The series of conferences “Science for everyone’s understanding” in online format continues with a new conference, given by Cătălin Lazăr, archaeologist and associate professor at the University of Bucharest, that focused on the beginnings of human civilization in Southeast Europe.
Addressed to the public and science enthusiasts, the conference “Challenges of 7000 years ago” invites us to learn more about the development of the first human civilizations in Southeast Europe between 6300 and 3900 BC.
When we think of the beginnings of human civilization, each of us relates to various examples that we have read, heard, or seen, and our minds project ideational images of people from the distant past and how they lived.
The conference proposes an incursion into the life of the first human civilizations that developed in the lands where we live today, more precisely in the life of people from the Neolithic. For the area proposed for discussion, this period can be placed temporarily between 6300 – 3900 BC, i.e., it started about 8000 years ago and ended 5000 years ago. At that time, in this part of Europe, there were a series of radical transformations, marked by the arrival of new populations in the Anatolian area, which brought with them ideas, technologies and a totally different way of life, which resembled to what we imagine about how human communities should live.
The presentation will review when, how, where and why these organic transformations took place in Southeast Europe, the characteristics of subsistence, their economy, emerging technologies and innovations now introduced, trade relations, mobility of these populations, art and spiritual life of those people in the distant past who have irreversibly reshaped the course of history.
Thus, Cătălin Lazăr’s trip will shed new light on a page of history less known to the public, most often ignored by contemporary society, but which has a major role when discussing where we are today. His approach is based on archaeological data, but also on modern analyzes in different fields (paleogenetic, archaeometry, bioarcheology, geoarchaeology, state-of-the-art molecular studies, such as stable isotopes, radiogenic isotopes, residual analyzes, etc.).
The full recording of the conference can be accessed here.
Cătălin Lazăr is a researcher and coordinator of the ArchaeoSciences section within ICUB, archaeologist and associate professor at the Faculty of History within the University of Bucharest. He scientifically coordinates the Sultana and Gumelnița archeological sites, where he has been doing research since 2001. Cătălin Lazăr is also a member of national and international research teams, as well as the author of several articles, studies, chapters and specialized volumes. From 2016 until now, he has received funding for three research projects, implemented at the University of Bucharest.
Also, Cătălin Lazăr was appointed Associate Professor of 2018 in the field of Humanities during the second gala of the University of Bucharest Senate Awards. Last but not least, he is a member of several professional associations, such as the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA), the Society for Archaeological Sciences (SAS), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) or the Romanian Association of Archeology (ARA).
