Postgraduate Prehistory Reading Group

You are warmly invited to join the Postgraduate Prehistory Reading Group — an informal, interdisciplinary forum for discussing all aspects of global prehistory.

Our meetings have a friendly and active format where initial group discussion of the month’s reading is followed by a short online Q&A with the author. Whether you join us as a ‘Hunter-Gatherer’ on a particular topic, attend more regularly as a ‘Pastoralist’ or become a dedicated ‘Agriculturalist’ (suggesting articles, inviting scholars and leading the meetings) you are most welcome!

Meeting times and dates

Monthly meetings are held online via Zoom on Wednesdays 6pm-7.30pm, unless otherwise stated. Dates are confirmed closer to the time, as they depend on the availability of our guests.

Please contact Kirsty Lilley (kirsty.lilley@ed.ac.uk) or Emma Bentley (e.v.bentley@sms.ed.ac.uk) to be added to the mailing list for readings and meeting links. You can also follow our topics and guests on Twitter/X @UoEPrehistoryRG

 Semester 2 2023/4

Date Topic Reading Guest
Wed 24 Jan 'Trypillia megasites: early urbanism and democratic society' Gaydarska-Nebbia-Chapman 2020. 'Trypillia megasites in context', Cambridge Archaeological Journal doi:10.1017/S0959774319000301 Dr Bisserka Gaydarska and Professor John Chapman (University of Durham)
Wed 28 Feb 'Rock art and pastoralists in Early Bronze Age Sudan'

Cooper-Vanhulle 2019.  'Boats and routes: New rock art in the Atbai Desert', Sudan & Nubia 

NB This event will begin at 7pm

Dr Julien Cooper (Macquarie University, Australia)
Wed 20 Mar 'aDNA and kinship in Neolithic Britain' Cummings - Fowler. 2023. Materialising Descent: Lineage Formation and Transformation in Early Neolithic Southern Britain. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 1-21. https://doi:10.1017/ppr.2023.2 Professor Chris Fowler (Newcastle)
Wed 1 May Palaeolithic Calendar

Bacon - Khatiri - Palmer - Freeth - Pettitt - Kentridge. 2023. 'An upper Palaeolithic proto-writing system and phenological calendar', Cambridge Archaeological Journal 33. 371-389 doi:10.1017/S0959774322000415

 Bennett Bacon (Independant Researcher)
Tue 28 May 'An Archaeology of Ruins'

Pétursdóttir, Þ. and Olsen, B.J. 2014. An archaeology of ruins, in B.J. Olsen and Þ. Pétursdóttir (ed.), Ruin Memories: Materialities, Aesthetics and the Archaeology of the Recent Past: 3-29. London: Routledge

NB This event begins at 6pm

 Prof Þora Pétursdóttir (University of Oslo)

 Semester 1 2023/4

Date Topic Reading Guest
4 Oct Info Session    
11 Oct 'Neolithic zoonotic diseases' Fournié-Pfeiffer-Bendrey 2017. 'Early animal farming and zoonotic disease dynamics: modelling brucellosis transmission in Neolithic goat populations', Royal Society Open Science http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.160943 Dr Robin Bendrey (Edinburgh)
8 Nov 'Child burials and small datasetsChild burials and small datasets  Hopwood 2023.' Living with the Dead: Burial Practice at Kenan Tepe, Turkey, During the Ubaid Period. In: From Households to Empires.' DOI: 10.59641/d38e92c5 Dr David Hopwood (Vancouver Island)
13 Dec Mesolithic reindeer artefacts in storytelling Ahola-Lassila 2022 'Mesolithic shadow play? Exploring the performative attributes of a zoomorphic wild reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) antler artefact from Finland.' Time and Mind DOI: 10.1080/1751696X.2022.2098047 Drs Marja Ahola (Helsinki) and Katri Lassila (Aalto, Finland). 

 

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