Of Spriggans, Periwigians and Cornish ancient monuments: Hidden treasures in British Library Additional Manuscript 51020 of the early 18th Century
Seminar
This is a hybrid seminar co-hosted by the Centre for Archaeological Research and Centre for Early Modern Studies. Please register if you are attending online. Registration is not necessary for in-person attendance. BL Additional Manuscript 51020 is misidentified in the…
Black Spots: Reflections on Caste, Desire, and Discards in Bengaluru, India
Seminar
Bengaluru, a city whose high technology firms serve as signposts of a ‘modern’, ‘caste-less’ India, is perpetually plagued by garbage pileups, clogged sewers, and leaching landfills. Vernacularly referred to as ‘black spots’, such sites of public litter contain objects city inhabitants once desired…
Postgraduate Student Short Talks
Seminar
In this seminar, we will be having three prostgraduate students to give short talks: Iona Claringbold: Zooarchaeology and Polynesian Ritual Sites: New regional approaches to human-animal relationships Emily Nutman: Geological sourcing in Sahul: documenting 50,000 years of human…
Tracing the threads of linguistic and genetic diversity in New Guinea
Seminar
New Guinea is the heart of global linguistic diversity. New Guinea makes up 1% of the global land area as an island, containing less than 0.2% of the world's population and 20% of all languages. The obvious linguistic and anthropological question is why? There are many social and evolutionary…
Chicken Shit and Bare Life: the ritual economy of India's chickens
Seminar
This talk delves into the complexities of India's evolving poultry industry, reflecting on the social, cultural and economic aspects to do with the shift from 'traditional' to 'modern' farming. It examines the implications of these changes on labor relations, land use, and the environment, with a…
A Late Quaternary faunal sequence from Lachitu Cave, PNG: Advances in understanding biodiversity and human subsistence in the northern New Guinea lowlands
Seminar
The cave site of Lachitu (RIQ) on the Vanimo coast of New Guinea preserves a large faunal assemblage covering the last few centuries to ~30,000 years ago, offering a unique insight into the subsistence strategy of humans in northern New Guinea from the Pleistocene through to contemporary times.…
Uncovering Kuwae’s Past: recent fieldwork on Epi Island, Vanuatu
Seminar
In the fifteenth century CE, a massive volcanic eruption on the island of Kuwae reshaped the physical and social landscapes of Central Vanuatu. The disaster resulted in the destruction of a large portion of Kuwae, creating a submarine caldera more than 12 kilometres wide, which separates the…