Functions, uses and representations of space in the monumental graves of Neolithic Europe (Funerary Space confe)
Venue: Maison Méditerranéenne des Sciences de l\'Homme (MMSH)
Location: Aix-en-Provence, France
Event Date/Time: Jun 08, 2011 | End Date/Time: Jun 10, 2011 |
Abstract Submission Date: Feb 28, 2011 |
Description
This conference will analyse the deliberate and organized relationships with space that are found inside the monumental graves of Neolithic Europe (mounds, cairns, tumuli, chambered tombs, hypogea, etc.) It will invite and gather for the first time recent studies and syntheses focusing on the configuration of the tombs’ architecture, the spatial organization of the funerary deposits, the spatial organization of the parietal motifs, and/or the relationships between tombs and natural landscape. Papers on the object and period of the conference will be preferred but external studies (from a chronological and geographical point of view) dealing with the central question of the conference will also be welcomed.
The first objective of the conference will be the identification of the various spatial choices involved and articulated on different scales inside and outside the tombs. How an
analysis of the landscape, architecture, funerary practices and parietal motifs can inform us about particular relationships with space? How these relationships evolved in time? What divergences and convergences can be found between the different regions of Europe?
The second objective will be to interpret these choices. What were the functions of the various architectural spaces inside the tombs? What was the role of the natural space around the
tombs? How the particular relationships with space inform us about the social structures and practices of the Neolithic people in Europe? How they inform us about their symbolic conceptions and representations of the funerary space?
Theme 1 – Spatial organization of funerary deposits inside monumental graves.
Theme 2 – Partition, structuration and evolution of the internal architecture of the tombs.
Theme 3 – Spatial organization of funerary iconography (both parietal and mobiliary art).
Theme 4 – Spatial relationships between tombs (necropolis), and between tombs and landscape.
Organizing committee:
Guillaume Robin (Università degli Studi di Sassari, UMR 6636 LaMPEA)
Maxence Bailly (Université de Provence, UMR 6636 LaMPEA)
André D’Anna (CNRS, UMR 6636 LaMPEA)
Aurore Schmitt (CNRS, UMR 6578 Anthropologie bioculturelle)
Scientific committee
Christine Boujot (SRA Bretagne, UMR 6566 CReAAH)
Serge Cassen (CNRS, UMR 6566 CReAAH)
Jean Leclerc (CNRS, UMR 7041 ArScAn)
Colin Richards (University of Manchester)
Maïtena Sohn (Archeodunum SA, UMR 5608 TRACES)