19-21 October 2018

 

The second international meeting of the Unlocking Sacred Landscapes (UnSaLa) network, was held from 19-21 October 2018 in the Laboratory of Geophysical-Satellite Remote Sensing and Archaeo-environment (Melissinou & Nikiforou Foka 130) at Rethymnon, Crete, in the framework of the research project "Unlocking the Sacred Landscapes of Cyprus" (UnSaLa-CY), co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund and the Republic of Cyprus through the Research and Innovation Foundation (Project: EXCELLENCE/1216/0362).

 

The meeting focussed on digital approaches both to ritual space and to artefacts relating to ritual practice and cult. The terms ritual and cult are used broadly to include sanctuaries, temples, and churches, as well as the domestic and funerary spheres of life. The papers delivered had a strong methodological focus on computational developments, digitisation processes and spatial analysis. Although the main focus of the network is the Mediterranean region, we also included relevant papers from colleagues working in other areas of the world, with a view to stimulating wider methodological dialogues and comparative approaches. The chronological span covered ranges from prehistory to the recent past, and including cultural heritage management.

 

In particular, we welcomed archaeological, art-historical, anthropological, ethnographic, historical, computational, cultural heritage or inter-disciplinary papers dealing with:

 

(1) inter- and intra-site Geographic Information System (GIS) approaches and spatial statistics and modelling of ritual space and/or its associated material assemblages,

 

(2) digitisation and virtual reconstruction of ritual space and/or its associated material assemblages,

 

(3) remote sensing\aerial\satellite approaches to ritual space,

 

(4) other computational methods and developments (e.g. space syntax and 3D modelling) applied to ritual space and/or its associated material assemblages,

 

(5) digital approaches to culture heritage management and culture heritage studies of ritual space and/or its associated material assemblages,

 

(6) digital approaches to phenomenological, performative and experiential analyses related to ritual space and/or its associated material assemblages.

 

The official language of the workshop was English. Selected papers of the workshop are now published in the form of a peer-reviewed collection of studies as a special issue with Open Archaeology (open access journal).

 

 

Download the Programme and Abstracts of the Workshop.

 

 

Dr Giorgos Papantoniou (University of Cyprus)

Dr Apostolos Sarris (formerly at the Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas)

Dr Christine E. Morris (The University of Dublin, Trinity College)

Dr Athanasios K. Vionis (University of Cyprus)