Sheila Kohring (University of Cambridge; sek34@cam.ac.uk) and Stephanie Wynne-Jones (University of Bristol; stephanie.wynne-jones@biea.ac.uk)

This session explores various aspects and scales of ‘encounter’ as used in archaeology. The concept is used here to describe material engagements and their social negotiations – be they individually or communally experienced, one-off chances or repeated patterns of engagement. While an encounter describes a specific event, in reality it includes the entire network of relationships as experienced by producers, consumers and the archaeologists themselves when they try to make their material world meaningful. Papers in this session may consider how innovations and traditions are internally negotiated, how interactions between social groups are mediated and why these interactions may cease to facilitate continuation in traditions or networks. The unifying theme will be regarding the fulcrum nature of material culture and ‘exchange’ (as a physical, social and cognitive engagement).