Trans-Mediterranean humans. Rethinking human representation in the Neolithic and Bronze Age around the Mediterranean sea

The workshop will focus on the human representation in Neolithic and Bronze Age communities around and across the Mediterranean basin. The encoding of the human figure is, in fact, a so far under-exploited proxy for the reconstruction of the ideological world of the communities facing the sea. A general reassessment of the evidence on a trans-cultural basis can pave the way for a more nuanced understanding of Mediterranean shared cultural traits and peculiarities. The main aim of the workshop is to bring together scholars of different areas of study, in a central Mediterranean location, in order to share and discuss the different methods and goals in approaching human representation, and the results obtained. This topic is one of the most discussed in the anthropological world, even if it has been mainly restricted to the human figurines. The recent reappraisal of wider Mediterranean perspectives points to the importance of going beyond the traditional dichotomous interpretation, polarised between autochthonous development and diffusionism. A two-fold challenge will be proposed to workshop participants: i. to consider a wider range of evidence encoding human representations, including rock art; and ii. to extend the area of interest from North Africa – including the Saharan massifs- to the European mountain chains preceding the Central European plains. In fact, on one side, the human representation has mainly been selectively approached partitioning different types of art (rock art, figurines, pottery decoration, etc.), on the other, the role of the southern side of the Mediterranean Sea has been substantially neglected, but for the dynastic Egyptian iconography, and comprehensive views have only been proposed in a diffusionist perspective.