Programme

Time: 14.15-15.45

Place: Sydneshaugen Skole (Sydnesplassen 9), Auditorium R (https://rom.app.uib.no/romInfo/q.php/134/129). The seminar is held in conjunction with Arkeologisk Forskningsseminar.

Abstract: This paper examines the harvesting, processing and trade of reindeer parts - specifically antlers and organs - among Ewenki reindeer herders in north-east China. It traces the circulation of such parts within an increasingly globalised medical economy, attending to their shifting biomedical, ethical and cultural significance. Drawing on over fifteen years of ethnographic fieldwork in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the paper explores the ways that such parts move across multiple worlds: Ewenki animist ontologies, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and the emerging field of regenerative science. In doing so, it highlights the ontological frictions that arise as indigenous cosmologies intersect with state-sanctioned medical regimes and transnational biomedical networks. In the process, it challenges conventional understandings of multispecies relations and contributes to broader debates on wildlife commodification, ontological pluralism and the biopolitics of animal life.

Time: 14.15-15.45

Place: Sydneshaugen Skole, Auditorium R. The seminar is held in conjunction with Arkeologisk Forskningsseminar.

Abstract: Archaeological sites, objects and narratives are often treated as something politics acts upon. Yet, once curated as part of a national heritage, they firmly exist and operate within the political. In times of polarization they can lend historical depth to claims about belonging, attach political divisions to tangible places and things, and help make specific versions of the past, and the future, seem more natural and desirable than others. The point, then, is not simply that heritage is used politically, but to understand the work it does: how this ‘doing’ takes place and what it consists of. In this seminar, I use examples from Scotland and Scandinavia examine the role of heritage in political polarization. In Scotland, nationalist political debates over independence have brought renewed attention to heritage objects such as the Stone of Destiny and battlefield sites like Bannockburn, while also leaving new marks in the landscape, including cairns, statues and painted flags. In Scandinavia, archaeological heritage has entered populist politics through rhetoric, cultural policy and funding, particularly around sites and narratives associated with national origins and continuity, such as Jelling in Denmark and Uppåkra in Sweden. The cases span quite different forms of nationalist politics, from the predominantly civic and inclusionary language of Scottish independence to the anti-immigration and exclusionary nationalism of the Scandinavian populist right. Taken together, these cases show how heritage can do political work without the politics themselves being equivalent, with effects that may be productive in some settings and pernicious in others. This also places archaeologists and heritage professionals inside these processes, as participants in shaping the frameworks through which the past acquires meaning and political force.

Time: 14.15-16.00

Place: Sydnesplassen 12/13, room 210

Presentation in English.

Marzena will speak to us about "Raw materials, technology, and function. Results of use-wear analysis of Middle Stone Age lithics from Blombos Cave (South Africa)".

Understanding how stone tools were used provides insights into the activities and behaviours of past humans. Investigating the relationship between tool production and use connects individual artefacts to broader questions about site use, environmental adaptation, and technological and behavioural change.

This talk presents the results of use-wear analysis of lithic assemblages from the oldest phase represented at Blombos Cave, South Africa. The study combines qualitative and quantitative approaches to maximise the recognition and identification of use-related traces, drawing on an experimental reference collection. Artefacts are selected for analysis based on their technological and typological characteristics and the presence of macroscopically visible traces, including edge damage, rounding, chipping, pronounced striations, and residues. The resulting functional interpretations are considered within the broader archaeological context of the site.

The results reveal diachronic changes in tool use across the sequence, suggesting shifts in the activities undertaken at the site. The study also investigates relationships between artefact morphology, tool type, raw material, and function to assess how technological choices relate to patterns of use. By integrating these lines of evidence, the talk explores how detailed observations of lithic surfaces can contribute to a broader understanding of changing activities and site use at Blombos Cave.
 

Antoine will present on "Reconstructing past hominin behaviour and cognition with computational 3D lithic analyses"

Three-dimensional scans of lithics are increasingly being used to analyze variability in the archaeological record. Many of these analyses have helped quantify overall artefact morphology in more detail than possible with traditional analyses. However, lithic artefacts possess much complex shape variability beyond this overall size and shape, including specific techno-typological attributes. These features are mostly visually classified into discrete qualitative categories, but can now be precisely quantified using their volumetric and surficial geometries. Each 3D scan of an artefact is comprised of up to hundreds of thousands of x, y, and z coordinates. The key challenge is to identify, extract, and automatically analyze those that correspond to meaningful techno-morphological attributes. Doing so helps quantify technological traits like reduction intensity and investment in core preparation, minute variability in the edge angles, curvature, and sinuosity of tool edges, as well as the intentional imposition of shape. This variability helps compare the technological skills and cognition among different hominin populations as well as reveal diachronic trends in technological decision making. This talk will explore case studies from throughout the Stone Age.

Time: 14.15-16.00

Place: Sydnesplassen 12/13, room 210

Abstract to follow. Presentation in Norwegian.