IMC 2015: Sessions

Session 1606: Social Cohesion, IV: Methods to Reconstruct Migration - History, Archaeology, and Genetics

Thursday 9 July 2015, 11.15-12.45

Sponsor:	European Research Council Project 'Social Cohesion, Identity & Religion in Europe (SCIRE)'
Organisers:	Clemens Gantner, Institut für Mittelalterforschung, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien Celine Wawruschka, Institut für Mittelalterforschung, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien
Moderator/Chair:	Walter Pohl, Institut für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung, Universität Wien
Paper 1606-a	Magic Bullet or Blank?: What Genetics Can Tell Us About the Past (Language: English) Mark Jobling, Department of Genetics, University of Leicester Index terms: Anthropology, Onomastics, Science, Social History
Paper 1606-b	Archaeological and Genetic Evidence for the Anglo-Saxon Migration (Language: English) Francesca Conselvan, Institut für Mittelalterforschung, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien Index terms: Anthropology, Archaeology - General, Science
Paper 1606-c	The Beginning of a Wonderful Friendship: German and British Perspectives on Anglo-Saxon Ethnogenesis (Language: English) Celine Wawruschka, Institut für Mittelalterforschung, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien Index terms: Archaeology - General, Historiography - Modern Scholarship, Science
Abstract	The 'Social Cohesion' strand will end with this experimental and innovative session dedicated to hybrid methods and the use of genetic analysis in medieval research: How do we arrive at historical conclusions on the basis of genetic evidence without methodological shortcuts? Walter Pohl will offer a short introduction on the aims of this part of the SCIRE project. Mark Jobling, a leading expert in the field of genetic history, will give a general introduction about the power and limitations of genetic data in studying the past and present some of his current data on Viking and other influences on the British Isles. Subsequently Francesca Conselvan will summarize the archaeological evidence for Anglo-Saxon migration to the British Isles and will then compare that evidence with results of genetic analysis. In a final paper, Celine Wawruschka will review potential changes in research questions on Anglo-Saxon ethnogenesis from a comparative perspective, focusing on projects that use methods from biological anthropology and biomolecular anthropology and interpret the results from the perspective of national identities.