MESO2025 - Session 10. Rites and symbols

Coordinated by Liv Nilsson Stutz and Tomasz Płonka

Abstract

Rituals and symbols were an important part of life in Mesolithic societies. In this session, we invite papers that discuss various aspects of the symbolic culture and ritual practice among hunter-gatherer-fishers from the Early and Middle Holocene, including portable and rock art, graves and various manipulations of the human body, different types of ornaments and their use, ways of preparing and  using pigments, and other artefacts and contexts  related to the world of rituals and symbols of Stone Age foragers.

How can we identify ritual practice and symbols in  the archaeological record from this period? How did  these ritual practices and symbolic artefacts  function? What role did they play in the life of hunter-gatherer-fisher groups, and how did they function in  the social space? Who made symbolic artefacts and  who used them? How were the media and raw  material for symbolic communication selected and  handled? What can the material culture record tell us  about hunter-gatherer-fisher cosmologies?

One important focus for the session is the evidence of ritual practices and symbolic communication  revealed through detailed contextual analysis.  Another significant area is the theoretical approaches available to us as we interpret it. We welcome papers addressing both theoretical aspects of research on rituals and symbols within broader hunter-gatherer-fisher cosmology, and specific and detailed case  studies.