ArchaeoLore Research Network Workshop
28 March | 14:00–16:30 CET | Online
This workshop is conceived as a space for dialogue rather than a formal conference. It aims to foster open exchange, constructive discussion, and intellectual engagement across disciplines and career stages.
The ArchaeoLore Research Network is an informal online initiative dedicated to sharing ongoing research and ideas related to archaeology, memory, toponymy, amulets, beliefs, and related fields.
Participants are warmly invited to present ongoing research, emerging ideas, methodological reflections, or recent scholarly work in a supportive and collegial environment. Short presentations (5–10 minutes) will be followed by open discussion, encouraging collective reflection and interdisciplinary dialogue.
Programme:
14:00 – 14:10
Alexandra Vieira - Welcome and Introduction
14:10 – 14:50
Session I – Research Presentations
Annapurna Pandey
University of California, Santa Cruz - USA
10 minutes
Kapdganda textile, Tribal Identity and Spirituality
When I asked about the meaning of the shawl, Sindhe Wadakka from Khajuri village, now in her fifties and the president of the Niyamgiri Dangaria Kandha Weavers Association, said quietly, “It is our identity. Kandha people come together with threads of different color joining.” Her words stayed with me. In the villages spread across the slopes of the Niyamgiri Hills in Odisha, Kapdganda is the shawl that Dangaria women weave and wear over their short saris. It carries the earth, the forest, the dangar Niyamgiri, which the Dangarias speak of as mother, father, and protector.
Kapdganda is a spiritual and cultural symbol of the Dangarias. It is shaped by women’s time, movement, and endurance. With the recent GI tag for the unique weave of the Dangarias, the Niyamgiri Dangaria Kondh weavers Association continues the work, as a way of connection to the dangar, the land, and the forest, which are destroyed through mining.
Mohd Idrees
Department of History, University of Delhi - India
5 minutes
Interpreting the Undeciphered: Toward a Multidimensional Understanding of Harappan Ritual Systems
I completed my internship at the National Museum, New Delhi, where I worked on a project on the religion and belief systems of the Harappan Civilisation. During this internship, I studied a wide range of scholarly resources and was fascinated to discover the diverse and complex facets of Harappan religion. It defies the simple categorisation of a uniform, centralised religious system as we commonly understand religion today. For instance, the absence of monumental temples, in contrast to its contemporary civilisations, challenges conventional assumptions about institutionalised worship. Moreover, there are multiple interpretations and scholarly debates surrounding seals and religious symbols, such as the Pashupati Seal, various Mother Goddess figurines, lingas, yonis, and other forms of symbolism.
Anja Mlakar
University of Maribor, Faculty of Tourism - Slovenia
10 minutes
Archaeological Heritage Beyond Institutions: Knowledge, Spirituality, and the Construction of Sacred Landscapes
I am currently working on a topic about a process of (re)interpretation of archaeological heritage for religious/spiritual purposes. I am also observing a process of heritage building/creation of perceived archaeological heritage that is taking place outside of the institutional heritage frameworks. These reinterpretations are frequently linked to ideas such as “energies”, energy points, pre-Christian belief systems, and ancient megaliths.
I am particularly interested in the process of knowledge-building and epistemologies in this context. I am also interested in understanding the relationship between materiality and religiosity/belief in relation with (perceived) archaeological heritage.
This is still very much a work in progress and I am still unsure about the relevancy of this topic or how to go about this research.
Katarina Botić
Institute of Archaeology, Zagreb, Croatia
5 minutes
How do traditions arise? Elements of Neolithic house construction in time and landscape
Traditional construction in some parts of Europe, until relatively recently, involved the construction of houses made of wood, wattle and daub or dried clay bricks, and clay floors. The beginnings of such construction can be traced back several thousand years, since the appearance of the Neolithic in these areas, and this is well documented by archaeological research.
We present an example of house structural elements from a multi-layered Neolithic settlement located directly in the river valley and near today's village in the Danube River region (Eastern Croatia), as well as collected information about the source of the clay raw material that was used until recently in the renovation of the floors of a traditional village house and the renovation process itself.
Given the significant social changes over last 7000 years, questions arise as to who conditions the tradition in this case, landscape or people, and whether it is possible that traditional construction, with minor changes, can be followed over such a long period of time.
Short discussion
14:50 – 15:00
Short Break
15:00 – 15:40
Session II – Research Presentations
Diane Heath
Diane.Heath@ScienceMuseum.ac.uk
Research & Public History dept., The Science Museum, London - U.K.
10 minutes
RESPECT - REShaping PErceptions about apotropaic and prophylactic Cultural iTems: Community, Historical and Curatorial Interaction
We are currently putting together a funding application for the RESPECT project, exploring workshops, schools' outreach, and exhibitions, seeking evidence attitudes to amuletic items via oral history projects and local museums' collaborations and the Henry Wellcome collection at the Science Museum. We are especially seeking out non-UK cultural items in British Museums and would like a panel of global experts who would be able to advise us on our findings and re-captioning for the online exhibition. The project is expected to run for two years and the evidence then assessed for a larger project linked to medical evidence for wellbeing and amuletic items.
Stephen A Cameron
10 minutes
Larne Lough ( A Forgotten Seascape)
Since 2019 Antrim County Archaeological Society have undertaken an archaeological survey of Larne Lough, Co.Antrim. Although no sites of archaeological interest has been officially recorded for the area. Since 2019 the Larne Lough Archaeological Survey has identified 36 new sites of archaeological importance including a large boat naust similar to sites identified in Norway. The norse/viking presence in the lough is still passed down in local tradition with the lough known in 1210AD as Ulfreksfjord. The presence of fish-traps and potential tidal mill remains highlight the importance of this small sea inlet in the medieval period.
Bożena Józefów-Czerwińska
b.jozefow-czerwinska@uksw.edu.pl
Cardinal Wyszyński University in Warsaw - Poland
10 minutes
Stone Idol Called “Baba” in the Belarusian–Polish Borderland
The cultural resources of communities living in the Bug River region on the Polish–Belarusian border often originate in distant historical periods. According to the vernacular concept of studying religious architecture, identifying and interpreting these resources requires a comprehensive approach that takes into account both ethnographic evidence and historical sources, interpreted within the framework of research on the sacred landscape of the region.
The presentation will focus primarily on stone, so-called anthropomorphic crosses that occur in the Nadbuże area and are referred to in local tradition as “baby.” Their formal features, contexts of occurrence, and presence in the memory and religious practices of local inhabitants will be discussed. This analysis will serve as a basis for considering the possible symbolic connotations of these objects and their potential functions.
Short discussion
15:40 – 15:50
Short Break
15:50 – 16:30
Session III – Research Presentations
Oumar Salya Savané
University Général Lansana Conté of Sonfonia-Conakry - Guinea
10 minutes
New Archaeological and Heritage Research in the Republic of Guinea
The history of settlement is a theme that has always interested researchers, particularly archaeologists. This history concerns the past of human populations elsewhere, such as in Africa. A continent that still harbors shadowy areas (Guinea) that are very little studied, especially in the field of archaeology.
Indeed, our country, which greatly participated in the history of the continent through the Mali Empire, trans-Saharan and Atlantic trade, the slave trade, French colonization, and the wars of resistance
This territory, which has always shown immense natural potential (watercourses, fertile lands, iron ores…), has experienced human occupation since the Paleolithic.
It houses a very large number of traces of human occupations, but which are little studied from an archaeological perspective. Our goal on the occasion of this presentation is to understand the level of inventory of this rich cultural heritage of Guinea.
Pedro Soutinho
FEUP - Portugal
10 minutes
Patterns in Territorial Occupation
The main objective is the presentation of my ongoing PhD research on patterns of territorial occupation through the study of ancient road networks, showing very consistent patterns on the distribution of human settlements, across several geographic and historical contexts worldwide. Consequently, this outcome cannot be explained solely on cultural transmission or deliberate planning. Instead, the preliminary results suggest that an organic process took place during the formation of these communication networks in such a way that has created a specific structural configuration.
16:10 – 16:30
Open Discussion & Future Initiatives
Moderator: João Luís Sequeira
This session will be recorded unless any of the participants object. If so, please let us know in a timely manner.
How to Participate: the registration form is already available
https://forms.gle/km23jq68Tzr4Nhgp8