DFG Priority Programme 1630 “Harbours from the Roman Period to the Middle Ages”
Call for Papers for:
Harbours as objects of interdisciplinary research – Archaeology + History + Geosciences
The DFG Priority Programme 1630 “Harbours from the Roman Period to the Middle Ages” started in July 2012. Its aim is the interdisciplinary study of primarily civil harbours as highly complex systems in which ecological, logistical, economic, social, legal, military and religious subsystems overlap and influence one another. In order to evaluate the full extent and depth of the phenomenon ‘harbour’, these subsystems and their implications for the development of the settlements must be identified. The 15 interdisciplinary projects of the Programme are working on a comparative analysis allowing harbours to be understood as system-relevant components.
We are now at the half-time of the six-year grand period and therefore will hold an international conference at which we will bring forth early results as well as new perspectives. The conference is in close cooperation with the Johanna Mestorf Academy, the Institute of Pre- and Protohistoric Archaeology and the Institute of Geosciences of the Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, Germany. It is titled “Harbours as objects of interdisciplinary research – Archaeology + History + Geosciences” and will be held from the 30th of September to the 3rd of October at the Audimax of the University in Kiel. The conference language will be English.
We will begin with an opening Keynote-lecture and a welcome reception on the 30th of September. For our interdisciplinary research on harbours the conference will continue with plenum lectures and different parallel session for the next two days. The final day will be devoted to a field trip to Haithabu and Schloss Gottorf in Schleswig or alternatively a guided bus tour to the Hamburger Harbour.
The interdisciplinary sessions are the following:
• Geophysics and Field Research: Developing methods
o Both the localisation and the subsequent large-scale survey of former harbours constitutes a challenge for geophysics, since the often prevailing limnic environment and coastal shallow waters neither suit the conventional methods usually applied in terrestrial or in marine geophysics. This challenge gave impulses for the development of new approaches. The session will deal with the whole range of adapted geophysical methods such as geomagnetics, geoelectrics or GPR-Ground Penetrating Radar, seismic measurements, their possible interaction and their potential for harbour research.
• Geoarchaeology: Changing Harbour Environments
o Harbours are primarily established as shelter for shipping traffic and their link to both maritime and terrestrial traffic networks. However, these natural conditions are seldom
stable and can, due to e.g. changing water levels or silting, change. If a modification of the harbour facilities was not possible it often led to an abandonment of the site. Here, marine geosciences are capable to not only locate the former shoreline and give information on earlier water depths, but also to reconstruct the very processes that changed the prevailing condition on-site.
• Archaeological Features: Harbour Facilities and Infrastructure
o This session will focus on the study of harbour facilities and their progressive development. Harbour facilities served the changing demands at the port by means of providing a sufficient water depth for mooring and the necessities for stock exchange and, thus, secured the economic basis of each harbour town. Yet, a port worked not only by its harbour facilities alone, but just as well by its harbor-related logistic infrastructure in the settlement and on the sea route towards it.
• Written and Iconographic Sources: Complementing the Material Evidence
o The study of the material remains of harbours is obviously limited in its potential insights. Information on e.g. harbour legislation, administration, collection of duties or actual trading voyages of particular individuals remains in the dark. However, evidence of harbours from non-archaeological sources exits in a great variety in historical records from Imperial Roman times to the High Middle Ages. This session wants to encourage a revision of written sources, inscriptions, papyri and seals, along with pictorial records reflecting harbours as economic, legal, stately and cultic systems just as well as the daily harbour life.
All 15 projects participating in the Priority Programme will present a Poster on their research.
Deadline for submission is the 15th of June 2015.
Please send your abstract of about 200-400 words as well as your interest in participating to:
Ilka Rau, M.A. Tel.: +49 4621-813 662
Zentrum für Baltische und Skandinavische Archäologie ilka.rau@schloss-gottorf.de
Stiftung Schleswig-Holsteinische Landesmuseen
Schloß Gottorf
24837 Schleswig
The abstract must include the title, the preferred session, author contact details with affiliated institution and email address. Papers are expected to be 20 minutes long followed by 10 minutes of questions and discussion. The papers will be evaluated by the Initiators of the SPP and replies regarding acceptance will be given by July 2015.
An admission fee of 30,- Euro is to be paid at the conference office with the registration. Additionally, another fee for a field trip will have to be paid. We are currently negotiating funds and will inform you on the admission fee for the field trip as soon as possible.
All further information on the registration form, accommodation, travel to Kiel, etc. will follow in the next circular. It will also be available on our homepage:
http://www.spp-haefen.de/de/home/
Please note that the proceedings will be published in an archaeological conference publication as well as in a journal of Geoscience.
Initiators of the Priority Programme :
Prof. Dr. Claus von Carnap-Bornheim
Archäologisches Landesmuseum und
Zentrum für Baltische und Skand. Archäologie
Stiftung Schleswig-Holsteinische Landesmuseen Schloss Gottorf
Schlossinsel
24837 Schleswig
Prof. Dr. Peter Ettel
Bereich für Ur- und Frühgeschichte
Friedrich-Schiller-UniversitätJena Löbdergraben 24a 07743 Jena
Prof. Dr. Falko Daim
Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum
Ernst-Ludwig-Platz 2
55116 Mainz
Dr. Ursula Warnke
Deutsches Schiffahrtsmuseum
Hans-Scharoun-Platz