Comparing Cyprus and Sicily: Scientific approaches

Day 1: March 26 (Thursday)

9:30-9:45: Coffee available

9:45-10:00: Welcome and introduction (Chris de Lisle, Marcella Giobbe, Beatrice Pestarino)

10:00-12:20: Session 1: Comparative perspectives

10:00-10:35: Lisa Briggs (Barca Archaeology Ltd), DNA and organic residue analysis of shipwreck artefacts from Sicily and Cyprus: expect the unexpected

10:35-11:10: Victor Klinkenberg (University of Cyprus), A Decade at Palloures: New Perspectives on Chalcolithic Cyprus

11:10-11:45: José María Martín Civantos (University of Granada), Landscape transformations in Western Sicily from the Islamic conquest

11:45-12:20: Angus Graham (University of Uppsala) with Kristina Winther-Jacobsen (University of Copenhagen), Cyprus, a copper island-scape, a view from Life at the Furnace

12:20-13:20: Lunch

13:20-1505: Session 2: Survey and landscapes 1

13:20-13:55: Oliva Menozzi (University of Chieti), The MPM Project: from Survey to Archaeometry 

13:55-14:30: Giovanni Scicchitano (University of Bari), Coastal Transformation under Rising and Falling Seas: Examples from Eastern Sicily

14:30-15:05: Karl Smith (University of Oxford), Large-scale GIS coastal analysis and harbour 'affordance': a Sicilian/Cypriot comparison

15:05-15:20: Coffee break

15:20-17:40: Session 3: Ceramic analyses

15:20-15:55: Sergios Menelaou and Edyta Marzec (Fitch Lab, BSA; NCSR, Demokritos), Multidisciplinary Approaches and Research Advances on Ancient and Preindustrial Ceramics from Cyprus: Current Trends, Methods, and Future Directions 

15:55-16:30: Simona Todaro (University of Catania), Living under the volcano: an holistic approach to pottery production studies in Prehistoric Sicily

16:30-17:05: Marcella Giobbe (University of Cyprus) with N. S. Müller, A. Charalambous, D. Ioannides, A. Georgiou, Cultural interconnections and interregional exchange in the Late Bronze–Early Iron Age Eastern Mediterranean: science-based ceramic evidence from Cyprus

17:05-17:40: Roberta Mentesana (Universitat de Barcelona) and Veronica Testolini (Indep.), From Hearth to Kiln: A Journey through Sicilian Ceramics from the Neolithic to the Sixteenth Century (Online)

18:00: Dinner

Day 2: March 27 (Friday)

9:45-12:05: Session 4: Archaeozoology and Osteoarchaeology

9:45-10:20: Angelos Hadjikoumis (The Cyprus Institute), A kaleidoscope of human-animal interactions on a large Mediterranean island: a long-term review of Cyprus

10:20-10:55: Veronica Aniceti (University of Tor Vergata, Rome): The role of animals in the Arab Agricultural Revolution in Al-Siqilliyya (Online)

10:55-11:30: Demetra Aristotelous (Dept. Antiquities, Cyprus), Peeping through the keyhole: Osteoarchaeological insights from a Hellenistic tomb in Limassol, Cyprus (Online)

11:30-12:05: Roberto Miccichè (University of Palermo), Zooarchaeological Perspectives on Religion and Society in Western Sicilian Greek Sanctuaries. Animals, ritual, and cultural interaction (Online)

12:05-13:05: Lunch

13:05-14:15: Session 5: Archaeobotany

13:05-13:40: Claudia Speciale (Palermo), Humans and vegetation on the biggest island of the Mediterranean: how archaeobotany contributes to Sicily's environmental history (Online)

13:40-14:15: Maria Rousou (Malcom H. Wiener Lab, Athens), Evolutionary history of the Cypriot flora and vegetation cover (Online)

14:15-14:25: Coffee break 

14:25-16:10: Session 6: Survey and Landscapes 2

14:25-15:00: Giorgos Papantoniou (Trinity College Dublin) and Athanasios K. Vionis (University of Cyprus), Landscape Archaeology and its Allied Sciences in the Xeros River Valley in Larnaka, Cyprus

15:00-15:35: Matteo Randazzo with Margherita Riso (Indep.), Sacred Landscape Sicily Project (2022-23): a blend of phenomenological approaches and digital technologies

15:35-16:10: Ralph Vandam (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), Rethinking Settlement, Landscape and Connectivity in the Hala Sultan Tekke Hinterland

16:10-16:20: Coffee break

16:20-17:05: Keynote: Anastasia Christophilopoulou (MFA), Cyprus and Sicily: Shared identities

17:05-17:30: Plenary discussion

18:00: Dinner