Wetland Archaeology and Prehistoric Networks in Europe / NEENAWA International Scientific Conference, September 15th-18th, 2017
FOREWORD
A significant step in establishing a network for the study of the Eastern European Neolithic and at the same time the final event of the project became the NEENAWA International Scientific Conference “Wetland Archaeology and Prehistoric Networks in Europe”, September 15-18, which was held in Kyiv and Kaniv on the basis of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.
Our University is one of the four partners in the NEENAWA Project’s consortium and plays a significant role in fulfilling its goals and tasks, since the SCOPES program aims at the development and modernization of institutional aspects of research and teaching institutions in Eastern Europe. All efforts and events of the project are directly linked to teaching activities and pursuing its educational objectives. University teachers and students have thus become the main beneficiaries of the project.
Specialists from international university centers and scientific establishments (Switzerland, Germany, Macedonia, Greece, Poland, Latvia) and representatives of the Ukrainian institutions were invited to take part in the conference. The conference highlighted the results of archaeological investigations of European scientists, including the results of international cooperation based on archaeological localities within Ukraine and brings together researchers working in Holocene European prehistoric archaeology. The discussed topics chronologically covered the period from the Mesolithic up to the Bronze Age.
The Ukrainian scientific and educational institutions were represented by:
– Department of Archaeology and Museum Studies, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv
– Centre for Underwater Archaeology, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv
– Archaeological Museum, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv
– Th. Vovk Center for Paleoethnological Research
– Institute of Archaeology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
– Archaeological Museum IA, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
– National Natural History Museum, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
– National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy
– B. Hrinchenko National University of Kyiv
– I.I. Mechnikov National University of Odessa
– T.G. Shevchenko National University of Chernihiv
– Kyiv Regional Archaeological Museum
– Kyiv Regional Center for Defense of Cultural Heritage Monuments
A number of lectures, presentations and posters were presented by the NEENAWA team:
Archaeology in Switzerland: Research from Under Water to High-Altitude Mountains (Prof. Albert Hafner, Bern)
Mobilities, Entanglements, Transformations. Pottery Practices in Neolithic Wetland Sites of the Swiss Plateau (Caroline Heitz, Bern)
Lacustrine Sites in North-Western Russia in the 7th-3rd Mill. BC (Andrey Mazurkevich, Ekaterina Dolbunova, St. Petersburg)
Wooden Post Buildings of the Lake Settlement Serteya XIV (Irina Khrustaleva, St. Petersburg)
Bone and Antler Items From Peat-Bog Settlements (the 6th – 3rd mill. BC) of North-Western Russia (Dnepr – Dvina Basin). Technological and Functional Features (Anna Malyutina, St. Petersburg)
Prehistoric Tool Kit for Surviving (Valentina Todoroska, Struga, Zlata Blazeska, Skopje)
With or Without You: the Formation of Identities in the Neolithic Balkans (Goce Naumov, Skopje)
Spatial Analysis of Marshy Areas: Neolithic Tell-Sites in Pelagonia (Gjore Milevski, Skopje)
Overview of the Osteological Mammal Material from the Surska Culture in the Context of Its Development and Adaptation of Its Communities to the Natural Environment (Alina Veiber, Kyiv)
Lithic assemblages of Early Agricultural Communities in Western Ukraine (Pavlo Shydlovskyi, Ivan Radomskyi, Dmytro Zhelaga, Kyiv)
Patterns of Ornaments on the Ceramic from the Lysa Gora Cemetery (Marta Andriiyovvych, Kyiv)
Hunting Economy of Trypillian Tribes and Their Neighbours at the C I stage (Yevhen Sliesarev, Kyiv)
Perspectives for Wetland Archaeology, Surveys and Underwater Exploration in the Dnieper River, Ukraine (Yana Morozova, Sergii Zelenko, Kyiv)
Among the decisions of the Scientific Committee are:
– to publish the conference materials in English in the frames of VITA ANTIQUA collection of scientific works;
– to expand the cooperation of scientific and educational institutions of Europe that were presented at the conference by the conducting internships for young scientists and lecturers from different countries at university centers
– to create a system for the exchange of information on the archeology of Eastern Europe in order to unify modern methods of fixation, describing and systematizing data on prehistoric objects.
The conference itself was an exceptional opportunity to create a system of information and experience exchange, in research about European prehistoric sites, to introduce up-to-date methodologies of fixation and description of archaeological material and to promote Ukrainian archaeological heritage in the European system of research. An important value is the participation of Macedonian, Swiss and Ukrainian students in this event that will help to develop their knowledge about current theoretical and practical European scientific research and promote their international mobility during their academic experience. In terms of public benefit, the conference will help to represent the Ukrainian cultural and natural heritage at a European level.
We wish that young scientists, using acquired skills and knowledge, will broaden their circle of professional contacts, put their creative ideas in to practice for developing a liberal society, and become the most valuable resource for positive changes in the contemporary world.
https://www.facebook.com/th.vovk.center/photos/pcb.1319894994786423/1320652638043992/?type=3&theater
