Conference Outline
This three-day conference explores the agricultural basis of different forms of urbanization in the millennia following the establishment of farming and herding in western Asia and Europe. It brings together results of the ERC-funded AGRICURB (‘The agricultural origins of urban civilization’) project at Oxford, which investigates the comparative ecology of farming and herding practices through regional pathways to urbanization in western Asia, the Aegean and central Europe (7th to 1st millennia cal BC).
The goal of this meeting is to reassess notions of agricultural ‘intensification’ in these regions and beyond, at a time when advances in archaeological science afford greater resolution, and complementarity, of inference on crop growing conditions, herd management strategies and social geographies of land use. Moreover, public interest in the present-day resilience, sustainability and biodiversity of industrialized and traditional farming systems is fostering greater scrutiny of early farming regimes and their long-term social and wider ecological demands.
Registration
Registration is now closed. We look forward to seeing everyone who has registered at the conference.
Confirmed Speakers
Stelios Andreou, Amy Bogaard, Charlotte Diffey, Manuel Fernández-Götz, Dorian Fuller, Laura Green, Paul Halstead, Eleni Hatzaki, Valasia Isaakidou, Jed Kaplan, Rüdiger Krause, Kevin MacDonald, Augusta McMahon, Erika Nitsch, Cameron Petrie, Ulf Schoop, Elizabeth Stroud, Amy Styring, Margareta Tengberg, Jason Ur, Petra Vaiglova and Todd Whitelaw
Promotional Material
Posters
We very much encourage delegates to bring a poster to stimulate discussion of their work during coffee and lunch breaks.
Posters should be no larger than A1 (594 x 841 mm) and in portrait layout.
Accommodation
Oxford Rooms offers an opportunity to book reasonably priced bed and breakfast accommodation in several Oxford colleges (from £40 per night).