BEYOND MATERIALITY
Reframing archaeology through sensoriality, digital methods and neurosciences

International symposium 5-7 June

THURSDAY 5 JUNE 2025

10:00 Coffee and Mingling

10.30 Opening and welcome:
– Ulf R. Hansson, Director of the Swedish Institute of Classical Studies in Rome
– Giacomo Landeschi (Lund University)

SESSION 1– Sensory Archaeologies. Chair: Eleanor Betts (Open University)
11.00 Anna Collar (University of Southampton)
Spectres of the Past: Haunting and Uncertainty
11.30 Phil Perkins (Open University)
Exploring the archaeological record and landscape affordances at Potentino in southern Tuscany
12.00 Liv Nilsson Stultz (Linnaeus University)
A Sensory Archaeology of Death: examples from the Stone Age
12.30 Riccardo Olivito (IMT Lucca)
Nunc Roma est, nuper magna taberna fuit – Commercial Atmosphere and the Occupation of Public Spaces in the Roman World

13.00 Lunch break

SESSION 2– Senses and the digital. Chair: Giacomo Landeschi (Lund University)
14.30 Demo on VR Eye-Tracking and the study of Pompeian house

15.30 Coffee break

16.00 Pamela Jordan (University of Amsterdam)
Did you hear that? Comparability in sonic perception of the past
16.30 Mark Gillings (Bristol University)
Prehistoric Landscapes as engines of fascination and wonder: developing an archaeology of actualisation, affordance and affect.
17.00 Sara Mura (Kiel University)
From illustration to interpretation: Rethinking digital visual tools’ affordance in sensory-based archaeological practice
17.30 Roundtable (until 18.30)

20.00 Social event

FRIDAY 6 JUNE 2025
SESSION 3– Illumination and Mobility. Chair: Danilo Campanaro (Lund University)
09.30 Ruth Bielfeldt (LMU)
Roman Light Art and the Sense of Space
10.00 Stuart Dunn (King’s College London)
Blurred sites: towards a dynamic archaeology of routeways

10.30 Coffee break

11.00 Holly Moyes (UC Merced)
A Naturalized Phenomenology: Dealing with Subjectivity in Archaeacoustics
11.30 Monica Degen (Brunel University)
Researching Urban Aesthetics: the entanglement between embodiments and materialities in cities
12.00 Eleftheria Paliou (University of Cologne)
Enhancing computational models of forager mobility and behaviour in arid ecosystems using empirical data on San hunter-gatherer movements and decision-making
12.30 QnA

13.00 Lunch break

SESSION 4– Neurosciences and Archaeology. Chair: Cristina Corsi (University of Cassino)
14.30 Maurizio Forte (Duke University)
Neuroartifacts in between AI and Brain
15.00 Lambros Malafouris (University of Oxford)
Archaeology and the lived peripersonal space

15.30 Coffee break

16.00 Charles Spence (University of Oxford)
Archaeology and the senses: A multisensory perspective
16.30 Mathilde Salagnon (University of Geneve)
Neuroarchaeological perspectives on symbolic behavior and human cognitive evolution
17.00 Luis M. Martinez (Instituto de Neurociencias de Alicante) & Felipe Criado-Boado (INCIPIT, CSIC)
An approach to Material Minds combining Archaeology and Neurosciences
17.30 Final roundtable (until 18.30)

19.00 Wine reception / social event

SATURDAY 7 JUNE 2025
09.30 Field excursion to Ostia Antica (until 15.00)

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