1st Circular

15^th International Congress on the Archaeology on the Ancient Near East, Tbilisi 4-8 of May, 2027

The Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University and the Georgian National Museum are proud to organize the 15th ICAANE from 4th to 8th May 2027. We are honored to welcome participants from around the world to Tbilisi, a city that bridges East and West and offers a unique historical and cultural backdrop for meaningful scholarly exchange. The congress themes have been selected in an attempt at representing the current breadth and urgency of global challenges and research perspectives in the Archaeology of the Near East and the Caucasus. As the first venue outside of Schengen Europe, the participation of our scholarly community from the Near East will be especially encouraged. At the same time, we encourage you to thoroughly explore the dynamic culture of Tbilisi. A Second Circular will be sent in July with all registration and practical details (early bird fees etc.).

15th ICAANE THEMES

1. Excavations and Survey Reports.
   Since its inception, ICAANE has served as one of the principal international venues for the presentation and discussion of newly acquired archaeological field data from across the Ancient Near East. This commitment to active and ongoing field research will remain central to the 15th conference in Tbilisi. The session welcomes contributions presenting recent excavations, survey projects, rescue archaeology, and previously unpublished datasets from all chronological periods and regions of the Near East and adjacent areas, including the South Caucasus as a region of increasing comparative relevance. In addition to traditional excavation reports, papers addressing landscape archaeology, systematic surface collection, remote sensing, geophysical prospection, GIS-based spatial analysis, and interdisciplinary field methodologies are strongly encouraged. Particular attention will be placed on studies that link field data to broader historical, environmental, or cultural contexts.
2. Transitions and Transformations: Methodologies for Defining the Dynamics of Cultural Change between the Chalcolithic and the Achaemenid periods.
   The longue durée of the Ancient Near East is marked by profound episodes of continuity, disruption, adaptation, and innovation. This session seeks to explore the methodological approaches through which archaeologists and historians define and interpret cultural change through time. Contributions may address issues of chronology, materiality, social resilience and/ or reorganization, mobility, or technological transfer. Particular attention is encouraged toward interdisciplinary frameworks, such as integrating archaeology, archaeometry, textual evidence, environmental sciences, and digital methodologies, though the emphasis lies on methodological reflection rather than methodological accumulation in order to reassess transitional phases and the dynamics of cultural transformation across regional and chronological boundaries.
3. Environment, Landscape & Climate Transformations.
   Human societies in the Ancient Near East and adjacent areas developed within constantly changing environmental and climatic conditions that shaped settlement patterns, subsistence strategies, mobility, and resilience. This theme invites papers that explore these interactions from prehistory to the Islamic period. Topics may include paleoenvironmental reconstruction, geoarchaeology, hydrology, land use, climate adaptation, and human impact on landscapes. Comparative approaches are particularly encouraged, including diachronic studies. Rather than treating the environment as background, the session focuses on its role as an active component of historical processes.
4. Political Organization, Urbanism & Settlement Patterns.
   The Ancient Near East saw some of the earliest developments of urban life, territorial organization, and political complexity. This theme invites contributions exploring the development, transformation, and decline of political and settlement systems across diverse ecological and cultural settings. Papers may address urban morphology, rural landscapes, imperial strategies, household archaeology, demographic change, frontier dynamics, or networks of connectivity between centres and peripheries. Comparative perspectives and innovative methodological approaches — including remote sensing, spatial analysis, and digital modelling — are especially encouraged in reassessing how ancient societies organized space, power, and social interaction.
5. Metallurgy, Craft & Trade Networks: The crossroads of Exchanges in Technology, Minerals and Finished Products.
   The Ancient Near East functioned as a major nexus for technological innovation, specialized production, and long-distance exchange. This session aims to investigate the circulation of raw materials, technological knowledge, craftspeople, and finished products across interconnected regions from prehistory to the early historical periods. Contributions may address metallurgy, provenance studies, chaînes opératoires, workshop organization, maritime and overland trade routes, economic interaction, or mechanisms of technological transmission. Interdisciplinary studies employing archaeometry, isotopic, or experimental approaches are particularly welcome, as are discussions concerning the social and political dimensions of production and exchange.
6. Mortuary Practices, Ritual Landscapes & Identity.
   Funerary customs and ritual practices provide unique insights into the social structures, ideologies, and identities of past communities. This session seeks contributions examining mortuary behaviour, commemorative practices, sacred landscapes, and ritual performance throughout the Ancient Near East. Papers may address burial architecture, funerary assemblages, ancestor cults, bioarchaeological evidence, memory practices, or the spatial organization of ritual landscapes. Special emphasis is placed on approaches that integrate material culture, textual evidence, osteological data, and landscape archaeology to explore the construction and negotiation of social, cultural, gendered, religious, and political identities.
7. Scripts and Shifts: Cultural Innovation and Transformation.
   The development and dissemination of writing systems constituted one of the most transformative processes in the history of the Ancient Near East. This theme explores the relationship between scripts, communication, administration, identity, and cultural change across time and space. Contributions may investigate the emergence, adaptation, transmission, and disappearance of writing traditions, as well as multilingualism, literacy, scribal practices, glyptic and the materiality of textual culture. Papers addressing broader processes of cultural innovation, intellectual exchange, and societal transformation through textual and visual media are particularly encouraged.
8. Islamic Archaeology.
   Islamic Archaeology has become an increasingly important field for investigating the social, cultural, political, and economic transformations of the medieval and early modern Near East. As a vital component of the longue durée history of the region, it provides an essential bridge between the ancient past and the formation of contemporary societies and cultural landscapes. The 15th ICAANE welcomes papers and workshops addressing all aspects of Islamic archaeology in the Greater Near East and neighboring regions, with particular encouragement given to studies concerning interactions with the South Caucasus. Contributions may focus on settlement archaeology, urbanism, trade and mobility, religious landscapes, material culture, environmental adaptation, heritage preservation, and cross-cultural exchange. Interdisciplinary and theoretically informed approaches integrating archaeological, textual, archaeometry, and digital methodologies are especially encouraged.
9. Genomic, Biological & Bioarchaeological Analysis: New Perspectives and the Broader View.
   Recent advances in biomolecular archaeology and bioarchaeological science have fundamentally transformed our understanding of ancient populations, mobility, diet, disease, kinship, and human-environment interaction. This session welcomes contributions employing genomic, isotopic, osteological, archaeobotanical, archaeozoological, and palaeopathological approaches to investigate the lives of past communities across the Ancient Near East. Particular attention is encouraged toward studies integrating biological datasets with archaeological, historical, and environmental evidence in order to address broader questions of population dynamics, resilience, migration, health, and cultural interaction.
10. Cultural Heritage & Museum: Ethics, Technologies & Public Engagement.
    The preservation, interpretation, and presentation of cultural heritage remain central challenges for archaeology in the contemporary world. This theme addresses the ethical, technological, and social dimensions of heritage management and museum practice in the Near East and adjacent regions. Contributions may explore heritage protection in conflict zones, digital documentation, conservation technologies, repatriation debates, community archaeology, museum narratives, or public engagement initiatives. The session particularly encourages critical reflections on inclusivity, sustainability, accessibility, and the role of archaeology in fostering dialogue between past and present societies.
11. Teaching Archaeology: The Dig as a Field School for Didactic and Training.
    Archaeological fieldwork represents one of the most formative components in the education and professional development of future archaeologists. This session seeks to examine excavation projects and field schools as spaces of training, pedagogy, collaboration, and knowledge transmission. Contributions may address teaching methodologies, digital and interdisciplinary training, ethical responsibilities, community engagement, field safety, or the challenges of international and multicultural educational environments. Papers reflecting on innovative didactic approaches and the evolving role of archaeological training in contemporary academic and professional contexts are especially welcome.

PAPERS AND POSTERS SUBMISSION
Submission of papers and posters will be possible online between August 20th and September 20th, 2026. All speakers are requested to observe a 20-minute limit for their papers. Speakers are allowed to give one lecture only.
Preliminarily accepted papers and posters will be communicated to the organizers by October 31st 2026. It is mandatory that all contributing participants register themselves before December 1st 2026 in order that the proposed paper or poster gets confirmed status. All speakers and presenters of posters must be registered for the congress (i.e. at least the first presenting name).

WORKSHOPS

The Organizing Committee of the 15^th ICAANE welcomes the proposal of workshops by congress participants. Proposals will be accepted after evaluation by the 15^th ICAANE Scientific Advisory Board. Here follow the details:

THEMES: We strongly encourage the proposals of workshops dealing with the congress themes which will be integrated (and marked as such) within the theme schedule keeping the workshop papers together, with the chair of the relevant session(s) assigned to the workshop organizers. Proposals dealing with themes other than the official ones will be organized in separate sessions and, likely, spaces.

PARTICIPANTS AND PAPERS: Proposals must include the names of at least 6 speakers, and no more than 12 participants for each workshop. Each paper should not exceed 20 min plus 10 min for discussion.

DURATION: Workshops cannot last more than one day.

DOCUMENTS FOR SUBMISSION: Proposals for workshops should be submitted to the organizers by email including a description of the workshop topic and aims (1000 characters min, 1500 max) and the titles and abstracts of at least 6 speakers.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF WORKSHOP PROPOSALS: September 20th, 2026.

CONFIRMATION OF WORKSHOPS: Preliminarily accepted workshops will be communicated to the organizers by October 31^st 2026. It is mandatory that all participants of a given workshop register themselves before December 1st 2026 in order that the proposed workshop gets confirmed status. Organizers will thus take care of informing participants about this stringent deadline.

The ICAANE International Committee

15th ICAANE Scientific Advisory Board

15th ICAANE Organizing Committee

Dr. Jaba Samushia – Chair, Rector, Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University
Dr. Erekle Astakhishvili – Tbilisi State University. (Co- Chair)
Dr. Stephen Batiuk – University of Toronto.
Dr. Zviad Gabisonia – Chair, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Education, Science and Youth of Georgia
Dr. Natalia Handziuk – University of Toronto.
Dr. Zviad Kvitsiani – Tbilisi State University.
Dr. Vakhtang Licheli – Tbilisi State University. (Co- Chair)
Dr. David Lordkipanidze – Georgian National Museum.
Dr. Eka Navrozashvili – Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University
Dr. Konstantine Pitskhelauri – Tbilisi State University.
Dr. Ingolf Thuesen – University of Copenhagen.
Dr. Gvantsa Vachadze – Tbilisi State University.