Session title: CAVES IN CONTEXT: THE ECONOMICAL, SOCIAL, AND RITUAL IMPORTANCE OF CAVES AND ROCKSHELTERS

Caves and rockshelters are found all over the world, and they have been frequently occupied throughout prehistory and early history. In many areas of Europe, some of these natural places are still used as sites of worship and as shelter against the elements. There is great variability in their use. Some appear to only have traces of short occupations, while others have thick cultural deposits, indicating longer and several occupations. Others again seem to have been used for ritual activities, such as feasting, production of rock-art, offerings or funerary rites. Some caves and rockshelters have been used for a multitude of activities, both sacred and profane and by several communities through time. The purpose of the session is to explore the importance of caves and rockshelters in a wide perspective in order to grasp aspects of what they may have meant for people in different kinds of societies. Are there recognizable patterns that vary according to basic economic and cultural differences? For example, do hunter-gatherers use them different from farmers, or do egalitarian societies use them in other ways than hierarchic groups? In what wider environmental contexts do the different caves/rockshelters appear? Do their locations vary according to the hunter/farmer dichotomy; to what extent are they situated adjacent to natural resources, hunting grounds, pastures or farmland? Furthermore, are caves and rockshelters everywhere perceived as “liminal places”, or should instead each cave and rockshelter be understood in its own term and according to its specific cultural context? Papers presenting case studies of caves and rockshelters and their context are wanted, as well as more general theoretical approaches to the problem. Scholars specialising on periods spanning the Palaeolithic to Modern times are welcome.