Format: Paper presentations with discussion
Convenors:
Paula Gheorghiade, Social Resilience Lab, University of Aarhus, Denmark, paula.gheorghiade@gmail.com
Marta Lorenzon, ANEE, University of Helsinki, Finland, marta.lorenzon@helsinki.fi
How do human and non-human relationships shape the spaces we inhabit? Anthropological approaches to architecture, for example, stress the importance of in-depth studies of architectural spaces as tools for understanding the social role for communities and individuals that inhabit them. But built spaces are also highly influenced by their landscape, availability of resources, climate, and technological innovation(s). How can we understand these changes and what do they tell us about the importance of micro- and meso- human and non-human connections in past societies? Specifically, how can we study the ancient built environment as a multitude of human and non-human connections? In this session, we aim to move beyond human-centric narratives that see buildings as static, human constructions and to consider aspects of the built environment as dynamic, always changing in tandem with the landscape, human actors, materials and other non-human agents. With this aim, we welcome papers that engage with (but are not limited to) the following broader ideas/themes:
- Human-Non-Human Interaction in the Built Environment: How do materials, landscapes, and non-human actors (animals, plants, climate forces) participate in construction and habitation?
- Ecological Building and Sustainability: What role does the natural world play in shaping architectural traditions, and how do ancient and contemporary societies negotiate resilience in response to environmental challenges?
- Architecture as Collaboration: How do the affordances and constraints of materials, tools, and non-human agencies guide the creation and maintenance of structures?
- Built Spaces as Networked Environments: How do architecture and infrastructure reflect broader systems of social, economic, and ecological connectivity?
By integrating archaeological, anthropological, and interdisciplinary perspectives, this session aims to challenge static views of architecture and instead highlight the fluid, relational nature of built spaces. We invite papers that explore these and related themes across diverse temporal and geographical contexts.
Papers:
Human Neurobiology as Urban Planner: The Role of ‘Social Buffering’ in Hunter-gatherer Settlement Design
Aaron Olsen, The University of Sydney; Urbis Ltd, Australia
The population density of contemporary hunter-gatherer settlements has been observed to vary dramatically. In some hunter-gatherer settlements, households experience crowding that rivals high density cities, such as Dhaka and Manila. Elsewhere, neighbouring households are barely within earshot of one another. Various hypotheses have been proposed to explain this variability, but none offer an adequate explanation. The present study considers the role of ‘social buffering’ as a primary determinant of population density in hunter-gatherer settlements. Social buffering is a neurobiological phenomenon, observed throughout the animal world, whereby stress is reduced through physical proximity to social affiliates. By reducing the stress of uncertainty, high population densities may thus be an adaptation to natural and technological landscapes in which foraging, especially hunting, carries with it a high risk of failure for the individual household. Statistical analysis of inter-dwelling distances in hunter-gatherer settlements, sourced from ethnographic and archaeological records, supports this hypothesis. The findings of the present study have implications for interpretation of archaeological sites and for our understanding of how humans interact with, and are impacted by, the built environment.
Calthemitic Sticky Thinking: Investigating Creative In-animacies
Janet Tryner, MA Contemporary Art & Archaeology, University of the Highlands and Islands, UK
This is an online presentation of a UK Midlands-based study of pseudo-karst, ‘calthemite’ – aka urban stalactite, via interdisciplinary contemporary art-archaeology (and final project for the artist’s MA Contemporary Art & Archaeology at UHI Orkney). Through creative practice-based research, this ongoing project considers agentic bio-geomorphic traces of water intersecting with contaminated airs, more-than-human reshaping of urban architectures, and spatiotemporal cement landscapes, as spaces that provide opportunity for flows of fossil matters to intersect.
The study began with personalisation of calthemite, as more-than-human collectors of matter – ‘Archaeologists of Airs’ – as collaborative partners. It navigated the vulnerabilities inherent in more-than-human collaborative partnerships to develop creative research methodologies, of mentorship by in-animacies and serendipitous research tools. It takes inspiration from vital materialism, Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Grammar of Animacy, and Mark Fisher’s ‘weird’, claiming value to research in leaning into the weird and creepy to interrogate worlding by biochemical minerals which revivify their structural pasts. Instead of finding inertia, calthemite is found to have delightfully obstinate, persistently sticky-with-others emergent qualities. There is much to learn from this kind of being-with.
Constructing Sustainability: Socio-Ecological Insights from Early Neolithic Earthen Architecture in Central Anatolia (Turkey)
Melis Uzdurum, University of Helsinki, Finland; Ondokuz Mayıs University, Türkiye
Earthen architecture has provided critical insights into socio-environmental dynamics since prehistoric times. During the transition from mobile to sedentary lifestyles, earthen structures facilitated dwelling, social interactions, animal husbandry, and storage, exemplifying sustainable building practices through the use of local materials. Incorporating vegetal and animal-based additives, raw material sourcing, and adaptations to environmental conditions, mudbrick (kerpiç, a specific term used in Turkish) embodies ecological and cultural interactions between human and non-human entities.
This study focuses on the Early Neolithic site of Aşıklı Höyük (8400–7750 BCE) in Cappadocia, Central Anatolia, Turkey, notable for its exceptionally preserved kerpiç architecture. The settlement was continuously inhabited for approximately one thousand years, characterised by a transition from round-plan structures to rectangular permanent buildings consistently constructed using earthen materials. Micromorphological analyses reveal innovative uses of vegetal and animal-based materials and recycling of domestic waste in kerpiç production. These strategies represent early sustainability practices and cognitive experimentation aimed at constructing durable, resilient structures.
By examining these ancient practices, this paper challenges human-centric interpretations and demonstrates the potential of prehistoric earthen building techniques to inspire contemporary sustainable architecture and eco-friendly construction materials.
Mind, Materiality and Memory: The Entanglements Within the Built Environment
Marta Lorenzon, ANEE, University of Helsinki, Finland
This contribution explores the role of neuroarchitecture and sensory archaeology in shaping the perception of earthen building materials and vernacular architecture. First, I examine the sensory experience of mudbrick manufacturing, focusing on tactile and olfactory perception through ethnographic and textual analysis. Second, I analyse archaeological remains to assess how earthen and mixed material architecture was perceived over time in Western Asia, particularly in urban centres like Assur. In this latter endeavour, I explore how people lived in and experienced the built environment in their daily lives. While archaeology is often visually oriented, I argue that architecture created a multisensory experience, engaging all the senses and fostering a ‘material memory’ within communities of practice that affect both construction and daily-use.
The Dynamics of Decay – Reuse and Ruin Interactions at the Neolithic Settlement of Göbekli Tepe
Julia Schönicke, German Archaeological Institute
Göbekli Tepe (9500-8000 cal. BCE) in Upper Mesopotamia is well-known for its special buildings featuring monolithic pillars, displaying a complex iconography of zoomorphic, anthropomorphic, and abstract representations. They reflect both the animate and symbolic worlds of the inhabitants. But how did people acquire knowledge about their mitwelt, and how did they interact with it? Our modern understanding of Early Neolithic human/non-human entanglements often centres on hunting strategies and food consumption. As part of my study on dynamic Neolithic ruin interactions, I argue that multispecies encounters at Göbekli Tepe also took place within the framework of daily practices, less outcome-oriented activities, and curiosity. Through small-scale abandonment analyses, I have identified ruins within the still-inhabited settlement that people used as sources of building material, as middens, toilets, and playgrounds. Furthermore, I demonstrate how the decay of structures created new ecological niches for a variety of species on the otherwise sparsely vegetated limestone plateau—some of which even appear in the site’s iconography. By making ruins visible within the settlement layout, I highlight the dynamics of Neolithic architecture, offering a substantial contribution to challenging the perceived static nature of archaeological settlement plans and our understanding of ancient lifeways.