Session 4: Bodies, Materials, and Time: Production, Transformation, and Preservation

Biological and chemical residues preserved on or within archaeological bodies and artifacts represent essential archives for documenting technical practices, social uses, and the relationships between humans, human bodies, worked materials, and past and present environments. This session aims to explore the biography of objects and remains, from the acquisition of raw materials to their transformation, handling, deposition, and the conditions of their preservation.

Presentations on manufactured objects may address the identification of natural substances used, the functionality of objects, their multiple or repurposed uses, wear and degradation processes (as chronological markers), contamination phenomena, and taphonomic processes influencing the preservation of biomolecules. A segment of the session will also focus on taphonomic processes affecting human or animal remains, from depositional contexts to their discovery and conservation, thereby addressing museum preservation issues as well.

Particular attention will be given to integrated approaches combining analytical data from molecular archaeology, bioarchaeology, organic material dating, traceology, and sedimentary or archaeological contexts to understand the materiality of past practices and their long-term significance.

Keywords:

• Identification
• Taphonomy
• Preservation
• Technical practices
• Object biography