NO (E)SCAPE? RELATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGY IN THE AEGEAN BRONZE AGE

The notion of “revolution” denotes a fundamental turn, when the course of things becomes qualitatively different. As a concept, it has been variously used in the Humanities to describe both historical events and long-term processes of either socio-political movements, reconfigurations in the modes of production, technological innovations, or even artistic and cultural trends.

The Aegean Bronze Age was a time of major transformations regarding social and economic structures, technology and material culture. In this framework, the 2021 Scapecon poses the question whether it is possible to detect and analyze distinctive paradigm shifts in social, political and economic organization, technology and cultural expressions; if radical- scapes can be traced or identified through the relational study of material culture and the environment, and provide insight regarding “revolutions” in the social process of the Aegean Bronze Age communities.

Taking the organizational lead from the universities of Heidelberg, Poznan and Groningen, the Department of History and Archaeology of the University of Crete will host ScapeCon 2021, the 4th installment of the international post-graduate and early career scholars’ conference, at Rethymno, Greece between 22 and 25/10/2021. Coinciding with the 200-year anniversary of the Greek Revolution and Declaration of Independence, No(E)scape? (R)evolutions invites MA students and PHD candidates to discuss radical-scapes and engage in a discourse for revolutionary approaches of the Aegean Bronze Age. 

To apply, please send an e-mail to Scapecon2021@gmail.com by 15/06/2021, including the following information:

1. title

2. an abstract of no more than 300 words and 4-5 key-words

3. your contact and affiliation details

The conference will be held in English. Oral presentations should not exceed 20min. Our goal is that the 2021 installment will take place with physical presence of the participants.