Conference: The Color of Things

The Color of Things - Debating the Role and Future of Color in Archaeology, TAG Stanford University

Please find below the abstract and finalized program for the TAG session "The Color of Things- Debating the Role and Future of Color in Archaeology" to be held at Stanford University on Sunday May 3, 2009.

All papers will be held in the Lane History Corner, Stanford University Central Campus, 450 Serra Mall, Building 200, Room 013.

Abstract:

According to David Batchelor, author of Chromophobia (2000) color, though bound up with the fate of culture has been systematically marginalized and degraded in academic studies. Color would not easily fit into current intellectual debates on social constructs, has become increasingly anti-disciplinary. On the other hand, anthropologists, conservation specialists and archaeologists have increasingly realized that pigments and dyes constitute an integral part of the environment of both, early and modern societies (e.g. Jones and MacGregor 2001).

"The Color of Things - Debating the role and future of Color in Archaeology" will gather scholars from various academic disciplines in order to discuss the need for theoretical frameworks when integrating color in material culture studies. How did color become so marginalized in academic studies? How does our current thinking about color reflect and prejudice our understanding of the past and present? Is color a useful tool to reconstruct patterns of identity, interaction and influence? How is color detectable in the material record and how far do colors and colored artifacts materialize voices?

The workshop seeks to explore a wide range of current approaches to color, and demonstrate how results achieved through interdisciplinary research can form an integrative part of general science. Short video clips will introduce institutions important for anyone interested in the archaeology related to colors, pigments and dyes. While the first part of the session will be in a discussion-based format with 20-30 minute papers, the second part is aimed towards a more general discussion. Though papers focus on examples from the ancient Near East, Central Asia, Egypt, and Mediterranean Europe, comparative studies will be included.


9-9:10: Introduction, Alexander Nagel, session organizer

9:10-9:30am: Color, Perception and Value: New Perspectives on Early Glass, Chloe Duckworth (University of Nottingham)

9:30-9:50am: Color Symbolism in the Ancient Near East: The Royal Tombs of the Cemetery of Ur, Martina Zanon (Università Ca' Foscari, Venezia,
Italy)

9:50-10:10am: An Archaeology of the Aesthetic: Examination of the Güzel Ta? from Fistikli Höyük, Jayme L. Job (State University of New York, Binghamton)

10:30-11:00am COFFEE BREAK

11:00-11:20am: Colorful Images of the Greek Neolithic, Stella Katsarou-Tzeveleki (Hellenic Ministry of Culture, Ephorate of Palaeoanthropology-Spelaeology of Southern Greece)

11:20-11:40am: Seeing Red: Color as a Ritual Cue on Egyptian Female Figurines, Elizabeth A. Waraksa (University of California, Los Angeles)

11:40-12:00pm: Polychrome: More Than (One) Color, Susanne Ebbinghaus (Harvard University)

BREAK: Lunch provided in Archaeology Center

2:00-2:20pm: Color Power: Exploring Color and Status in Early Chorasmian Elite Mural Art, Fiona Kidd (Department of Archaeology, University of Sydney)

2:20-2:40pm: Color on Hellenistic Sculptures & Terracotta Figurines:
Polychrome additions and what they tell us (Clarissa Blume, University of Heidelberg)

2:40-3:00pm: Colored History: The European Polychromy Debate of the 19th Century and the Contribution of Spain, María Ocón Fernández (Freie Universität, Berlin)

3:00-4:00pm
Roundtable: Response and Discussion

For abstracts, have a look at the website:
http://www.stanford.edu/dept/archaeology/cgi-bin/TAG/drupal/?q=content/the-color-things-debating-role-and-future-color-archaeology

contact: [email protected]

Alexander Nagel
Interdepartmental Program in Classical Art and Archaeology University of Michigan Kelsey Museum of Archaeology
434 South State Street - Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1390
Phone: 734 764 6323 - Fax: 734 763 8976
www.umich.edu/~ipcaa/

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