3rd day and final day in Leiden

My 3rd day of AWRANA2015, on 29th (Fri). There were many presentations on the day. Posters were presented during this conference period, and this poster session was opened at our lunch time (12:00-14:30). Among them, the results about an analysis of charred pottery residues.

This researcher joined in
the 16th Conference of the International Workgroup for Palaeoethnobotany (IWGP) in Thessaloniki, Greece. She is an archaeobotanist and presented the following paper very recently.

Kubiak-Martens, L., Brinkkemper, O., Oudemans, T. F. M. 2015. What's for dinner? Processed food in the coastal area of the northern Netherlands in the Late Neolithic. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 24: 47-62.

She will join in the 17th meeting in Paris, next year. We are keeping contacts for our research information as well as seeing in Paris.


The most interesting presentations on 29th were the experimental report of stone use-wears using a robotics device and another report of use-wears bitten by bears (i.e. contamination) . The former measured physical powers of leaving marks on stone tool surfaces. Based on this method, we can examine any experiments of cracked starch granules from plants processed on ground stones and handstones.

The latter presented not "Use-wear analysis" but "Bear-wear analysis". It showed how to distinguish marks by bears and wolves with use-wears by human using stone tools
at the sites in Spain. I didn't suppose this kind of experiment yet, and so it was very interesting for me.

In the evening on 29th, we had the conference dinner at the Indonesian restaurant. I spent a happy time together with my old and new friends. We had lots of talks.



 


On 30th (Sat), the final day, I heard presentations on the 2nd floor of the lecture hall. Presentations sprinkled with humor were continued until our luch time, and announcement of the winner of the student poster prize and our general meeting were conducted, and after that this conference was closed.

This time was my first opportunity to join in this conference. I was able to hear many various research results using keywords of "tool", "use-wear", "attachments/residues", and so it was very helpful for me.

Through my own network, I distributed the first circulars of WAC-8. Most of participants have never come to Japan, and they are looking forward to visit Kyoto. Also they inspired me to organise my session. Next year, I hope all of them come to Kyoto.