Tuesday 8 September, 2026 - Wednesday 9 September, 2026
The international workshop is co-organised by the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures, the United Kingdom, the Materia-Mind project, JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Transformative Research Areas (A), Japan, and École nationale des chartes, France on September 8-9 2026.
The workshop will explore themes of shared interest through the lens of André Leroi-Gourhan, about whose work on technology professor Nathan Schlanger, one of the organisers of the workshop has recently published here.
Programme
Full programme and abstracts available here.
Tuesday 8 September
10:00 Opening Remarks
Simon Kaner
Welcome Address
Nathan Schlanger
Introduction to the École nationale des chartes
Naoko Matsumoto
From Exteriorization to Material Co-Creation: Reframing Leroi-Gourhan’s Theory of Technology through Materia-Mind
10:30 Keynote Lecture
Nathan Schlanger
André Leroi-Gourhan on Behaviour, Technicity and Human Evolution
12:00 Lunch
13:00 Session 1: Many Plausible Paths: Leroi-Gourhan, Technics, and the Path Integral Approach
Atsuhi Iriki and Sander van der Leeuw
Many Plausible Paths: Leroi-Gourhan, Technics, and the Path Integral Approach
Discussion
14:30 Coffee Break
15:00 Session 2: Clay Technology
Hiromi Hirakawa, Satoru Nakazono, Maki Tarora and Naoko Matsumoto
From Containers to Cognition: Rethinking Technological Evolution through Pottery and Lacquer
Simon Kaner
Revisiting the Invention of Ceramic Containers: A Leroi-Gourhanian Perspective
Toru Miyao and Yasunori Nitta
How to Make a Flame Pot
Hisashi Nakao
Cultural Variations of Clay Boards with Handprints and Footprints in the Jomon Period
16:40 Break
17:00-17:30 Discussion
Lila Janik
Wednesday 9 September
10:00 Session 3: Lithic and metal technology
Kenji Nagai
Technique, Design, and Experiment in Lithic Technology: From Experimental Flaking to Archaeological Interpretation
Jun Takakura
Materiality and Technology: Palaeolithic Views on Exteriorised Memor
Wulf Hein
Art Effects: Palaeolithic Sculpturing from a Crafterʼs View
Woodae Kim
The Technological Lineage of the Single-Dragon Ring-Pommelled Sword and the Survival Strategies of Groups of Craft Specialists
Discussion
12:00 Lunch
13:00 Session 4: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Art and Technology
Aya Saito
Phylogeny and Ontogeny of Drawing Behavior
Asami Tsukuda
Changes and Continuities of Andean Pastoral Techniques under Globalization
Makoto Tomii
From In-Situ Excavation to the Minds of Prehistoric People: Revisiting Leroi-Gourhanʼs Palaeoethnographical Approach
Discussion
15:00 Session 5: Revisiting Leroi-Gourhan
Tomo Ishimura
André Leroi-Gourhan and Japan
Marion di Santi
André Leroi-Gourhan Back from Japan: Tangible Collections and Intangible Recollections
Hideyuki Ōnishi
Chaîne Opératoire as an Ethnographic Theory in the Era of Globalisation: Reinterpreting André Leroi-Gourhanʼs Anthropology of Technology
Akira Goto
Archéologie du Pacifique-Sud?: A Re-evaluation Leroi-Gourhanʼs Concepts of Technology View from Austronesian World.
Discussion
17:20 Closing