5. December 2020 @ 08:00 – 6. December 2020 @ 17:00
The Iranian central plateau, just as the entire Iranian highlands, has been shaped by very
specific resource conditions in some cases. This affects different weather phenomena (e.g.
the so–called wind of 120 days: bad–e sad–e–bist ruz) as well as the degree of aridisation
or the varying degrees of available mineral raw materials. These conditions have favoured
the development of different but also specific practices with and knowledge–complexes
about individual resources within past societies. Everyday practices of resource
acquisition and use can thus be understood as culturally integrating latent factors, which
in turn have to be examined diachronically in regards to their particular appearance, their
temporal representation as well as their effect on subsistence and exchange systems.
Therefore, the workshop will start with lectures on environmental conditions during the
Holocene, discussing diachronic change in living conditions and resource availabilities in
the arid zones of the Central Plateau. They possibly have favoured the development of
specific technologies, but conversely, they also highlight tipping points that led to the
emergence of approving or crisis–ridden perceptions in societies. In particular, the
interdependence on water supply, specific forms of herd use and nomadism, wind use,
and the appropriation of raw materials are to be discussed in individual sections of the
conference each with three to five lectures.
Sessions:
• Fundamentals of a specific environment: climate, vegetation, soils and land–use
potentials
• Water use and hydraulic engineering systems
• Practices in wind use
• Appropriation of landscape by (traditional) subsistence systems
• Appropriation of raw materials and mining in premodern Iran
Organisers:
DFG–Priority–Programme (SPP) 2176: The Iranian Highland: Resiliences and Integration
in Premodern Societies
In particular:
Professor Dr. Thomas Stöllner (Ruhr–University Bochum and German Mining Museum),
Dr Kristina A. Franke (Ruhr–University Bochum and German Mining Museum)
PD Dr. Martin Kehl (Koblenz University)
Dr. Nima Nezafati (German Mining Museum)
Dr. Moslem Mishmastnehi (University of Bamberg)
Publication:
Click here or on the image above to be redirected to the publisher’s page for this publication.
Programme:
The workshop programme will be available soon.