Dear Colleagues,
This issue marks the beginning of our third year as your TEA editors. We would like, first, to thank all of the contributing authors for what we feel has been an excellent collection of content from 2023. We also thank our readership for your interest and input –TEA is all the better for it. Throughout this new year we hope to continue to put out a varied and colourful selection of materials on diverse subjects of import to the archaeological and heritage community. Speaking of the New Year and our community, we would like to wish you all an exciting, happy, and productive 2024. But, first, we would like to echo the words of International Community of Museums (ICOM) President Emma Nardi, in ICOM’s Member Newsletter earlier this month, that we must first "focus together on the terrible situation that so many of our colleagues are experiencing. Our first wish is that wars will cease, that death and destruction will give way to peace and reconstruction. The wounds are many and painful, but the resources of our global network are also numerous and powerful."
As such, our hearts go out to all those suffering the consequences of unnecessary conflict and capricious violence even at the very doorstep of Europe, from the continued war in Ukraine, to the carpet-bombing of Gaza, to all those affected by the recent shooting at Charles University in Prague, and to all those faced with such horrific circumstances around the world. Many of the contributions to TEA over the last year have had to do with the affects and implications of conflict and the subsequent detriment to cultural heritage, and we will continue this trend for as long as it is necessary. Let us hope together that our work as archaeologists can help teach people and inform governments about the beauty of cultural diversity and identities and the immeasurable value of cultural heritage. Let us share the amazing stories of humanity’s past and celebrate the possibilities and prospects for its future.
In lighter news, Sam and I have had the opportunity to listen in on the Executive Board regarding some of the exciting plans in the works for the 2024 Annual Meeting in Rome as they develop. In this respect, EAA Members’ comments and concerns have been both very useful (see 2023 Annual Survey results) in the strategic planning of future EAA conferences, and Members’ input is both vital to and greatly appreciated by the Board.
As was announced in Belfast, the EAA now can account for almost 4500 Members the world over (see 2023 Belfast AM Report). The growth in membership is an excellent statement in favour of archaeological and heritage professionals’ interest and faith in the EAA and what it stands for moving forward. As EAA’s membership continues to climb, there will also be some growing pains. These were experienced by a number of Members in different ways during the 29th Annual Meeting in Belfast. As Mike D’Aprix and Emily Bowyer-Kazadi expressed in our last issue in their review of the Belfast Annual Meeting, the size and complexity of organizing and smoothly running future AMs will only increase. We feel that it is important to acknowledge the potential shortcomings and their implications upfront, because these will affect more and more attendees as time goes on.
In addition to our standard fare such as the calendar of upcoming events and an overview of recent archaeological news in In Case You Missed It provided by Joana Valdez-Tullett, we also feature three unique takes on life in archaeologist, in a chat with EAA Official Amanda Chadburn, Meet a Member with Aja Lans and a special interview between TEA editor Samantha Reiter and Geesche Wilts on the archaeology blog Miss Jones. We include an Insight section on the art and archaeology of toichographiology by Nicolas Delferrière. Speaking of art, we also have a reading from Daniela Heller’s award-winning archaeology comic Post Hole, which can be accessed through video embedded in this issue’s PDF! Jean-Olivier Gransard-Desmond offers a discussion of the world of ‘amateur’ or volunteer archaeologists. Marnix Jacques Pieters does his best to convince us all to become underwater archaeologists and invites us to the 8th International Congress for Underwater Archaeology coming up in 2025 in Belgium. Emily Lister gives one archaeologist’s take on the film The Dig, now streaming on Netflix. This issue also features a number of interesting Research Overviews, including: a synopsis of Gabriele Russo and colleagues’ recent publication in Nature: Scientific Reports providing the ‘First direct evidence of lion hunting and the early use of a lion pelt by Neanderthals’; a fascinating stratigraphical exploration of votive offerings within an Etruscan and Roman votive pool at San Casciano dei Bagni by Jacopo Tabolli and Eleonore Pape and Nicola Ialongo discuss their recent work tackling the nuances of how archaeologists identify and categorize gender from prehistoric burial assemblages. We round out the issue with Irina Olevska-Kairisa’s call to EAA Members to participate in an important survey querying the scope of and possible legal ramifications for damage to archaeological heritage as a detriment to the scientific community; Eszter Bánffy gives an accounting of the 26th Neolithic Seminar in Ljubljana, marking the centenary of the Study of Archaeology department at the University of Ljubljana, and Dawn Elise Mooney and Mariá Martín-Seijo introduce us to ARCHWILD: The EAA Community of Research on Wild Plant Resources. Finally, colleagues pay their respects to the late Liv Helga Dommasnes, a pioneering figure in positioning women at the forefront of European archaeology.
In closing out the first Letter from the Editors of 2024, Sam and I would again like to thank all of you that have taken the time to contribute to or just read The European Archaeologist. We hope that the content from 2023 was stimulating, valuable, and relevant to each of you in some way. We look forward to continuing to work with our amazing EAA Members to keep this momentum through the coming year. Most importantly, we wish you all a good 2024 and a brighter look ahead for a better future of peace, liberty, and understanding. As students of the past, we owe our best efforts to the future.
Best Regards,
Matthew J. Walsh and Samantha S. Reiter
Editors