Conference archive
Mesolithic art – abstraction, decoration, messages
International and interdisciplinary conference of the State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt from 19 to 21 September 2019 at the State Museum of Prehistory Halle (Saale). The conference was supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Association for the Promotion of the State Museum of Prehistory Halle (Saale) e. V.
For the conference programme, please see the flyer [PDF, 2.3 MB, not barrier-free].
Thursday, 19 September 2019
8.00 to 14.00
Registration / Poster installation / Coffee.
10.00
Harald Meller (Halle [Saale], DE): Welcome words.
Session chair: Erik Brinch Petersen (Copenhagen, DK).
10.10
Judith M. Grünberg (Halle [Saale], DE): Introduction to the conference topic.
10.30
Gerhard Bosinski (Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val, FR): The animal representations of the Azilian.
11.00
Stephan Veil (Hannover, DE): Punched ornaments on art and jewellery objects from the Late Upper Palaeolithic and Late Palaeolithic in Europe.
11.30
Yves Mérian (Paris, FR): To what extent is Fontainebleau Massif rock art Mesolithic and could it improve our understanding of the Mesolithic period?
12.00
Discussion.
12.10
Lunch break.
Session chair: Ilga Zagorska (Latvia, LV).
13.30
Éva David (Nanterre, FR): The hidden symbolism of ornamented antler adzes, probable Mesolithic tomahawks.
14.00
Pablo Arias (Santander, ES) / Esteban Álvarez-Fernández (Salamanca, ES): A new grammar for a changing world: the graphic expression among the Holocene hunter-gatherers of the Iberian Peninsula.
14.30
Juan F. Ruiz (Ciudad Real, ES): Evidence for the Mesolithic origin of the Levantine art of Mediterranean Iberia.
15.00
Oreto García Puchol (Valencia, ES) / Esther López Montalvo (Toulouse, FR) / Sarah B. McClure (Pennsylvania, US): Mesolithic codes through the lineal engraved plaquettes recovered at Cueva de la Cocina (Dos Aguas, Valencia, Spain).
15.30
Discussion.
16.30
Poster session.
Friday, 20 September 2019
Session chair: Lars Larsson (Lund, SE).
8.30
Luc Armkreutz (Leiden, NL) / Marcel Niekus (Groningen, NL): The Dutch masters? Art, decoration and ornaments in the Late Palaeolithic and Mesolithic of the Netherlands and Doggerland 13000–5000 BC.
9.00
Harald Lübke / Daniel Groß / Sönke Hartz (Schleswig, DE) / John Meadows (Kiel/Schleswig, DE): Early and Mid-Holocene Mesolithic decorated antler and bone tools from the interior of Schleswig-Holstein.
9.30
Sönke Hartz (Schleswig, DE): Ornamented bone and antler implements from the Terminal Mesolithic in Schleswig-Holstein.
10.00
Discussion.
10.10
Coffee break.
Session chair: Oreto García Puchol (Valencia, ES).
10.30
Bernhard Gramsch (Potsdam, DE): The intentional incisions and engravings on Mesolithic bone and antler artefacts from Northeastern Germany.
11.00
Daniel Groß / Harald Lübke (Schleswig, DE) / John Meadows (Kiel/Schleswig, DE) / Detlef Jantzen (Schwerin, DE): New research results and dates from Mesolithic sites with decorated bone and antler tools in Northern Germany.
11.30
Judith M. Grünberg (Halle [Saale], DE): Mesolithic portable art in the museums of Saxony-Anhalt.
12.00
Discussion.
12.10
Lunch break.
Session chair: Clive Bonsall (Edinburgh, GB).
13.30
Tomasz Płonka / Marcin Diakowski / Bernadeta Kufel-Diakowski / Krzysztof Stefaniak (Wrocław, PL): New data on the Late Palaeolithic and Mesolithic art in Poland.
14.00
Witold Gumiński / Karolina Bugajska (Warsaw, PL): Painted wood, notch on bone – ornamentation or making? A case of two neighbouring forager sites, Dudka and Szczepanki, Masuria, NE-Poland.
14.30
Peter Andreas Toft (Copenhagen, DK): Maglemosian art – from mono to multi-causal interpretations.
15.00
Erik Brinch Petersen (Copenhagen, DK): Maglemose amber pendants.
15.30
Discussion.
15.40
Coffee break.
Session chair: Éva David (Nanterre, FR).
16.00
Søren Anker Sørensen (Nykøbing Falster, DK): Examples of recently found Mesolithic objects with ›decoration‹ from Lolland, Denmark.
16.30
Peter Vang Petersen (Copenhagen, DK): Decorated antler axes/mattocks in Mesolithic Scandinavia.
17.00
Almut Schülke (Oslo, NO): Portable ornamented objects from Mesolithic Southeastern Norway: meanings, contexts and depositional practices.
18.00
Discussion.
19.30 – Public evening talk
Erik Brinch Petersen (Copenhagen, DK): Illustrations of humans and other creatures from the Stone Age of Southern Scandinavia.
Saturday, 21 September 2019
Session chair: Tomasz Płonka (Wrocław, PL).
8.30
Lars Larsson (Lund, SE) / Fredrik Molin (Linköping, SE): Island of decorations – the uneven impact of preservation on the interpretation of long-distance connections.
9.00
Per Karsten (Lund, SE): The Tågerup axe shaft – a masterpiece from the 7th millenium BC. A brief presentation of a coming exhibition of Mesolithic art and ritual at the Historical Museum at Lund University.
9.30
Kristiina Mannermaa / Milton Núñez (Helsinki, FI): Carving and shaping wood, stone and bone – Mesolithic art from the territory of modern Finland.
10.00
Discussion.
10.10
Coffee break.
Session chair: Margherita Mussi (Rome, IT).
10.30
Tõnno Jonuks (Tartu, EE): Ornaments, sculptures and interpretations during the pre-pottery Mesolithic in present Estonian territory.
11.00
Ilga Zagorska (Riga, LV): Artistic representations from the Late Mesolithic/Early Neolithic in Latvia, Eastern Baltic.
11.30
Ekaterina Kashina (Moscow, RU): Mobile art of the East European Plain forest hunters (6000–3000 BC): images, ancestors, networks.
12.00
Discussion.
12.10
Lunch break.
Session chair: Gerhard Bosinski (Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val, FR).
13.30
Aliaksandr Vashanau (Minsk, BY): Decorated bone and antler artefacts from the territory of Belarus in the Mesolithic period.
14.00
Maxim Charniauski / Aliaksandr Vashanau (Minsk, BY) / Harald Lübke (Schleswig, DE) / John Meadows (Kiel/Schleswig, DE): Ornamented sacral artefacts from Michnievicy quarries (Northwestern Belarus).
14.30
Monica Mărgărit / Adina Boroneanţ (Bucharest, RO) / Clive Bonsall (Edinburgh, GB): The Mesolithic portable art of the Iron Gates.
15.00
Discussion.
15.10
Coffee break.
Session chair: Bernhard Gramsch (Potsdam, DE).
15.30
Margherita Mussi (Rome, IT) / Luca Di Bianco (Ferrara, IT) / Gianpiero Di Maida (Mettmann, DE) / Fabio Martini (Florence, IT): Changing Patterns in artistic production in late Pleistocene/early Holocene times: the Italian case.
16.00
Ewa Dutkiewicz (Berlin, DE) / Christian Bentz (Tübingen, DE): SignBase – a data-driven approach to abstract signs in the Palaeolithic.
16.30
Ole Grøn (Copenhagen, DK) / Torunn Klokkernes (Oslo, NO): The three worlds in Evenk ornament.
17.00
Corinna Erckenbrecht (Mannheim, DE): Messages on sticks and stones – rock art and message sticks of the Australian Aborigines.
17.30
Final discussion.
18.00
Peter Andreas Toft (Copenhagen, DK) / Tomasz Płonka (Wrocław, PL): Summary of the conference and conclusions.
18.30
End of the conference.
Erik Brinch Petersen (Copenhagen, DK): Illustrations of humans and other creatures from the Stone Age of Southern Scandinavia.
On Friday, 20 September 2019, at 19.30 in the auditorium of the State Museum of Prehistory Halle (Saale).
Adomas Butrimas (Vilnius, LT) / Tomas Rimkus (Klaipėda, LT) / Marius Iršėnas (Vilnius, LT): The examples of mobile art on hunter-gatherers' (10500–4200 cal BC) bone and antler tools in Lithuania.
Jennes Hünniger (Leipzig, DE) / Judith M. Grünberg (Halle [Saale], DE): Documentation of Mesolithic portable art using a Keyence 3D-Macroscope.
Detailed summaries of the talks and posters can also be found in the comprehensive abstract volume [PDF, 0.5 MB, not barrier-free] of the conference.
Harald Meller (Halle [Saale])
Erik Brinch Petersen (Copenhagen)
Bernhard Gramsch (Potsdam)
Judith M. Grünberg (Halle [Saale])
Tomas Płonka (Wrocław)
Auditorium of the State Museum of Prehistory
Richard-Wagner-Straße 9
06114 Halle (Saale)
Germany