Preliminary Programme | XXI World Congress of the International Union of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences

Preliminary Programme

General Session Agenda

Sunday 30 August 2026

9:00 - 15.00

Pre-conference excursion (Morasko Meteorite Nature Reserve, AMU Museum of the Earth & Sobota)

Monday 31 August 2026

13:00 - 15:00

Registration
AMU Hall (Aula UAM), Wieniawskiego 1, Poznań

15:00 - 17:00

Opening ceremony (Part I) in the Adam Mickiewicz University Auditorium including keynote lecture (Professor Barbara Barich/Shifting Paradigms: The Impact of Multidisciplinary Developments on the Study of Relations between North Africa and the Near East during the Holocene,
AMU Hall (Aula UAM), Wieniawskiego 1, Poznań

17:00 - 17:30

Coffee break

17:30 - 19:00

Opening ceremony (Part II), including keynote lecture - Professor Tomasz Goslar / Bayesian Analysis of 14C Dating Results As A Chronometric Tool In Archaeological Studies – Various Examples From Poznan Radiocarbon Laboratory
AMU Hall (Aula UAM), Wieniawskiego 1, Poznań

19:00 - 22:00

Welcome reception - AMU Hall (Aula UAM), Wieniawskiego 1, Poznań

Tuesday 1 September 2026- Faculty of Archeology AMU (Uniwersytetu Poznańskiego 7 Str., Poznań)

9:00 - 15:50

GS2 - Museums and Public Archaeology

9:00 - 15:30

GS6 - Middle Palaeolithic

9:00 - 13:10

GS7 - Upper and Late Palaeolithic

9:00 - 13:30

S1D - Session title: Beyond Archaeology Alone: The Indispensable Role of Geoarchaeology in Understanding Human–Environment Dynamics Through Time

9:00 - 11:00

S1I - Novice and early career researchers in prehistory & protohistoric archaeology

9:00 - 18:00

2A - Digging into the archives

9:00 - 16:30

S6A+S6B - High altitudes

9:00 - 16:10

S8C - Beyond microscopy

9:00 - 16:30

S10B+S10C - Amber in ancient Europe and the Mediterranean area

9:00 - 15:10

S11F - Objects, arts, icons, and ideas: archaeological pathways of symbolic expression across cultures

9:00 - 13:30

S11G - Obsessive patterns: Visual recurrence and symbolic identity in prehistoric imagery

9:00 - 15:50

S14A - Before, during and after the Big Dry—Exploring the Gravettian and Epigravettian occupation of Europe

9:40 - 13:30

S15B - Friendly or hostile? How long did they last? Relations between the last Mesolithic hunters and the first Neolithic farmers

9:00 - 13:30

S16B - Holocene populations, networks and adaptations to new environments

9:00 - 12:10

S19A+S19B - Metallurgical territories and metal supply networks in prehistory and protohistory

9:00 - 18:00

S21A - North African deep histories

9:00 - 12:30

S21D - Timing and evolution of modern human origins in North Africa

9:00 - 13:30

S22B - Palaeolithic adaptations to Asian mountain environments

11:00 - 11:30

Coffee break

11:30 - 12:50

S1H - Museums, exhibitions, and collections-based research: Curatorial approaches to prehistoric and protohistoric heritage

11:30 - 18:00

S14C - The Early Upper Palaeolithic (EUP) in the Iberian Peninsula

11:30 - 14:50

S24A - Archaeoastronomy as a scientific tool for prehistoric and protohistoric research: Linking earth, sky, and cultural symbolism

13:30 - 14:30

Lunch break

14:30 - 18:00

S13C - Lost in translation: How differences in terminology shape our view of cultural evolution in the Paleolithic of Eurasia

18:30 - 19:30

Keynote lecture - Professor April Nowell / Paleolithic Children Come of Age

Wednesday 2 September 2026- Faculty of Archeology AMU (Uniwersytetu Poznańskiego 7 Str., Poznań)

9:00 - 11:00

GS1 Archaeological Theory and Methods

9:00 - 13:30

GS3 Bioarchaeology

9:00 - 12:50

S1A Prehistoric research Landscapes and Communities and the role of Knowledge

9:00 - 13:30

S1G Interdisciplinary approaches in studying the human past in Eastern Europe and beyond

9:00 - 13:30

S2A - Digging into the archives: new perspectives on documentary legacies in the history of archaeology

9:00 - 11:50

S2B Pioneers, power, and prehistory: Colonial-era scholarship in prehistoric archaeology

9:00 - 11:00

S3A Crossing frontiers in biological anthropology: New discoveries, technologies, and perspectives on human evolution

9:00 - 13:30

S4E Prey and hunters: Investigating subsistence strategies from the Pleistocene to the Holocene

9:00 - 11:00

S5C The Waterlogged Stone Age Sites of Central and Northern Europe: Progress and Challenges of Research

9:00 - 13:10

S8B Unveiling the unseen: Advanced imaging techniques for prehistoric material culture and contexts

9:00 - 13:10

S9B The diversity of the lithic technologies and behavioral adaptations across Eurasia over the last one million years

9:00 - 13:30

S11D The invisible in the visible: identifying potency and power in rock art imagery

9:00 - 13:30

S11E Archaeology, art and spirituality during prehistory and protohistory

9:00 - 11:00

S11I Depicted vs consumed: When rock art shows species absent from the faunal record

9:00 - 13:30

S14C The Early Upper Palaeolithic (EUP) in the Iberian Peninsula

9:00 - 11:00

S18A The mounted warrior and his companions (horse, dog) in Eurasian tombs (4th–1st millennia BC)

9:00 - 12:10

S18B Death-Ritual-Burial. Diversity of funeral rites in Central Europe during the Bronze and Iron Ages – New research perspectives

9:00 - 13:30

S18C Hoards! A new perspective: wear, landscape, provenance analysis

9:00 - 11:00

S21C New directions in African archaeobotany: Building inter- and intra-disciplinary collaborations

9:00 - 13:10

S22C Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transitions: Asian perspectives

9:00 - 12:10

S23C Chromatic Worlds: Colour Technologies, Material Choices and Symbolic Practices

9:00 - 12:50

S24D The archaeology of play: Unearthing the role of games in ancient community

11:00 - 11:30

Coffee break

13:30 - 14:30

Lunch break

15:00 - 20:00

Visiting the exhibition at the Archaeological Museum in Poznań, Wodna 27 Street

15:30 - 18:30

Guided tours of Poznań

15:30 - 16:30

Commissions 1-12 meeting

16:30 - 17:30

Commissions 13-23 meeting

Thursday 3 September 2026- Faculty of Archeology AMU (Uniwersytetu Poznańskiego 7 Str., Poznań)

9:00 - 15:10

GS4 Palaeoecology

9:00 - 11:00

GS12 African Prehistory

9:00 - 16:10

GS14 Prehistory of the Americas

9:00 - 13:30

S1C Trends, issues and perspectives of Artificial Intelligence systems in archaeological research

9:00 - 15:30

S1E Cave taphonomy: Beyond human subsistence strategies

9:00 - 12:50

S1J Proposal for a "Charter of Preventive Archaeology"

9:00 - 13:10

S2C Our Masters – research on the Late Paleolithic in the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century

9:40 - 17:00

S8A Archaeometry of prehistoric and protohistoric stone, metal, ceramics and glass

9:00 - 18:00

S9A Digging deeper: Uncovering the people behind prehistoric flint and other georesource mining

9:00 - 18:00

S11A Prehistoric art: current questions, research challenges and new methods

9:00 - 11:00

S11C On the trails of rock art: landscape, mobility, visuality, and cosmologies in open-air rock art contexts

9:00 - 15:50

S12A The Lower Palaeolithic of Central Europe and neighboring regions: State of the art 30 years after the “Short Chronology”

9:00 - 18:00

S13A Technology, subsistence, and spatial dynamics in Middle Paleolithic and Middle Stone Age territories

9:00 - 15:30

S13B Rethinking lithic taxonomy and technological variability in the Middle Palaeolithic: Toward Eurasian shared analytical frameworks

9:00 - 16:10

S15A Adapting to diversity: Holocene hunter-gatherers in varied world landscapes

9:00 - 11:00

S17B Unusual features in prehistoric and protohistoric fortifications

9:40 - 11:00

S20A The Pre-Roman Iron Age in Central Europe: New research perspectives

9:00 - 13:30

S23B Rhythm and ritual: New approaches to archaeoacoustics

9:00 - 13:30

S24B From tools to thoughts: Comparative approaches to technological and cultural behaviour

11:00 - 11:30

Coffee break

11:30 - 14:50

S3B Investigating the Crimes of the Past: Forensics in Human Remains Examinations

11:30 - 13:30

S14D Upper Palaeolithic subsistence strategies

11:30 - 13:30

S20B Ancient coin finds and coin circulation in ancient Rome and Barbaricum

13:30 - 14:30

Lunch break

14:30 - 16:30

S19C Revisiting the connections between southern Scandinavia and the Baltic at the end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age (1100-500 BC)

18:30 - 19:30

Keynote lecture - Professor Nicholas J. Conard / Early Art and Music from the Swabian Jura and the Biogeography of Modern Humans

20:00 - 22:00

Gala dinner at Polski Teatr Tańca (Polish Dance Theatre) in Poznań, Taczaka 8 Street

Friday 4 September 2026- Faculty of Archeology AMU (Uniwersytetu Poznańskiego 7 Str., Poznań)

9:00 - 11:00

GS9 Neolithic

9:00 - 13:30

GS5+S12B General Session of Lower Palaeolithic commission

9:00 - 13:30

GS10 Bronze Age and Pre-Roman Iron Age

9:40 - 16:10

S1F Multi-method, multi-proxy: promoting multidisciplinary approaches in pyroarcheology

9:00 - 11:00

S1K Reconstructing landscape meaning: Collaborative heritage education and community engagement as catalysts for social transformation

9:20 - 12:30

S2E Reproducing archaeological objects: historical, material and empirical approaches

9:00 - 15:00

S4C Integrating multidisciplinary approaches to reconstruct human-environment relationships in the Pleistocene past

9:40 - 15:50

S4D Moving on: updated scales, concepts and approaches to mobility in the Late Pleistocene

9:00 - 12:30

S9C Technologies and traditions embedded in lithics: current research and perspectives on late palaeolithic and early mesolithic Northern–Central Europe

9:00 - 11:50

S11B First marks, first minds: Early rock art and the emergence of symbolic thought

9:00 - 12:50

S13A Technology, subsistence, and spatial dynamics in Middle Paleolithic and Middle Stone Age territories

9:00 - 12:50

17C Marvels in Stone: Megalithic burials, settlement patterns, and environmental adaptation

9:00 - 11:00

S21B Protecting deep-time heritage in the Sahara, Nile Valley, and Mediterranean Africa: Sustainable management, capacity building, and cultural diplomacy

9:00 - 12:30

S23A The prehistory of visual arts, music, and language

9:00 - 13:30

S24C Miniature and miniaturisation. Artefactual, technical and symbolic issues in worked material used as tools

9:00 - 12:30

S25A The Everyday, the Overlooked, the Fringe: New Perspectives on Interaction in the Precolonial and Early Colonial Americas

11:00 - 11:30

Coffee break

11:30 - 13:30

S2D Historiography of Archaeozoology in Europe

11:30 - 13:30

S4A Beyond boundaries: Transdisciplinary pathways in exploring Late Quaternary human-environmental interaction

11:30 - 13:30

S14B At the crossroads of worlds. Magdalénien and Epigravettian in Central and Eastern Europe

11:30 - 13:30

S16A Out-of-Place? Early Neolithic Farming Communities in the European Alps

13:30 - 14:30

Lunch break

16:00 - 17:00

Keynote lecture - Professor Harry Widianto/From Homo erectus To Homo sapiens In Southeast Asia In Late Pleistocene, Replacement Or Local Evolution?

17:00 - 19:00

Executive Committee meeting

19:00 - 20:00

General Assembly

20:00 - 23:00

Closing reception- Faculty of Archeology AMU (Uniwersytetu Poznańskiego 7 Str., Poznań)

Saturday & Sunday 5-6 September 2026

9:00 - 18:00

Saturday, September 5th, 2026 - Ostrów Lednicki, Greater Poland Ethnographic Park in Dziekanowice, Biskupin

5-6.09

Saturday - Sunday, September 5th-6th, 2026 - Prehistoric Striped Flint Mines in Krzemionki & the “Raj” (Paradise) Cave

5-6.09

Saturday - Sunday, September 5th-6th, 2026 - Kraków & the Wieliczka Salt Mine