Landscape Archaeology Conference. Berlín, junio 2012. Call for papers

2nd International Landscape
Archaeology Conference 2012
Berlin, Germany, 6th–9th June 2012
Second Call for Papers

Standing in the tradition of the 1st Landscape Archaeology Conference held in Amsterdam in 2010, the LAC 2012 will provide a platform for archaeologists, geographers and researchers from neighbouring disciplines to present and discuss results in the broad field of geo‐ and landscape archaeology.
The scope of the conference will cover the following session themes:
- Ancient megastructures and their environment
- Landscape resilience to human impact
- Human adaptation to landscape changes
- Spatial information systems in landscape archaeology
- Theoretical concepts in landscape archaeology
For further information please visit the conference homepage:
www.geo.fu-berlin.de/lac2012

Programme

The conference will start with an opening ceremony including a keynote lecture on the evening of 6th June 2012. Afterwards, we would like to invite you to the icebreaker. On 7th and 8th June 2012 oral and poster presentations will take place.
On Saturday, 9th June 2012, field trips to various archaeological sites will give insights into early iron production in close proximity to Berlin.
Abstract submission Abstracts will initially be accepted for one of the conference theme sessions, with the Scientific Programme Committee reserving the right to allocate abstracts to either oral presentations or poster sessions.
Please submit your abstract (max. 250 words) by 31st December 2011 to the Organising Committee: lac2012@geo.fu‐berlin.de. Please use the attached abstract submission form.
If your abstract is accepted for an oral presentation you will receive an email requesting an extended abstract (3500 words, up to 2 figures, references) for publication in the conference proceedings in the online publication medium of the Excellence Cluster Topoi: e‐topoi.

In the past decade, the field of landscape archaeology has increasingly attracted researchers from the geo sciences, archaeology and the historical disciplines.
The scope of the conference will cover the following session topics:

Ancient megastructures and their environment

A megastructure is an assemblage of constructions that is
distinguished by its monumentality, its planned structure,
and the great amount of labour required for its erection,
often over a longer period of time. The main interest of
this session is the embedment of such megastructures
in space, taking special note of the relationship between
megastructure and hinterland. In this context, the term
megastructure does not pertain to settlements alone, but
includes sanctuaries, grave monuments, etc. ...
The themes to be dealt with include reciprocal effects
between the centre and the environs, the effects on available
resources through the continual use of megastructures,
and the possible reaction to the shortage of
resources. A further point of interest is the expansion of
modern agglomerations onto previous megastructures
and the socio-political and landscape archaeological
handling of this situation.

Landscape resilience to human impact

It is assumed that during early settlement history, settlement
characteristics corresponded to local strategies
of adaptation to the natural environment. While these
impacts were small or negligible during the earliest
settlement phases, ongoing cultural development led to
increasingly substantial impact on natural landscape and
decreasing levels of dependency on local environmental
conditions. Meanwhile, each kind of human impact
affected the landscape’s dynamic equilibrium, causing
changes in material fluxes. Depending on its sensitivity,
each landscape reacted differently to disturbances.
The session deals with the evaluation of the interrelations
between landscape systems and human landuse
strategies and with the analysis of landscape sensitivity
and landscape resilience to human impact.

Human adaptation to landscape changes

There is a strong interaction between people and their
physical environment. Landscape in archaeology today is
understood as the topography of the social and the cultural
as much as the physical contours (David, Thomas 2008).
This implies that humans react to landscape changes in
respect of all these aspects. A large combination of natural
science methods, such as geo- and bioarchaeology, allows
the detection of the human-environment relationships,
which never represent purely adaptive processes but
consist of conceptions of the landscape.
We would like to bring together various approaches with
the goal of exchanging views on methodological procedures,
results, critical factors, and other research perspectives
without any temporal or spatial limits. So we will gain
a wide-ranging comparison of different ways of human
adaptation to landscape changes.

Spatial information systems in landscape archaeology

Work with spatially distributed digital data is groundwork
for modern landscape archaeological projects and is
increasingly becoming a basic requirement. Depending
on the subject under investigation, spatial information
systems provide help in organizing, analysing and
presenting spatial data on different scales.
Results of archaeological field surveys, spatially distributed
palaeo-ecological samplings, remote sensing data
at various scales, geomorphological and archaeological
mapping, spatially referenced literature analysis,
predictive modelling, pattern detection, 3D GIS, and
spatial statistics are only some aspects of the wide
field of innovation to be presented in this session.

Theoretical concepts in landscape archaeology

Today a variety of different theoretical concepts determine
the joint research of archaeologists and geoscientists,
all of which can be summarised under the
terms landscape or geoarchaeology. One example of a
geographical concept being applied within the framework
of archaeology is the theory of central places by W.
Christaller. Such concepts and theories were normally
developed using measuring data in contrast to the proxy
data normally available within landscape archaeological
projects. So, how successful is such an adoption?
Where are the limitations and how can we deal with
problems that may occur?
This session provides a platform for the presentation,
evaluation and discussion of theoretical concepts in the
wide field of landscape archaeology and addresses the
question of what the future will bring for the discipline
of landscape archaeology.


Important Dates

- June 2011: First circular
- 31st December 2011: Deadline for abstract submission
- 30th April 2012: Deadline for registration

Venue

The 2nd International Landscape Archaeology Conference will take place at the Science & Conference Center of Freie Universität Berlin on 6th – 9th June 2012. The conference language is English.
Associated with the Science & Conference Center, the Seminaris Campus Hotel provides accommodation for the participants of the conference. To get the special conference rates, please contact the Organising Committee (lac2012@geo.fu-berlin.de) for further information. Check http://www.berlin.de/international/index.en.php to find other accommodations in Berlin.

Conference Fees

Early registration until 31stMarch 2012
Regular 150 Euro | Students 75 Euro
Regular registration until 30th April 2012
Regular 175 Euro | Students 150 Euro

Publications

It is planned to publish the proceedings of the conference in special issues of the journals Quaternary International and Geoarchaeology. Submitted papers will pass through the normal review process of the journals.