News: New deadline for contributions to Conference proceedings : 5th March!

Stars and Stones:

Voyages in Archaeoastronomy and Cultural Astronomy - A meeting of different worlds

Stonehenge (Clive Ruggles, www.cliveruggles.net)

Thank you for your participation!

Photos of SEAC 2011, Évora

• Group picture in Almendres
• SEAC 2011
• Half-day visit to Almendres
• Half-day visit to Almendres
• Half-day visit to Almendres
• Half-day visit to Anta Grande do Zambujeiro
• Replicas of old nautical instruments exhibition
• Week-end excursion "Rock Art between Alva and Ceira rivers"
• Week-end excursion "Rock Art between Alva and Ceira rivers"
• Week-end excursion "Rock Art between Alva and Ceira rivers"
• Week-end excursion in Conímbriga
• SEAC 2011
• SEAC 2011
• Half-day visit to Almendres
• Half-day visit to Anta Grande do Zambujeiro
• Half-day visit tour in Évora
• SEAC 2011
• SEAC 2011
• SEAC 2011 closing dinner
• Saturday morning excursion to Herdade das Murteiras

Rationale

Since Prehistory the sky has always been integrated as part of the cosmovision of human societies. It played a fundamental role not only in space orientation, in the time organization, in ritual practices or in celestial divination but it also has had an element of power.

Migrations and voyages are intrinsic to Humankind; they opened the routes for cultural diffusion and trade, and also for power dominance. Following these routes is also to follow their cultural diversity, how they met or clashed. The sky and astronomical phenomena provided the tools for time reckoning, calendar organization and celestial navigation that supported these voyages. Astronomy gives us today the capacity to reproduce the sky, opening a window through which we can glimpse how those societies perceived, integrated and manipulated the sky into their world views and their myths, and, ultimately, into their social organization.

A voyage is always a meeting of different worlds and a process to accept diversity. We wish this Conference to also be a meeting of different worlds in the invited lectures, in the public lectures, in the LOC/SOC and in the audience.

Themes

The title of the 19th congress of SEAC in 2011 is
"Stars and Stones: Voyages in Archaeoastronomy and Cultural Astronomy - A meeting of different worlds".

The main conference topics are:
• Techniques of celestial navigation and orientation of the past. Astronomical navigation and nautical instruments in the XIVth, XVth and XVIth centuries.
• Expressions of astronomical knowledge in monuments, rock art, archaeology and landscape. People migration, a meeting between different cultures.
• History of astronomy. A meeting of different concepts.
• Astronomy and the Jesuits. A meeting between different worlds.
• Astronomy in antiquity. A meeting of different knowledge.
• Ethnoastronomy and myths, voyages in space and in time through different cultures.

We will challenge the speakers to start their lectures as a voyage history, presenting different perspectives:
a history from a discovery or excavation, a voyage through cultures, a meeting between cultures.

SEAC2011 includes:
• Excursions and visits for participants
• Exhibition Antikythera Mechanism
• Public sessions

Venue

SEAC 2011 will take place in Évora, Portugal. It is hosted by the History Department of the University of Évora and the sessions are held in the University Auditorium.

Évora and its University offer a unique setting for a SEAC conference. The Évora district is one of the richest areas of megalithic Iberia and has been systematically studied by archaeoastronomers in recent years. The University of Évora occupies the former building of the only Portuguese Jesuit University and has auditoriums for more than 100 participants. Évora is also linked to Lisbon by bus and train connections.

This museum-city, the roots of which go back to Roman times, reached its Golden Age in the 15th century, when it became the residence of the Portuguese kings. Its unique quality stems from the whitewashed houses decorated with azulejos and wrought-iron balconies dating from the 16th to the 18th century. Its monuments had a profound influence on Portuguese architecture in Brazil (source: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/361).

SEAC 2011 will be part of the 25th anniversary celebration of Évora being in the UNESCO World Heritage list.

For information on accommodation and transport click here...

Dates

15th March - Grant for accomodation;
1st April - SEAC travel Grant
31st May 2011 - Deadline for abstract submission (The authors will be informed whether their proposal has been accepted before 1st June or 15th June for those who submitted their proposal after 1st May)
Extended to 15th August - Deadline for regular registration (for students: 1st September 2011)
18th September 2011 - Arrival date
19th to 23th September 2011 - Conference in Évora
24th-25th September 2011 - Full day excursion to Seia
5th March 2012 - submission deadline for contributions to the proceedings

Confirmed Invited Speakers

Michael A. Rappenglück, Lionel Sims, Manuel Calado, Cândido Marciano da Silva, Stanisław Iwaniszewski, Emília Pásztor, Frank Prendergast, Giulio Magli, A. César González-García, Malhăo Pereira, Jarita Holbrook, Henrique Leităo, Shi Yunli, David Pankenier, Ivan Šprajc, Alejandro Martín Lopez, Nicholas Campion, J. McKim Malville, Juan Antonio Belmonte Avilés, Luísa Pereira, Clive Ruggles.

Speakers in Public Sessions

Juan Antonio Belmonte Avilés, Luísa Pereira, Clive Ruggles.

Abstract submission (papers & posters) - CLOSED

Send extended abstracts (length: 400-500 words and at least 3 references) written in English to the chairpersons of the LOC:

Fernando Pimenta fernando.pimenta@apia.pt
and
Nuno Ribeiro nuno.ribeiro@apia.pt

Deadline for the submission of abstracts: May 31st, 2011. You will be informed till June 15th, 2011 whether the abstract has been accepted.

Like the oral presentations, posters will only be accepted for presentation at the conference if the author is personally present. In case that there are too many applications for oral presentations, the SOC will decide which ones should instead be presented as posters. Posters are no “second class” presentations! Posters which have been accepted for publication in the conference proceedings will get the same number of pages as the oral presentations. Posters can be sized up to 1 page following the ISO 126 (A0: 841 x 1189 mm or 33.1 x 46.8 in.)

Conference Proceedings

We will publish a volume of the contributions having about 470 pages, through BAR (British Archaeological Reports). The volume includes the preface, the invited lectures, the normal contributions, the posters, together with a subject index. Important: All contributions will undergo a peer review process. The page size will be A4; we will allow 8 pages for invited talks and 5 pages for talks and posters, including an abstract with keywords and references.

You should send us your contribution till March, 5, 2012. Please follow the guidelines available here:

• Notes for contributors
• Template .dot
• Template .dotx

You will be informed about the status of your paper. In case the paper is accepted for publication there will be a grammatical correction by a native speaker to ensure high quality.

Attention: If you have images included in your paper, please add a signed declaration (including address and date), which explains that you are the owner of the copyright of the images. Please send your paper, the images, and the declaration to fernando.pimenta@apia.pt.

Grants and accommodation aids - CLOSED