Session Session S – 23C: Chromatic Worlds: Colour Technologies, Material Choices and Symbolic Practices has been accepted for the 21st World Congress of the International Union of Pre- and Protohistoric Sciences (UISPP), to be held in Poznań in 2026.
The session examines colour as a technological, social and symbolic agent in past societies. Colour and colourants shaped communication, identity, bodily practices and ritual behaviour, while participating in culturally specific systems of meaning. Advances in mineralogical, chemical and micro-analytical techniques increasingly allow reconstruction of provenance, transformation and application processes and, crucially, support interpretations of the symbolic roles and life-histories of coloured objects.
We welcome interdisciplinary contributions on topics including:
- pigment procurement and chaînes opératoires;
- experimental reproduction and application techniques;
- residue, microscopic and traceological analyses;
- taphonomy of coloured materials;
- biographies and social lives of coloured objects;
- symbolic, cognitive and cultural interpretations of colour use;
- colour on personal ornaments, lithics, ceramics, bones, architectural surfaces and human remains.
All contributions must be submitted via the official UISPP conference portal (https://uispp2026.syskonf.pl/registration-info); the Deadline is February 28, 2026.
Presentations may be delivered in person or pre-recorded.
