Amber – a Connector of Knowledge and Societies
Feb 23, 2023 09:00 AM to Feb 25, 2023 02:30 PM
Leibnizstraße 1, R. 105
Amber in prehistory is still a big and important topic. Therefore, we would like to invite you to a joint workshop on amber as a "link between knowledge and societies" in the framework of the Cluster of Excellence ROOTS in Kiel.
The aim of the workshop is to gain an overview of the European amber trade from the Late Neolithic to the Iron Age, less with regard to possible exchange routes than to the social aspect of the people who had access to amber. The main topic will be the social context of amber.
Symposia on amber have a long tradition since the analysis of Baltic amber by C.W. Beck. Much has been discussed about origin, exchange and possible course of exchange routes. We know in which regions amber appears in the archaeological find context and about its frequency in the individual regions. But what was its importance for the societies of that time and which group of people really had access to this strange stone from the north. Is amber just as important in the north at its source as it was in far away Mycenae? Who wore the large amber necklaces, who wore only pendants, who had access to raw amber? Who worked it? Were its flammable and electrostatic properties known? These are all questions we want to explore together in this workshop in order to gain as comprehensive a Europe-wide understanding as possible of the importance of amber in different societies.
Individual presentations will provide an overview of the social environments in which amber occurs. Does it occur primarily in dumps, in graves, or in settlements? Is it socialized with women and children or different age groups, or is it only encountered in rich graves or special burials? What does this say about the appreciation of amber in each society? Is it possible to find uniform patterns across Europe and do they differ depending on how close they are to the resource amber (succinite/simetite/ruminite)? Do we know which groups of people were involved in the amber trade or its processing and which group of people or region benefited from it?
We will try to answer the following questions in our workshop.
- - What was the social status of the bearers of the amber?
- - Can age, gender or wealth differences be determined?
- - Is it possible to identify traders or the buyers?
- - Is there a change in the knowledge about amber (origin, use, function)?
- - What new methods for determining origin do we know?
The workshop is scheduled for 3 days, February 23-25, 2023. An excursion to one of the amber-rich coasts on the North Sea with a museum visit is planned.
This Workshop is organised by the subcluster Knowledge in the context of the Cluster of Excellence ROOTS of Kiel University.
Contact and Organisation:
Benjamin Serbe bserbe@roots.uni-kiel.de und Dr. Jutta Kneisel jutta.kneisel@ufg.uni-kiel.de
Download program here
You can also join the workshop online: Zoom link
