowledge of the past by bringing together different disciplines and methodologies coming from STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). Contrary to earlier positivist approaches, contemporary Archaeological Sciences are becoming more interested in integrating all data within their archaeological and sociocultural contexts. In this respect, the relatively young field of historical bioarchaeology implements bioanthropological methods for the study of human skeletal remains coming from archaeological contexts, where written records and historical sources exist and allow the contextualization of data. Lived experiences are the accumulation of cultural and historical forces, embodied in skeletal remains. In this direction, life history, biocultural and social science approaches are integrated by historical bioarchaeology addressing a multitude of pressing issues including embodiment, gender, identities, inequality, violence, race, childhood and disability. Adopting theabovementioned perspective, the given paper will examine a Byzantine population coming from the eastern necropolis of Amathus in Cyprus. The assemblage comprises highly commingled and fragmented skeletal remains, hence it represents bodies that have undergone multiple stages of post-mortem and post-depositional transition, while it dates to the Arabic invasions (7th c. AD), thus reflecting a population also undergoing a major socio-political transition.

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The Importance of an Archaeological Domain to Archaeological Scientific Method.

Michael D’Aprix, UCL

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Promoting standards as an effort to allow more diversity might seem counterintuitive but providing a stable, yet dynamic, core of archaeological science will allow archaeologists better accessibility to scientific methodology and with it a broader range of multi-disciplinary and diverse research. The argument I propose is composed of two major components which generally lie in the philosophy of science. The first is the Domain, the body of knowledge that underlies archaeological practice, provides definition to the discipline, and establishes the discipline as a certain type of practice. Archaeologists have never fully established the basics of an Archaeological Domain which has allowed the discipline to become fragmented and without strong definition, and with that fragmentation comes large variations in scientific methodology. Better establishing the foundational ideas of archaeology will support a stronger diversity in archaeological sciences. However, this cannot be done without the second major component which is international institutional conventionality or an international organization of collaboration that can support the standards of an entire discipline. The fragmented state of the discipline is most notable in the many national and quasi-international organizations that support archaeologists which areusually focused on specific aspects of archaeology rather than the discipline as a whole. Ultimately, introducing a basic archaeological domain and establishing that domain collaboratively on an international level would help prevent the goal posts from moving, so to speak, introducing standards of science while increasing accessibility and possibility of outreach, essentially leveling the playing field.

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