Joint workshop between the Danish National Research Foundation’s Centre of Excellence for Urban Network Evolutions (UrbNet), the Danish-German Jerash Northwest Quarter Project and Ceramics in Context (funded by the Carlsberg Foundation).
Date Wednesday 12 October 2016
Time 8:00-19:00
Location Studenterhus Aarhus, Frederik Nielsens Vej 2-4, 8000 Aarhus C, Richard Mortensen Stuen
The most impressive remains of ancient Gerasa (Jerash) are the ruins of the city from Roman times. However, appearances are deceiving, and the Byzantine and Early Islamic times were the actual flowering periods with a peak in population numbers. A high amount of pottery production took place in this time, resulting in high quantities of finds during the last 100 years of excavation. The transition from Byzantine to Umayyad times takes center stage in the one-day conference within the frame work of the Danish-German Northwest Quarter Project and the collective research project Ceramics in Context. It aims at bringing together scholars working in the fields of pottery and archaeometric studies to discuss methods and latest research on this time of transition and continuation.
Research over the past years has shown that the period from Byzantine to Umayyad times is, according to its material culture, rather affected by persistence than discontinuity. Yet, can we determine any characteristics that are typical for either one or the other period of time? Are there features as different type variations or fabrics that occur only during the time of transition and mark it as an independent phase?
With an interdisciplinary approach and integration of methods from the natural sciences, existing chronologies for the Byzantine and Umayyad period shall be re-thought and discussed during the workshop, taking promising contexts as case studies. Regarding locally produced wares, archaeometric analyses will come to the fore. Is it possible to standardise local fabric descriptions? What can we say about form and function of vessels when we take their fabrics into account?
Also more general socioeconomic questions will be discussed. What, for example, was the reason for the high pottery production in Jerash? Which level of distribution did the production reach in regional or even supra-regional networks? Were the vessel produced for a micro- or macro-market exchange?
The workshop is set up as platform for exchange, offering the possibility for discussion in a “table ronde” among pottery specialists from archaeology and geosciences, focusing on different aspects of ceramics from various contexts of Byzantine to Umayyad Gerasa.
Please make your own travel arrangements to/from Aarhus. After your visit, your travel expenses will be reimbursed (only economy class). Please fill out this travel reimbursement form and return it (preferably in Excel-format) to Christina Levisen (levisen@cas.au.dk) along with copies of your receipts and boarding passes (scanned copies are fine).
As soon as you have booked your flight, please forward your itinerary to Christina Levisen, in order for us to finalise the hotel booking.
Dinner and diet
A speakers’ dinner will be organised for 12 October at 19:00, and of course, we will cater for you during the workshop. If you have any dietary restrictions (e.g. allergies), please let Christina Levisen (levisen@cas.au.dk) know as soon as possible.
Powerpoint
If you wish to use powerpoint, we would very much appreciate it if you could forward your slides by Monday 10 October 2016.
Aarhus Airport is located 40 km north of Aarhus. An airport bus service operates between the airport and Aarhus Central Station ("Banegårdspladsen", see map). A single fare is 115 DKK, and the bus accepts Dankort, Visa, Mastercard and JCB. The bus ride takes approximately 55 min (see timetable).
Billund Airport is located 100 km south of Aarhus. An airport bus service (Bus 912X) operates between the airport and Aarhus Central Station ("Banegårdspladsen", see map). A single fare is 140 DKK, and the bus accepts major credit cards. The bus ride takes approximately 1 h 45 min (see timetable).
Copenhagen Airport is the main international airport in Denmark, located approximately 10 km from Copenhagen city centre. Copenhagen Airport is a 3 h 30 min train ride from Aarhus. A single fare (economy) is 418 DKK, incl. a seat reservation (for the sake of convenience, we recommend that you reserve a seat along with your ticket).
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 | Professor Achim Lichtenberger Phone: +49 234 322 8528 Email: achim.lichtenberger@ ruhr-uni-bochum.de | |
 | Assistant professor Heike Möller Phone: +45 8716 2042 Email: heike.moeller@cas.au.dk | |
 | Professor Rubina Raja Phone: +45 2718 8390 Email: rubina.raja@cas.au.dk |
