[Archport] Call for Papers: Archaeology and Science of Kitchen Pottery

[Ana Mesquita <isis.ankh@gmail.com>]

Ceramics, Cuisine and Culture: the Archaeology and Science of Kitchen
Pottery in the Ancient Mediterranean World

British Museum, 16 - 17 December 2010

The British Museum's Department of Greece and Rome is pleased to
announce its 2010 Classical Colloquium on Ceramics, Cuisine and
Culture: the Archaeology and Science of Kitchen Pottery in the Ancient
Mediterranean World, organized jointly with the British Museum's
Department of Conservation and Scientific Research and the 'Tracing
Networks' Research Programme (Universities of Leicester, Exeter and
Glasgow), funded by the Leverhulme Trust, and to be held at the
British Museum in London 16-17th December 2010.

This conference is dedicated to the cross-disciplinary interpretation
of ancient 'kitchen pottery', i.e. utilitarian wares used as food
containers or for food processing in a broad sense. By bringing
together established scholars and young researchers from a wide range
of academic backgrounds, including archaeologists, material
scientists, historians, and ethnoarchaeologists, Ceramics, Cuisine and
Culture will stimulate an international and interdisciplinary exchange
of ideas and approaches.

Themes will include:

science, archaeology and society - how scientific techniques can
reveal technological choices, cultural preferences and knowledge
transfer production, consumption and the social biographies of
utilitarian pottery - debates on the interplay of social and
technological factors, social networks of production and
consumption, development of specialist technologies (e.g.
resistance to thermal shock), lifespan, re-use and recycling of
kitchen pottery cuisine, culture and social hierarchies - the
impact of context and status on food processing and storage, the
significance of ritual, feasting, funerary and other 'special' contexts
changing habits: cuisine on the move - innovations and adaptations
in food processing and cooking in new or changing cultural settings,
food and cultural identity, the impact of trade and migration

The conference aims to set this ubiquitous category of artefacts in
its wider social, political and economic contexts, in order to exploit
it more effectively for understanding ancient societies. The
proceedings will be published in a peer-reviewed volume.

Abstracts for 20 minute papers and posters are invited for submission
by 30 May 2010.

For further information and submission of abstracts, please contact
the organizing committee at kitchenpottery@googlemail.com

The organizing committee: Alexandra Villing (BM), Michela Spataro
(BM), Lin Foxhall (Leicester)

For more information see
http://rogueclassicism.com/2010/05/08/cfp-call-for-papers-ceramics-cuisine-and-culture-the-archaeology-and-science-of-kitchen-pottery-in-the-ancient-mediterranean-world/