G21 - Icons in Transition. The Role of Signs and Symbols During the Great Transformation

Session Organisers: Marion Benz, Barbara Helwing, Ewa Dutkiewicz

Category: Symbolism

Session Abstract: The early Neolithic of the Urfa Region is famous for its extraordinary imagery during the great transformation towards sedentary lifeways. Monumental architecture and a vast panoply of imagery seemed to indicate a turning point in media or even in cognition. Which role did symbolic systems play in constructing and maintaining communities during this transition? What were their predecessors and how did they develop further? Symbolic systems are of central importance for understanding structural continuities and changes in the social fabric and the dialectic relationship of communities and media in times of fundamental socio-economic transformations. This session aims to compare changes in mediality on a worldwide scale and in a long-durée perspective, applying a transdisciplinary approach. We consider the various symbolic systems, from signs to images, from built space to burial rituals, as polyvalent, intersubjective and contextual. Contributions should focus on the reflexivity, standardisation, ubiquity and materiality of imagery, and on spatial as well as on temporal aspects of archaeological records: Which symbols were represented, how and where? Did medial systems allow participation and interaction? Which role did these media play in socialisation? Was their use private or public, egalitarian or exclusive, monumental or small, random or canonised? Were they omnipresent or accessed only during specific moments? How did symbols contribute to the creation and stabilisation of collective memories? This session invites contributions from a wide range of disciplines, from prehistoric archaeology to social neurosciences, to share perspectives and case studies in this multidimensional approach to symbolic acts and artefacts.

Room: E

07/11/2024

Start Time - End Time	Authors	Title
16:30 - 16:50	Christina Marangou	Neolithic Symbolic Imagery: Reality and Fiction, Memories or Illusions in a Material World
16:50 - 17:10	Solange Rigaud	Exploring Cultural Dynamics: Mobility, Identity, and Exchange during the Neolithic transition in Europe
17:10 - 17:30	Mattia Cartolano, Silvia Ferrara	Pathways to code-making in the Neolithic. A semiotic investigation of symbols in south-west Asia
17:30 - 17:50	Vasiliki G. Koutrafouri	Rituals and Symbolic Systems in Early Prehistoric Cyprus: A Transdisciplinary Analysis of Social Cohesion and Transformation

08/11/2024

Start Time - End Time	Authors	Title
10:00 - 10:20	Eylem Özdoğan	A Glimpse into the Past: Sayburç Reliefs
10:20 - 10:40	Necmi Karul	Humanizing the World: Neolithic Art and Collective Buildings in Eastern Taurus
10:40 - 11:00	Sarah Dermech, Eric Coqueugniot, Sophie Desrosiers	A study of the wall paintings at Dja’de el-Mughara: structure of the decor, technical and cultural context, significance within the graphic manifestations of prehistory
11:00 - 11:20	Herman Lewis, Hakan Gülerce	Neolithic Sociology of the Fertile Crescent: Peace through Boundaries

Lunch Break

Start Time - End Time	Authors	Title
13:00 - 13:20	Cédric Bodet	The Neolithic Symbolic Language, or the ideograms of exogamy
13:20 - 13:40	I. Banu Dogan	On bullroarers, taboos and male initiation rituals
13:40 - 14:00	Elisa Palomino	From Arctic Inuksuit standing stones to Göbekli Tepe’s megalithic round enclosure: Entwining of practical and spiritual life
14:00 - 14:20	Andrey Varenov	Anthropomorphic Stone Sculptures and Carved or Painted Pottery of Chinese Neolithic and Mongolian Stag Stones

Coffee Break

Start Time - End Time	Authors	Title
14:45 - 15:05	Ewa Dutkiewicz, Christian Sommer	Paleolithic Art: What it’s all about?
15:05 - 15:25	Liudmila Lbova	Siberian Anthropomorphic Sculpture in a Context Paleoart’s Universals
15:25 - 15:45	Lekë Shala, Florian Cousseau, Marie Besse	When Craftsmanship Connects: Exploring Common Craft Styles in Anthropomorphic Stelae Across the Alpine Region in the 3rd Millennium B.C.
15:45 - 16:05	Monica Margarit, Adina Boronean?	Simple Decoration or Symbolic Meaning? Neolithic and Chalcolithic Osseous Artefacts at The Lower Danube (Romania)

Coffee Break

Start Time - End Time	Authors	Title
16:30 - 16:50	Christian Bentz, Ewa Dutkiewicz	Information Encoding in the Paleolithic
16:50 - 17:10	Mariana Diniz	Far from Eden: Symbols and Societies of the Iberian Peninsula Neolithic
17:10 - 17:30	Ekaterina Kashina	Who is in the house? Two examples of forest Neolithic East European hunters’ symbolic systems
17:30 - 18:00	All Participants	Final Discussion