Palaeo-environments and environmental change in Asia
18 - 20 September 2006
This Masterclass is intended to present an overview of previous and current research on past environmental change in Asia, and to foreshadow future research trajectories.
Palaeo-environments and environmental change in Asia
Third Masterclass on Modern Research Techniques in Asian Archaeology
Organized by L'Ecole Française d'Extrème Orient (L'EFEO) and the International Institute for Asian Studies
Paris, France
18 - 20 September 2006
Venue:
Maison de l'Asie, 22 Avenue du Président Wilson, Paris, France
Lecturer:
Dr Dan Penny (School of Geosciences, University of Sydney, Australia).
Convenor:
Prof. Franciscus Verellen (L'EFEO)
Featured speakers:
Prof. Geoff Hope (Dept. of Archaeology and Natural History, RSPAS, Australian National University, Australia)
Dr Sander van der Kaars (Monash University, Australia)
Prof. Christophe Pottier (Directeur de Mission/Researcher, L'EFEO, Siem Reap, Cambodia)
Southeast Asia, and particularly the core equatorial region, is one of three regions on earth (the others being Amazonia and equatorial Africa) that, due to their enhanced cloudiness, represent massive exchanges of energy and act as drivers of global climatic circulation. Deep convection into the stratosphere provides energy for large regional atmospheric systems such as the equatorial Hadley cell and the Walker circulation. Its location in the extreme west Pacific basin means that it straddles a zone of mixing between the Pacific and Indian Oceans waters (the Indonesian throughflow), recognised as important in determining global climates. The region is also the central component in massive interhemispheric climatic phenomena such as El-niñn/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and monsoon systems.
The long term environmental history is of enormous importance in understanding the patterns and dynamics of this region and, due to its multiple teleconnections, are of significance at the global scale. Moreover, the region has a long, diverse and extremely rich historical and archaeological record. In order to properly understand the synergy between culture and the natural environment over long time scales, and particularly the role of societies in, and response to environmental change, paleo-environmental records are both broad in coverage and detailed in temporal resolution, are urgently required.
This Masterclass is intended to present an overview of previous and current research on past environmental change in Asia, and to foreshadow future research trajectories. While its scope is necessarily broad, a Masterclass will focus particularly on the interaction between people and the natural environment and ways in which paleo-environmental research can compliment archaeological studies.
PROGRAMME
Monday 18 September 2006
09.30 - 09.45 Opening of the Masterclass by Prof. Francicus Verellen (L'EFEO)
09.45 - 10.45 Introduction by Dr. Dan Penny
10.45 - 11.15 Coffee break
11.15 - 12.15 Presentation by Prof. Geoff Hope: Environmental history and anthropogenic interactions of northern Sahul
12.15 - 12.30 Questions/Discussion
12.30 - 14.00 Lunch
14.00 - 17.00 Workshop sessions
Tuesday 19 September 2006
09.30 - 10.45 Introduction by Dr Dan Penny
10.45 - 11.15 Coffee break
11.15 - 12.15 Presentation by Dr Sander van der Kaars: Reading the environmental record encoded in marine and terrestrial pollen bearing deposits from the Indonesian region.
12.15 - 12.30 Questions/Discussion
12.30 - 14.00 Lunch
14.00 - 17.00 Workshop sessions
Wednesday 20 September 2006
09.30 - 10.45 Introduction by Dr Dan Penny
10.45 - 11.15 Coffee break
11.15 - 12.15 Presentation by Dr Dan Penny: Recent research into the reconstruction of Quaternary environments in continental Southeast Asia.
12.15 - 12.30 Questions/Discussion
12.30 - 14.00 Lunch
14.00 - 15.00 Presentation by Associate Professor Christophe Pottier: Current and new approaches to the Angkor paradigm: integrating environment into the archaeology of Cambodia.
15.00 - 15:15: Questions/Discussion
15.15 - 16.00 Tea break
16.00 - 17.30 Final discussion and closing remarks by Dr Dan Penny
Participants:
Students and professionals wishing to contribute to the Masterclass can take advantage of the Workshop Sessions on each of the three days. Each session will accommodate three presenters (20 minutes presentation, 10 minutes discussion, a total of 90 minutes). The five Workshop Sessions will accommodate a total of 15 presenters. The purpose of the Workshop Sessions is to provide students and early career researchers with a forum to discuss their work in detail, and to allow interested professionals to present their research and raise issues for discussion.
Deadline for registration and application is 1 July 2006.