Organisers: Marta Kaczanowicz, Anna Wodzińska, Dobrochna Zielińska (Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw)
Session format: in-person
Session language: English
Our aim is to encourage reflection on the changing concept of space in archaeology – how it is defined, experienced, and represented in material sources; how categories such as “public” and “private” have developed in different cultural and historical contexts; and how the boundaries between them are shaped through social practices. We welcome both regional and comparative approaches, encompassing various periods and research traditions. Topics may include, but are not limited to: changing perceptions of space over time, gendered and geographical differences, ritual aspects, and other perspectives that broaden the understanding of this multifaceted phenomenon. We hope this session will become a meeting ground for diverse research traditions and theoretical perspectives, as well as a forum for sharing concrete research results (case studies) that help us understand how space was (and continues to be) created through everyday, ritual, and symbolic practices.
The session program is available here.
ABSTRACTS (alphabetically by author):
Miłosz Giersz (Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, Poland, Castillo de Huarmey Archaeological Project), Roberto Pimentel Nita (Doctoral School of Humanities, University of Warsaw, Poland; Castillo de Huarmey Archaeological Project)
Built to Exclude, Made to Gather: Mortuary Architecture, Ancestors, and Sacred Space at Castillo de Huarmey (Peru)
How “private” is a tomb – and when does funerary architecture become a space of collective experience? This presentation addresses these questions through mortuary contexts excavated at Castillo de Huarmey on the Peruvian north coast (Middle Horizon Period, c. 9th–11th centuries CE). Although some burial spaces are architecturally enclosed and appear designed to restrict access, the archaeological record suggests that mortuary places at the site were not socially sealed or limited to a single interment episode. Evidence for reopening, staged deposition, offerings, and continued maintenance points to repeated engagements through which the dead operated as ancestors and the boundaries between inside/outside and exclusive/shared were continually negotiated. Assemblages associated with these contexts are strikingly heterogeneous – ceramics, textiles, and metal objects, produced in multiple artistic styles and technological traditions – Indicate participation across broader social and cultural networks rather than simply the display of wealth. By treating “public,” “private,” and “ritual” as outcomes of practice (access control, recurrent visitation, and materialized remembrance) rather than fixed spatial types, the presentation argues that mortuary monumentality at Castillo de Huarmey helped produce a sacred landscape in which memory, belonging, and authority were actively made and remade over time.
Karel Innemée (Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, Poland)
Worship, Devotion, and Sacred Space
Churches, like temples, are the locations where a human being gets in contact with the sacred. This contact can be achieved through the intervention of a priest, a person that has the responsibility of performing sacraments, but the believer can also get into contact with the realm of the divine directly. The interior of a church is structured in such a way that that specific spaces are reserved for specific kinds of communication with the divine, this in contrast to temples, that were less or not at all accessible to lay people. This presentation offers an overview of how the structuring of sacred space in church buildings developed over time.
Marta Kaczanowicz (Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, Poland)
Mapping Gendered Presence in Ancient Egyptian Mortuary Spaces
It may come as a surprise that, despite extensive scholarship on ancient Egyptian mortuary space, the actual spatial arrangement of burials within tombs has received remarkably little attention. This oversight reflects a long-standing Egyptological interest in iconographic programmes, with archaeological context relegated to secondary position in scholarship. As a result, the predominantly male-centred decoration of most known monuments has been taken to represent the structure of mortuary practice itself, producing a model of ancient Egyptian mortuary culture as overwhelmingly male-dominated, with women as absent or marginal actors.
However, analysis of burial data demonstrates that this imbalance is not necessarily reflected in the archaeological record. When examined through the distribution and arrangement of interments, tomb space emerges as more complex and less exclusively male than the normative image conveyed by ancient Egyptian formal art suggests. By shifting attention from representation to practice, this study calls for a reassessment of how gender is reconstructed in ancient Egyptian mortuary contexts.
Martin Lemke (Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, Poland)
Blurred Lines. Protected Space and the Military-Civilian Conflation in the Context of a Newly Discovered Late Roman Fortification in Dobruja (Romania)
The hitherto unknown Late Roman hillfort or fortified town built on the slopes of the isolated Dealul Consul (Consul Hill) in the Taiţa River valley, which crosses Dobruja on a northwest-southeast axis, was recently surveyed twice and investigated with geophysical prospection. As a result, it was possible to determine the course of the defensive walls and select areas for future investigations. Given the slope the living conditions were somewhat inconvenient, but in the times of a Barbarian raid across northern Dobruja certainly more secure than in the village at the river.
In a broader interpretation, the new site adds to a proposed a chain of “inner fortifications” in Scythia, reaching up into the Dobruja from the south along a central axis, more or less in equal distance to the Danube in the West and the Black Sea in the East. This chain is created when the bellum scythicum and later conflicts force the Roman command of Moesia inferior/Scythia to regroup and the civilians in the area to improvise, leading to a cooperation born out of necessity, which in turn distorts the once sharp division between military and civilian space on the frontier.
Grzegorz Ochała (Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, Poland)
Archaeological Spaces as Lieux de Mémoire: A Case Study from Christian Nubia
In interpreting spaces in archaeology, it is interesting to look not only at practical aspects of activities carried out in them (ritual services performed in holy places, crafting goods in workshops, collecting documents in archives, etc.), but also their potential role in forging and preserving social cohesion of smaller and larger communities. One way to approach this issue is through memory studies, which investigates different forms of commemorating past events and individuals, in order to understand the present, but also to shed light on possibilities of future developments. This is not always apparent in archaeological material and certainly cannot be accessed through detailed studies of individual features. Only through a holistic attitude, in which insights from archaeology, architecture, material culture, art, and written sources are combined, are we able to answer the questions on how memory was cultivated and perpetuated in a given community and what significance it had on its members. In my paper, I will present several case studies, including Faras cathedral, the so-called Anchorite’s grotto in Faras, and the Upper Church at Banganarti, and attempt to show on their basis the potential functioning of these and similar spaces as Nubian lieux de mémoire, in which different types of memory combined to form a true memorial landscape.
Grzegorz Ochała, Dobrochna Zielińska (Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, Poland)
Holy Hosts. On the Visual and Written Manifestation of the Dedication of Churches in Nubia
The church is a space with multiple functions. It serves as a place for the faithful to gather during liturgy and private worship, as well as a place to display the concepts of ecclesiastical and secular authority. However, a church as a place dedicated to a specific saint is also a space that this saint hosts. How was the presence of the ‘holy hosts’ of these sacred places marked? In what context do their images and names appear? Can this manifestation bring something new to the understanding of the interior space of the church, but also to the cult of saints in Christian Nubia?
Anna Smogorzewska (Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, Poland)
Ritual Closing and Feasting in Domestic Space: A Perspective from the Near East
Archaeological evidence from the Ancient Near East shows that closing of houses was often structured ritual rather than a simple abandonment. These practices involved cleaning, burning or depositing special items. Commensality or feasting also played a significant role in the social life of past societies. This papers explores these practices based on the Near Eastern examples with a special reference to Tell Arbid, a site in north-eastern Syria, where evidence of ritual closing and commensality were identified in domestic context.
Anna Wodzińska (Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, Poland)
Ancient Egyptian Potter’s Workshop – Space and Function
This paper examines the organization of work and space in the ancient Egyptian potter’s workshop, focusing on functional layout and optimal spatial arrangement as reconstructed from archaeological and pictorial evidence. By integrating material remains with iconographic sources and comparative data from modern workshops, the study aims to reconstruct patterns of production, labor division, and spatial logic across different periods of Egyptian history.
Archaeological evidence provides the structural framework for this reconstruction. Data from Predynastic Hierakonpolis reveal early installations associated with ceramic production, offering insight into spatial clustering of kilns, working areas, and clay preparation zones. Old Kingdom evidence from Abusir and the late Old Kingdom settlement at Ain Asil demonstrate increasingly standardized production spaces, often integrated into settlement planning. New Kingdom material from Amarna illustrates large-scale ceramic manufacture connected to urban supply systems. Additional evidence from Medamud, spanning the New Kingdom to the Ptolemaic Period, documents long-term continuity and adaptation in workshop organization.
Iconographic sources from tombs of the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms complement the archaeological record by depicting sequences of production, division of labour, and workshop interiors. These representations clarify relationships between potters, assistants, tools, and firing installations, as well as the spatial proximity required between stages such as clay preparation, forming, drying, and firing.
Comparative reference to modern traditional workshops in Disuq, Fustat, Nazlet el-Nazla, Taramsa, and el-Qasr provides ethnographic parallels for understanding practical constraints, ergonomic considerations, and optimal spacing within productive environments. These living traditions illuminate how workflow efficiency, fuel management, ventilation, and social organization shape the internal logic of workshop space.
By synthesizing archaeological, iconographic, and ethnographic evidence, the paper proposes a model of the ancient Egyptian potter’s workshop as a dynamic and adaptive production unit, structured by technological requirements, environmental conditions, and social organization.
Janusz Wołoszyn (Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, Poland)
How Were Ritual Spaces Created at Toro Muerto (Peru), a Monumental Ceremonial Rock-art Centre?
Toro Muerto is one of the largest rock-art sites in South America, located in southern Peru (Arequipa region). Its beginnings can likely be linked to around the turn of the era, but the site was probably used by several different cultural groups until Inka times. At the scale of the landscape, it is clear that Toro Muerto was a powerful and important ceremonial centre (without built architecture): some areas were suited to “public” activities—large gatherings and events that were not only creative in nature but also involved offerings—while others likely had a more “private” character. In addition to petroglyphs, the complex also includes geoglyphs, routes/tracks, and cemeteries.
This paper focuses on Sector X, a part of Toro Muerto first documented in 2017 and studied more intensively since 2022. Based on our current results, this part of the complex may have functioned as an astronomical observatory. We ask not only what was done there, but how this place was constructed and how it could have worked in practice. We discuss: (1) the distribution and orientation of decorated panels, (2) the control of visibility and movement on the ground (where the observer(s) stood and what was visible), and (3) possible human interventions affecting the position of selected boulders.
Anna Zapolska (Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, Poland)
Designing Power in a Former Borderland: Elite Hoards and the Reconfiguration of Space in the Vistula–Pasłęka Region in Migration Period
During the early Migration Period, the lower Vistula–Pasłęka region underwent a marked spatial transformation. The earlier Wielbark settlement network became diluted, producing a landscape of reduced density. Into this restructured environment moved elites connected with the Cherniakhiv cultural sphere from the south, while West Balts’ groups expanded from the Sambian Peninsula. Both became established within a territory that had previously functioned as a cultural borderland: in the Roman Period, the Pasłęka River marked the boundary between Baltic and Germanic communities – in the Migration Period, this division dissolved.
Within this newly negotiated contact zone, at least two elite gold deposits were placed in close proximity to the shared cemetery at Młoteczno and along the Pasłęka communication corridor. One of them (Trąbki) may originally have been deposited on a river island, suggesting deliberate spatial visibility rather than concealment.
This paper argues that these hoards functioned as public markers of authority. Their composition – including prestigious Roman medallions and carefully curated older coins – indicates that elite legitimacy relied on portable symbols of memory and imperial connection. The absence of early Germanic female elite burials in the region suggests that the initial phase of migration may have involved predominantly male warbands.
In a fluid post-migratory landscape, gold deposits materialised claims to power, transforming a former boundary into a structured and symbolically controlled space.