CENTER FOR OBSIDIAN AND LITHIC STUDIES

FIFTH ARHEOINVEST SYMPOSIUM

‘Stories Written in Stone’

International Symposium on Chert and Other Knappable Materials

20 -24 August 2013

“Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iași, Romania

http://arheoinvestsymposium.uaic.ro/stone

 

As far as raw materials go, chert and other knappable stone stand out as some of the most common materials in the archaeological record, and at some sites the only preserved material. They were used in almost every corner of theworld, from the Palaeolithic up until today. Use of these materials even predates the appearance of our own species.

Being so widespread, both geographically as well as chronologically, this topic merits a global meeting of researchers to discuss and compare our findings.

This symposium will cover all aspects of knapped stone raw materials from geological origin, to mining, usage, and laboratory analyses on these materials. Although we expect that there will be more focus on chert and other microcrystalline quartz varieties, we also encourage presentations related to other knappable materials such as obsidian, quartzite, rhyolite. Papers will be accepted on any culture or time period. Whether you are a field archaeologist, laboratory researcher, ethnographer or a modern day knapper yourself, come tell your stories.

 

Main Sessions

The symposium will focus on two major themes: (1) the chaîne opératoire of knapped stone artefacts, and (2) auxiliary sciences related to lithics (in particular microcrystaline quartz).

Theme 1 — Chaîne opératoire

o Raw material exploitation strategies — mining and surface collecting

o Ancient lithic trade and economics

o Stone tool production and processing techniques

o Use-wear analyses — signs of usage on stone tools (a.k.a. traceology)

Theme 2 — Auxilliary sciences

o Microcrystaline quartz as a geological material

o Characterising lithic sources

o Lithotheques — collections of comparative raw materials

o Gemology — Microcrystaline quartz as a gemstone today and in the past

Submitting abstracts

The organisers of the symposium are now accepting abstracts for presentations. Abstracts should be around 200-300

words. They may also contain one image. Please include also the following information: (1) title; (2) presenter(s) and affiliated institutions of each; (3) preferred session (see the ‘Sessions’ page); and (4) presentation type — oral or poster. Abstracts should be sent to Otis Crandell at otis.crandell@ubbcluj.ro. All papers will be evaluated by the

Scientific Committee. The deadline for submitting abstracts is 1 February 2013.

 

More information

For more information, please visit the symposium website, or contact Otis Crandell (otis.crandell@ubbcluj.ro) or Vasile

Cotiugă (vasicot@uaic.ro).

This symposium is organised by ARHEOINVEST – the Interdisciplinary Research Platform in the Field of Archaeology,

Faculty of History, "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University of Iași, Romania.