The Debates in Archaeology Annual Symposium was launched in 2019 with the idea of attracting top scholars for debates about contemporary topics in the world and the world of archaeology.
The 7th Annual Debates in Archaeology Symposium
THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL PERIODIZATION
September 18th-19th 2026
Periodization is essential to the current practice of archaeology. Periods have their uses: they serve to organize material in time and help us construct largescale narratives about continuity or change in past societies. However, the operation of archaeological periodization is by no means neutral or scientifically objective. For one thing, archaeological periods are themselves artifacts. Many periodization schemes we use are the same ones created in the early years of the discipline in the 19th to early 20th century. While we continue to debate and have refined the temporal boundaries of our periods, the larger sequences they serve to articulate have remained largely stable for over a century. Even as new global societies attract increased archaeological attention in the later 20th century, the development of “new” taxonomies of time have depended on cross-application with established schemes. Thus, periodization as an archaeological method has remained largely capillary and diffusionist, rather than revisionary, and rarely subjected to theoretical scrutiny. The uncritical reliance on standard chronologies has not only hindered archaeological interpretations of historical processes but continues to impose implicit value judgements of earliness/lateness, transitionality, classicism, and so forth. While these concerns are not new, recent breakthroughs in radiocarbon dating they have thrown into sharp relief the limitations and deficiencies of periodization schemes employed in archaeology. Refined applications of Bayesian methods afford ever more precisely calibrated absolute dating. Given our current ability to situate material in time independent of periods, some archaeologists question whether the costs of periodization now outweigh its benefits. Does archaeological periodization remain desirable or even necessary to the interpretation of material culture in time? The 7th Annual Debates in Archaeology Symposium at the University of Toronto Archaeology Centre takes up this question of the usefulness of periodization to archaeological inquiry. The event will take place over two days with debate organized around three panels: first, periodization’s “Past,” its historical development and evolving implications from the 19th century to today; second, periodization’s “Present,” laying out the temporal capacity of current high resolution radiocarbon dating techniques, and their theoretical implications for the fixing of events and material in time; and finally, participants will discuss periodization’s “Future,” asking whether and how we might continue to use taxonomies of time in archaeological practice going forward.
References:
Griffiths, S. (2017). We’re all cultural historians now: Revolutions in understanding archaeological theory and scientific dating. Radiocarbon, 59(5), 1347-1357.
Griffiths, S., Carlin, N., Edwards, B., Overton, N., Johnston, P., & Thomas, J. (2023). Events, narrative and data: why new chronologies or ethically Bayesian approaches should change how we write archaeology. Journal of Social Archaeology, 23(2), 173-192.
Lucas, G., & Vésteinsson, O. (2024). The future of periodization. Dissecting the legacy of culture history. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 34(4), 637-652.
The 6th Annual Debates in Archaeology Symposium
TEACHING THE PAST TO IMPACT THE PRESENT: ENGAGING STUDENTS FOR A 21 CENTURY WORLD
September 19th-20th 2025
With several recent publications and conference sessions on teaching and learning in archaeological undergraduate education, pedagogy is having a moment in the spotlight. Course instructors recognize that changing how and what we teach is fundamental to disciplinary transformation and to creating new generations of archaeologists who understand the power dynamics inherent in archaeological practice, the importance of communityengagement, and the links between archaeology and heritage. A 21 Century archaeology classroom contains both students who wish to become archaeologists and heritage professionals, alongside those who will choose a whole range of different and diverse careers beyond archaeology and heritage. What does an undergraduate degree in archaeology offer this range of students? We think it can offer a lot. Archaeology is about relationships between materials, landscapes, people, and power that not only help us understand the past, but the present, and the future. A considered archaeology education then, can play a role in creating an engaged, questioning, disruptive, transformative and emancipated student body (Cobb and Croucher 2020, sensu hooks 1994). In this Debates session, we bring together instructors who have been thinking critically about their teaching, and by extension, the value of an archaeological education. For example, how can we design and teach curricula that contain the potential for transformation, or learning that will be remembered over the long term? Can we develop courses that teach archaeological concepts and skills, but that also help students see possibilities in what feels like an increasingly complex world? How can we help them to make sense of the new and unfamiliar? An education in archaeology is not going to solve the world’s problems, but can we encourage action, push-back against injustice, and counter despair? Papers in this session address these questions through several sub-themes: Climate Crisis, the Anthropocene and Resilience; Emancipatory Pedagogies; Digital Teaching and Digital Disruptions; Beyond the Classroom; Playful Learning and beyond: learning and assessing differently. As leaders in this field and the founders of Society for Teaching and Learning in Archaeology and Heritage, Hannah Cobb (University of Manchester) and Karina Croucher (University of Bradford) will be keynote speakers at this event.
References:
Cobb, Hannah, and Karina Croucher. 2020. Assembling Archaeology: Teaching, Research, and Practice. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Hooks, Bell. 1994. Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. Routledge, New York.
The 5th Annual Debates in Archaeology Symposium
SACRED FLAMES: THE PLACE OF FIRE IN RITUAL, RELIGION, AND COSMOLOGY
September 20th-21st 2024
Use of fire is a human universal. Most evolutionary researvh on fire privileges its role in adaptations, particularly the importance of cooking within the hominin lineage. However, human engagements with fire were complex and multiple, and it played an especially important role in ritual, religion, and cosmology. A venerated source of power, creation, life, destruction, and divination, fire secured center stage in many religious traditions, ranging from Vedic rites and Zoroastrianism to Shang pyromancy (oracle bones) and the early fire temples of the Andean pre ceramic period. Fire also commonly mediated relationships between divine powers and dependent mortals as demonstrated by rites of cremation and the burning of incense documented across cultures. the ubiquity of world myths on the “theft of fire,” exemplified by the legend of Prometheus, further reveals the ambivalent status of fire as a bridge linkong ontological others. In this workshop, we will explore the intersection of fire and the sacred drawing on archaeological, historical, and ethnographic insights. Among the questions we will pose: were singular meanings attached to fire across cultures and time periods? How do the sensory aspects of fire, such as heat and the smells in incense, factor in the use of fire in ritual? Are there tendencies across religious systems to contain and channel the power of fire? Why is fire (immolation) a cross-cultural vehicle of sacrifice and offering? As one of the primal elements, how does fire relate to other aspects of the environment such as water, air, the sun, and the earth itself? How did the sacrality of fire differently condition its quotidian uses, such as cooking, keeping warm, and diverse tecnlological processes? How can archaeologists interpret the diverse symbolism and ritual meanings of fire from the archaeological record? How is fire associated with the eternal, the soul, and with life? We will address these interrelated themes in light of the climate crisis that has forced a renewed consideration of fire and how we can adapt the role it plays in our world.
The 4th Annual Debates in Archaeology Symposium
THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF ALTERNATIVE URBANISMS IN THE TROPICAL WORLD IN THE CONTEXT OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES: LASERS, RADAR, AND AI
April 21 & 22, 2023
Archaeologists have long doubted that tropical environments could sustain large-scale urban complexes or extended, intensive agricultural systems in pre-modern times. However, compelling evidence is emerging that complex social formations flourished in densely vegetated or re-engineered tropical ecosystems. Across the globe in tropical forest environments, archaeologists have identified the material correlates for early urbanism, domestication, intensive and extensive agriculture, and infrastructural development on a scale that rivals the urban landscapes of non-tropical regions. In recent years, remote-sensing techniques, including lidar and ground penetrating radar, have revolutionized our understanding of preindustrial urbanization and imperial expansion in tropical and non-tropical environments (Canuto et al. 2018; Heckenberger et al. 2008; Klassen et al. 2021; Sarathi (ed) 2018; Ur 2010). New developments in artificial intelligence and novel approaches such as settlement scaling have also significantly advanced our analysis of these processes (Ortman et al. 2015). The invited Keynote speaker and 5 panelists will debate whether preindustrial urbanism in tropical forest ecologies share unique structures, institutions, landscapes, and historical trajectories, and they will evaluate in turn how urban polities in the tropics compare with cities and hierarchical social formations that developed in other regions of the world. For instance, does low-density urbanism constitute a common feature of cities in tropical environments, and how can we explain alternate settlement systems and historical variations in the social and economic organization of green cities? As a corollary, what generalizations can be made about tropical urban landscapes in terms of neighborhood associations, urban planning, investments in infrastructures, and the integration of cities in larger political systems?In addition, speakers will assess the contributions and limitations of new technologies in the study of tropical urbanism, including lidar and AI. In the end, the talks will present a variety of case studies of alternate urban political orders from tropical climates across the world.
This conference will be hybrid. For in-person: 19 Ursula Franklin Street, AP 246. Registration is required for those attending online. You can register once for both days of the conference. Please click here. You can download the schedule and abstracts of the talks below.
References:
Canuto, M.A., F. Estrada-Belli, T. G. Garrison, S. D. Houston, M. J. Acuña, M. Kováč, D. Marken, P. Nondédéo, L. Auld-Thomas, C. Castanet, D. Chatelain, C. R. Chiriboga, T. Drápela, T. Lieskovský, A. Tokovinine, A. Velasquez, J. C. Fernández-Díaz, and R. Shrestha (2018). Ancient lowland Maya complexity as revealed by airborne laser scanning of northern Guatemala. Science, 361.
Heckenberger, M., Russell J.C., Fausto, C., Toney, J.R., Schmidt, M.J., Pereira, E., Franchetto, B., and A. Kuikuro (2008). Pre-Columbian urbanism, anthropogenic landscapes, and the future of the Amazon. Science, 321.
Klassen, S., Carter, A., Evans, D., Ortman, S., Stark, M., Loyless, A., Polkinghorne, M., Heng, P.,Hill, M., Wijker, P., Niles-Weed, J., Marriner, G., Pottier, C., and R. Fletcher (2021). Diachronic modeling of the population within the medieval Greater Angkor Region settlement complex. Science Advances, 7 (19).
Sarathi, A. (ed) (2018). Early Maritime Cultures on the East African Coast and the Western Indian Ocean. Archaeopress, Cambridge.
Ur, J. (2010). Cycles of Civilization in northern Mesopotamia, 4400-2000 BC. Journal of Archaeological Research, 18 (4).
Keynote Speakers: Scott Ortman (University of Colorado); Jason Ur (Harvard University)
Panelists: Marcello Canuto (Tulane); Michael Heckenberger (University of Florida); Sarah Klassen (UofT); Akshay Sarathi (Texas A&M); Anna S. Cohen (Utah State University).
