Seminar: Laszlo Bartosiewicz

On wednesday 3 PM Laszlo i holding a seminar "Beyond bones: birds, symbols and a touch of science", and straight after that we will have an employment award ceremony for him at floor 1.

Description of seminar:
Since the mid-19th century emergence of archaeology alongside with geology and zoology, interdisciplinarity has been a recurring issue in the interpretation of osteological finds. The 21th century “animal turn”, however, increased interest in the multi-faceted use of zoological knowledge in humanities.  
Excavations at the early Byzantine monastery of Tall Bī'a (northern Syria) revealed mosaic floors showing over fifty birds of varying identifiability. While zoological interpretations of artistic representation are limited by differences between the geographical distribution of birds and artistic freedom, the quality of these images offered an opportunity for archaeo-ornithological analysis. Comparisons with contemporaneous mosaics and osteological finds from different ecozones in Southwest Asia reveal parallels between birds in the landscape and art in light of both context and cognition. Since identifications were based on Linnaean taxonomy, bird species shown in in Byzantine manuscripts have also been considered in order to compare systematics.
This study approaches art from a distinctly ornithological point of view, contributing to conventional methods developed within other disciplines such as archaeology, art his¬tory and history of religion. The results potentially reflect not only relationships between people and birds in Late Antiquity, but also the challenges of reconciling methods between different disciplines.

Join via Zoom:
https://stockholmuniversity.zoom.us/j/67416344547