Revolutions. The Neolithisation of the Mediterranean Basin: The Transition to food Producing Economies in North Africa and Southern Europe

Traditional ploughing at Byhamu | Source: community.topoi.org/web/revolutions/

The revolutions workshop will examine the transition from the Epipalaeolithic/Mesolithic to the Neolithic, and the emergence of food-­pr­oducing economies in countries that border the Mediterranean Sea. Rather than discussing domestication itself, it aims to examine the processes of Neolithisation over the broader region. The chaired sessions within the roundtable workshop will begin with brief summaries of the papers, then focus upon discussion between the individual session participants before the broader group of roundtable participants and audience debates them.

The key issues that this workshop aims to address are:

• The reasons and temporal pace of change from non-food producing to food-producing groups.
• The extent to which indigenous changes within technology, storage and increasing sedentism characterise the transition to food production between the Epipalaeolithic/Mesolithic and the Neolithic, and the degree of any interaction between immigrant farmers and indigenous groups.
• The potential impact of wider and local environmental change upon the emergence of food-producing economies.
• The effects of human and object relationships; how did the introduction of farming change existing technologies and what impact did this new technology and objects have on human groups?
• The ecological, social, and cognitive consequences of tending ­animals and plants.
  The directionality of movement of human groups and animals within these contexts.

Book of Abstracts

→ Download the Book of Abstracts [PDF | 2,2 MB]

REGISTRATION

The keynote lectures are open to all, but as there will be limited places at the roundtable workshop, those wishing to attend as members of the participatory audience should e-mail their interest to the organisers at: revolutions@topoi.org

Further Information

—> Giulio Lucarini
—> Revolutions on community.topoi.org

Program