Humans Through Deep Time: Archaeology and the Pace of Change
This symposium is organized by the Department of Anthropology and funded by a University Symposium Award. It is cosponsored by the Department of Art History, the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Studies, the Department of Geology, the Institute for Global studies, and the Quaternary Paleoecology Minor
All events will be held in Cowles Auditorium, Hubert H.Humphrey Center, 301 19th Avenue S, Minneapolis
Schedule of events
Wednesday, March 12 – participants arrive on campus
Thursday, March 13
9:00-12:00 – Session 1: Pace of Human Dispersals
“When Is a Revolution not a Revolution? Archaeology and the Nature of Behavioral Change in Human Evolution” - Alison Brooks (Anthropology, George Washington University)
“Expanding Horizons: Earliest Human Dispersals Out of Africa” - Martha Tappen (Anthropology, University of Minnesota)
“Conflicting Clocks: Exploring the Scale, Tempo, and Mode of the Peopling of the Americas” - David Meltzer (Anthropology, Southern Methodist University)
Discussant: David Fox (Geology, University of Minnesota)
1:30-4:30 – Session 2: Technology and Cognition
“Cognition and Material Culture: Technology as an Amplifier of Human Cognitive Capacity” - Merlin Donald (Psychology and Education, Queens Univ.; Cognitive Science, Case Western)
“What was New under the Sun? Innovation in Lithic Technology in the European Early Palaeolithic” - Gilliane Monnier (Anthropology, University of Minnesota)
“Time, Context, and the Enculturating Environment: Concepts for Uniting Anthropology” - Gilbert Tostevin (Anthropology, University of Minnesota)
Discussant: Jennifer Alexander (Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota)
5:00 – Plenary lecture
Friday, March 14
9:00-12:00 – Session 3: Landscapes of Time
“Uruk: Touchstone of Civilization” - Eva von Dassow (Classical and Near Eastern Studies, University of Minnesota)
“Time in the Nabataean World: A Study in Architecture and Iconography” - Martha Joukowsky (Center for Old World Archaeology and Art, Brown University)
“When People Became Part of History: Material Evidence for the Application of Linear Time in the British Isles and North America” - Harold Mytum (Archaeology, York University)
Discussant: Stuart McLean (Anthropology, University of Minnesota)
1:00-4:00 – Session 4: Narratives of Time
“Time as Ruler, Ruler as Time: Calendars and Monarchy in Ancient Egyptian and Maya Civilizations” - Stanley P. Guenter and David A. Freidel (Anthropology, Southern Methodist University)
“Cosmological Narratives: Animal-Warriors in Pre-Christian Scandinavia” - Lotte Hedeager (Archaeology, Oslo University)
Discussant: John Soderberg (Anthropology, University of Minnesota)