Karen Ruebens (University of Southampton; karen.ruebens@soton.ac.uk), Dave Underhill-Stocks (University of Southampton; drus105@soton.ac.uk) and James Cole (University of Southampton; jnc201@soton.ac.uk)

The release of the book ‘The Individual Hominid in Context’ (C. Gamble and M. Porr (eds.)) in 2005 has opened up the discussion about how individual actions can be recognised in the prehistoric archaeological record and the theoretical frameworks under which this can be done. Also because of the discovery and careful excavation of new high-resolution sites, we are now in a position to discuss how identities were formed, perceived and expressed in prehistory.

Whilst Gamble and Porr (2005) forms an important contribution to this field, much of the work on individuals unwittingly remains entrenched in cultural explanations only subtly removed from the culture-history paradigm. We feel that fundamental shifts in theory are required to move away from assumptions of cultural and social control over the individual; it is now time to take a new critical look at the concept of prehistoric identities and ask the question how our theoretical frameworks about identities can be related back to the past. Our aim is to challenge the accepted material culture paradigm which has become entrenched in a top-down approach; to do this we propose looking from the bottom-up, using the actual material record as a starting point.

This session invites abstracts dealing with various aspects of identity (individual, group, society, interactions, etc.) that can be related to prehistoric times (including the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Bronze and Iron Age). Furthermore we would like to emphasise the multidisciplinary nature of prehistoric research by welcoming abstracts from all related fields, including: philosophy, genetics, sociology, psychology, linguistics, anthropology, biology and archaeology.

We aim to touch upon the following questions:
- Is the individual truly visible in the archaeological record?
- How relevant is this individual level compared to group identities and social networks?
- Are group/community identities visible in the prehistoric record or are they modern constructions?
- How can the theoretical frameworks be applied to the archaeological reality? What are the methodological concerns hereby?

At the end of the session we hope to have provided new insights into the concept of prehistoric identities through an interdisciplinary approach combining anthropological, archaeological, genetic and linguistic evidence.