Deserts Conference 2003

[Paul Hesse]

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FIRST CIRCULAR: CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT

WAC Inter-Congress

15-18 January 2003, National Museum of Australia, Canberra, Australia


23 DEGREES SOUTH:
The Archaeology and Environmental History of Southern Deserts

Some of the great deserts of the world lie in the Southern Hemisphere,
astride the Tropic of Capricorn at 23oS:- the Atacama and Monte deserts in
South America; the Australian deserts; and the Namib and Kalahari deserts
in southern Africa.

The aim of this conference is to review and compare the archaeology and
environmental history of these regions, identifying common themes in human
responses to the limitations and variability of these environments, as well
contrasts in the environmental histories and Quaternary records of southern
deserts.  The conference will explore what happens when human social
systems interact with desert environments and how settlement, when combined
with climate change, has shaped these distinctive and often precarious
environments.  The ultimate aim is to better understand the settlement
history of these regions and the environmental differences between southern
deserts.

This is an opportunity to bring together desert archaeologists from the
three continents, together with researchers working on the environmental
history, palaeoenvironments and geomorphology of these fascinating regions.


Conference Themes
We particularly encourage review papers, regional studies and
interdisciplinary papers.  The conference will include a variety of
temporal and geographic perspectives on human interactions with desert
enironments, ranging from Quaternary time-scales through to historical
changes in these environments, from studies of late Pleistocene settlement
through to the archaeology of the colonial period.  Conference themes
include:
1. Colonising and recolonising arid lands
2. Environmental and Quaternary histories of southern deserts
3. The interaction of people and desert environments: disentangling human
impacts and responses.
4. The settlement histories of these deserts.
5. The contrasting rock art, graphic systems and cosmology of desert societies.
6. Interactions between foragers, herders and farmers, living on the edge.
7. Trade and exchange systems in southern deserts.
8. Interactions with polities outside the desert.

Academic sponsors
The academic sponsors of the conference are: the National Museum of
Australia; the World Archaeological Congress; the Centre for Archaeological
Research, Australian National University; and the IGCP413 program
(Understanding Future Dryland Changes From Past Dynamics), Sheffield Centre
for International Drylands Research, University of Sheffield UK.

Contact
Dr. Mike Smith, Convener.
E-mail: m.smith at nma.gov.au
Phone: 61-2-62085335 Fax  61-2-62085014
Mailing address: National Museum of Australia, GPO Box 1901
Canberra ACT 2601, AUSTRALIA

Venue and Dates:
The conference will be held from 15-18 January 2003, at the new National
Museum of Australia complex in Canberra, overlooking Lake Burley Griffin
and adjacent to the Australian National University.

Further details
Further details will be available shortly on the National MuseumÕs website
(www.nma.gov.au).  A formal call for papers will be issued in February 2002
but offers of papers or ideas for sessions are welcome before then and can
be sent to m.smith at nma.gov.au.



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          Dr Paul Hesse

           Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography

           Department of Physical Geography
           Macquarie University, Sydney
           NSW 2109
           Australia
           Phone  (+61)  02-9850 8384  Fax. (+61) 02-9850 8420
           e-mail  phesse at laurel.ocs.mq.edu.au
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