Konferenciafelhívás

Workshop: Impacts on Transportation - costs, politics, and archaeological evidence

17.-18.04.2015, Bonn, Germany

Since prehistory commodities were carried from one place to another as part of commercial exchange, or in means of raw material supply for the community. The way in which they were brought to their destination was dependent upon several issues. 

Three aspects of transport shall be discussed in greater detail to further our understanding of influential factors and to enlighten the transfer of immaterial goods that might accompany exchanged commodities.

Main aspects dealt with in the workshop are: 

Cost estimation

These charges play a decisive role in the analysis of economic networks. They are relevant to determining location factors of production facilities and to estimating the value of commodities for a society. It is supposed that costs of transport are dependent on at least five factors: distance, topography, surface consistency (water, wood land, swampland, desert etc.), the type and form of goods to (e.g. weight, size, fragility), and the mode of transport available.

Political influence

The objective of the second session is to motivate an interdisciplinary discussion on the effects of political changes on transport in Europe. The main focus will be on the transport of large-scale commodities, such as wood, and whether its organisational structure changes according to political shifts. This includes topics such as what rearrangements result in local, regional, and supra-regional trade, and if there are any variations in the generated costs. Or does everything remain unchanged? Additional papers may also concern the impact of large-scale construction projects and restrictions on the flow of these goods. 

Immaterial goods

The last session engages with the transfer of knowledge in terms of technologies, customs, and ideologies. Knowledge can be transmitted from one place to another in a limited period or be handed down through time. Likewise, some phenomena seem to occur independently from one another at different places at the same time or at the same places in different periods. What factors cause the adaptation of knowledge? For discussing this purpose, case studies are welcome that illustrate one or more circumstances leading to the same result and vice versa.

The general aim of the workshop is to highlight different aspects of transportation and parameters that have impact on it. At the same time it aims to address what immaterial commodities are – deliberately intended or not – transferred and why. 

The organizing committee invites young researchers, doctoral and master candidates to participate in the workshop to be held in Bonn. The committee is formed by doctoral candidates of the DFG research training groups “Archaeology of Pre-Modern Economies” and “Value and Equivalence”.

Please send abstracts from any archaeologically related discipline in English (about 200 words) and a short CV to the organizing committee by 31.01.2015. We wish for active involvement in the discussions following the papers at the end of each session.

The organizers encourage alternative presentation modes (e.g. 6-minutes-talk / pecha-kucha presentations); standard papers of max. 20 minutes length are also accepted.

No fees are required for participation. 

Contact: ImpactsOnTransportation@gmail.com

Anne-Birte Binder (Value and Equivalence, Frankfurt)

Tobias Gutmann (Archaeology of Pre-Modern Economies, Bonn)

Julia Weidemüller (Archaeology of Pre-Modern Economies, Bonn)