3rd ICAZ Medieval period Working Group Meeting, 7-10 October 2026
The third meeting of the International Council for Archaeozoology (ICAZ) Medieval period Working Group will be hosted at the Institute of Natural Sciences, located in the centre of Brussels.
The meetings of the MWG focus on the study of human–animal relationships during the medieval period, broadly defined as ca. 500–1500 CE, beginning with the end of the Western Roman Empire in the late 5th century CE and ending around 1500 CE with the European voyages of discovery that mark the beginning of the post-medieval period. Contributions covering all types of archaeozoological and related interdisciplinary research, from all over the world, are most welcome.
Committee
Organising committee:
Bea De Cupere, Quentin Goffette, Wim Wouters, with the logistic help of Laurent Nieblas Ramirez, Adriano Vandersypen, Fabienne Desmet and Siska Van Parys.
Scientific committee:
- Veronica Aniceti – Department of History, Cultural Heritage, Education and Society, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome (Italy)
- Anton Ervynck
- Nadezhda Karastoyanova – National Museum of Natural History, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences / National Archaeological Institute with Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia (Bulgaria)
- Mauro Rizzetto – Interdisciplinary Historical Food Studies (FOST) Research Group, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels (Belgium)
- Wim Van Neer – Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels (Belgium)
Venue
Institute of Natural Sciences, Vautierstreet 29, Brussels (how to get there)
Abstracts
Abstracts for both oral and poster presentations must be submitted by May 31, 2026, and sent as an attachment to MWG3@naturalsciences.be. They should be written in English (max. 300 words) and include the abstract title, authors’ names and affiliations, and keywords (max. 5). The template for the abstract is available here.
The final program and abstracts will be available from June 30, 2026 onwards.
Registration
Registration for the meeting can be completed using this form (link: Registration form MWG 3, 7-10 October, Brussels – Fill out form) Registration is only confirmed after payment of the registration fee.
Registration fee is 200 euros (conference dinner and excursion inclusive). Payment of registration fee is due by July 31st 2026
- Account number BE09 6792 0058 2357
- Name of account holder: IRSNB
- BIC/SWIFT PCHQBEBB
- Name and address of the bank: BPOST, Boulevard Anspach 1, 1000 Brussel
- Payment reference: indicate your name as follows: MWG3_Name , e.g. MWG3_DeCupereBea or MWG3_GoffetteQuentin
Provisional program
Wednesday 7 October
Welcome – Keynote speaker – Presentations – Evening: welcome drink
Thursday 8 October:
Presentations – Evening: conference diner
Friday 9 October
Presentations (morning) – Visit to the archaeozoological lab / vertebrate collections of the institute (afternoon)
Saturday 10 October
Excursion / Guided tour in the historical centre of Brussels
Presentations
Oral presentations will be 15 minutes with 5 minutes for questions. No more than 40 oral presentations will be accepted, and if oral presentation submissions exceed 40, some contributors will be asked to submit their work to the poster session.
Posters should be printed on A0 or A1-format in portrait orientation.
More information
For more information or questions, please email to MWG3@naturalsciences.be.
We look forward to welcoming many of you in Brussels!
