Prof Amy Bogaard - 34th McDonald Annual Lecture

"Prehistoric farming futures? Recent insights from western Asia and Europe", presented by Professor Amy Bogaard (University of Oxford) at the McCrum Lecture Theatre, 16th November 2022
Abstract:
In this talk I explore how the deep past of farming can shape more sustainable futures. The archaeology of early farmers offers opportunities to rediscover lost crops, ancient ecological knowledge and strategies resilient to climate change. The Neolithic story ranges from the formative agrobiodiversity of initial farming in western Asia, to emerging perspectives from ‘wet’ (lakeshore) Neolithics in south-east Europe and the inventive efforts of early farming communities in central and western Europe to maintain biodiverse farming systems against the odds. Subsequent prehistory reveals a sequence of intermittent simplification and loss of agrobiodiversity, notably where power structures constrained farming strategies. These processes increased social vulnerability to climate change. Equally, however, the archaeological record preserves forms of resistance through smallholder farming, dispersal of new crops through long-distance networks and resurgences of ‘Neolithic’ agroecology. The prehistory of farming reveals its creative beginnings and radical future potential, from rural production to (sub)urban gardening.
Speaker bio:
My formal archaeological training began with Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology at Bryn Mawr College. This afforded the opportunity to work at sites like Troy, but also to develop interests in the ancient and contemporary farming contexts of such iconic places. The MSc in Environmental Archaeology and Palaeoeconomy at Sheffield opened up new methodological possibilities, and the richness of potential feedback between past and present farming. After completing a doctorate at Sheffield in 2002, on Neolithic-Bronze Age farming in Central Europe, I took up a lecturership in archaeological science at Nottingham. Here the proximity of the British Geological Survey and agricultural campus at Sutton Bonington provided further stimulus for method development in comparative studies of ancient and contemporary farming, alongside archaeobotanical work on sites in Europe and Turkey. Since 2007 I’ve been at Oxford, where I am Professor of Neolithic and Bronze Age Archaeology. My current research aims to combine agroecological enquiry with questions of social and ecological process over the long term.