CALL FOR PAPERS
Neolithic bodies
Organisers: Penny Bickle and Emilie Sibbesson
Monday 3 November 2014, British Museum, London
Thanks to recent theoretical, methodological and analytical developments in archaeology
and more broadly in the humanities and life sciences, it is an exciting time for body-centred
research. The Neolithic and the transition to farming have provided a particularly rich array of
research, and the evidence drawn on is equally diverse. The human skeleton is, of course,
the most recognisable source of evidence, as well as the burial context more widely.
However, more recently material culture, architecture, and laboratory techniques such as
isotope analysis have been variously drawn upon to investigate Neolithic bodies.
The objective of this meeting will be to discuss recent investigations of the body in the
Neolithic and to compare the conclusions drawn from different types of archaeological
evidence. Papers on all aspects of research pertaining to the body in the context of the
Neolithic are welcome; including, but not limited to, health, disease, and demography,
occurrences and rates of inter-personal violence, conceptions of personhood, gender and
sex, figurative depictions and representations of the body in material culture, and the varied
embodied identities produced and maintained through the mortuary sphere.
To contribute a 20 minute paper to the meeting please send title and abstract (c. 250 words)
to Penny Bickle (penny.bickle@york.ac.uk) or Emilie Sibbesson
(emilie.sibbesson@canterbury.ac.uk) by 15 September 2014.