Seen on Classicists (please send any responses to the folks mentioned in the quoted text, not to rogueclassicism!):
Ceramics, Cuisine and Culture: the Archaeology and Science of Kitchen Pottery in the Ancient Mediterranean World
British Museum, 16 – 17 December 2010
The British Museum’s Department of Greece and Rome is pleased to announce its 2010 Classical Colloquium on Ceramics, Cuisine and Culture: the Archaeology and Science of Kitchen Pottery in the Ancient Mediterranean World, organized jointly with the British Museum’s Department of Conservation and Scientific Research and the ‘Tracing Networks’ Research Programme (Universities of Leicester, Exeter and Glasgow), funded by the Leverhulme Trust, and to be held at the British Museum in London 16-17th December 2010.
This conference is dedicated to the cross-disciplinary interpretation of ancient ‘kitchen pottery’, i.e. utilitarian wares used as food containers or for food processing in a broad sense. By bringing together established scholars and young researchers from a wide range of academic backgrounds, including archaeologists, material scientists, historians, and ethnoarchaeologists, Ceramics, Cuisine and Culture will stimulate an international and interdisciplinary exchange of ideas and approaches.
Themes will include:
science, archaeology and society – how scientific techniques can reveal technological choices, cultural preferences and knowledge transfer
production, consumption and the social biographies of utilitarian pottery – debates on the interplay of social and technological factors, social networks of production and consumption, development of specialist technologies (e.g. resistance to thermal shock), lifespan, re-use and recycling of kitchen pottery
cuisine, culture and social hierarchies – the impact of context and status on food processing and storage, the significance of ritual, feasting, funerary and other ‘special’ contexts
changing habits: cuisine on the move – innovations and adaptations in food processing and cooking in new or changing cultural settings, food and cultural identity, the impact of trade and migration
The conference aims to set this ubiquitous category of artefacts in its wider social, political and economic contexts, in order to exploit it more effectively for understanding ancient societies. The proceedings will be published in a peer-reviewed volume.
Abstracts for 20 minute papers and posters are invited for submission by 30 May 2010.
For further information and submission of abstracts, please contact the organizing committee at kitchenpottery AT googlemail.com
The organizing committee: Alexandra Villing (BM), Michela Spataro (BM), Lin Foxhall (Leicester)