From our President

by Felipe Criado-Boado, EAA President, on behalf of EAA Executive Board and Committees (felipe.criado-boado@incipit.csic.es)

Reflecting Futures is EAA motto for Barcelona AM! 


Once again, the EAA Annual Meeting is quickly approaching, and we are excited about our 24th Annual Meeting in Barcelona. This year it occurs at a time of worrying political developments in many European countries, and with a very fluid situation in Catalonia resulting from calls for Catalonian independence. The first reminds us of the evidence that closure, exclusiveness and extreme nationalism, fear of the others and fear of the future, can bring back different forms of fascism. The second point forces us to face the fact that there is some deep movement today that defies the modern model of the Nation-State and the current consensus that forms the European Union. As we approach the two hundredth birthday of Marx, and the 50th anniversary of the May ´68 protest in France, many of us feel alarmed and concerned about all this fluidity. But we are not lost and orphaned. As I wrote recently for the “Introduction” of the Barcelona Programme Book, what we must embrace is not a fear of the future, but confidence in our abilities. These lie on the very fact that archaeology is all about the future, because archaeology is about the capacity to reflect on how the future comes into existence. Based on the special features of our discipline, archaeologists have the capacity to search the processes that shape what is happening in society, and what has happened. We can reflect on our future pasts. But we can envisage retro-futures to the same extent that we can help to prototype present futures.

After Barcelona, we are also quickly approaching a fold in time between past and future: in 2019, the EAA will be 25 years old. This will be a unique occasion to think about what EAA meant when it began, and what it can mean in the future. What we need to celebrate it is not nostalgia but a call for openness and inclusiveness based on the sort of knowledge about archaeological pasts and heritages that we construct. Today this is the sort of reflection that, beyond rhetoric, the European Year of Cultural Heritage must foster.

The magic of Barcelona, combined with the success of our Annual Meetings and the EAA itself, the great job carried out by the Local Organization, the Scientific Committee and the EAA Secretariat (which for the first time in our history, played a significant role in the organisation of an AM), have all attracted a large number of participants from 65 different countries, representing many more different nations, and embodied in 259 sessions, 3078 presentations plus 176 posters, 2920 registered attendees, as this was being written. However, we cannot be complacent about the figures because they also mean, inevitably, practical problems that could affect our expectations as individuals. There will always be complaints about the difficulty of developing an organic plan for so large an attendance. I understand them because I also experience the impossibility of combining my personal preferences with the session I chair, the paper I present, the sessions I wish to attend and the links I want to reinforce. I know that many of you will have the same problems. So much as I beg your pardon as president about our inability to meet all your needs, I call your attention on the fact that these problems mean that the Annual Meeting is alive and dynamic, full of events and opportunities that together combine a very rich opportunity.

The EAA Annual Meetings are becoming more complex. Many new things will happen in Barcelona, and this reflects what is happening in the EAA. The Executive Board, the Secretariat and all the EAA Committees are working hard to innovate and develop services to members, and adopt multiple transformations that along with your contributions will help to consolidate an EAA for the next 25 years. Actually, we must foster ways to more effectively inform you all about the changes we are adopting. There are some plans for this that will be implemented soon after Barcelona. In the meanwhile, you will notice them through practice and experience, but also through this issue of TEA, in which the effort of our Editors, Secretariat and many fellow members have summarized important events and developments that took place in the last few months. Still this is less than what I would wish, because our ambition is to provide clear information about everything that happens in the EAA universe. The usage of social media should help on this. It is helping. Nevertheless, in the last three months I could not maintain my accustomed devotion to social media. It is just a small example of the busy and challenging times we all experience nowadays.

Have a good summer/field season and see you all in Barcelona!

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EAA Annual Meeting Backstage

Sylvie Květinová, Krisztína Pavlíčková and Kateřina Kleinová (EAA Secretariat staff, helpdesk@e-a-a.org)

This year is the first year that EAA has taken a central role in the organisation of an Annual Meeting. It is a development that has given rise to a significant new workload and a new set of responsibilities for the EAA Secretariat. We have worked hard to improve the quality of Annual Meeting organisation and, hopefully, the level of satisfaction of all participants involved. However, given the size of this year’s Annual Meeting, there were some practical issues that inevitably arose. This short article aims to clarify the reasons for some of the ‘glitches’ and hopes to explain what happens with the submissions and contributions of members from the time submissions are made to the point of presentation at the Annual Meeting.

The work required to prepare a session and work towards presenting a paper or poster at an EAA Annual Meeting is something familiar to most of our EAA members. Following significant scholarly endeavour and the run up towards the EAA Annual Meeting deadlines to submit proposals on-line, the latter is hopefully relatively easy. However, if this was not your experience we would welcome your views, or even your shared frustrations at helpdesk@e-a-a.org (if you have not done so already). This will help us to improve our systems next year and in the future.

In order to submit a session or presentation proposal, you need to have an EAA membership account. You can choose to renew your membership and register for the Annual Meeting in stages, according to the deadlines set for each. Any changes you wish to make to your profile are to be made in relation to your EAA membership record (not your registration entry); the only exception is institutional affiliation which can relate specifically to a particular submission.

Once you have identified a session co-organiser from a country different to yours (to ensure international cooperation) you can submit your session. Each session proposal is reviewed by two Scientific Committee members who can accept, reject, recommend for revision or suggest for merger with another similarly themed session. Following the evaluation by the Scientific Committee, the EAA Secretariat opens all approved sessions (that fulfil also all formal criteria) for the submission of abstracts for oral or poster presentations. These are reviewed by the respective session organisers who accept or reject proposals, or discuss required changes directly with the author.

Notification of acceptance is sent by the EAA Secretariat and a list of accepted contributions is published on the Annual Meeting web site. Admittedly, this year, this system did not ensure that these acceptance / rejection notifications reached everybody as planned; we understand that some authors were still wondering three months from submission deadline whether their contribution had been accepted or not. Next year, we will aim for a double feedback to authors from both session organisers and from the EAA Secretariat in order to ensure that no one is missed out.

When a paper or poster is rejected by a session organiser (e.g. if it does not match the session’s subject scope) the Scientific Committee, with the approval of the session organiser, recommends reallocation to another session. If there is no suitable session, the contribution may be assigned to a general session, again with the approval of the author. Once finalised, the Scientific Committee and EAA Secretariat review all approved sessions to ensure they have the minimum required number of oral presentations (six) – and that they are not too long. In addition, they have to meet the scientific standards of EAA Annual Meetings. The Scientific Committee also estimates the room size required for each session.

Programme creation is a complex task involving multiple criteria. Timing clashes, in particular, are avoided for session organisers and those presenting more than one paper. While sessions are the basic cornerstone of EAA Annual Meetings, many delegates seem to be omnipresent and hence timetable conflicts this year could only be resolved at the level of 2-hours blocks and not for entire sessions. Thematically akin sessions, identified by the Scientific Committee, are intended not to run in parallel. Specific requests by authors for timing sessions or presentations were also taken into account where possible and will also be in the future. These aspects are always conditioned by the number of lecture rooms available.

All this information translates into a complicated matrix. The Secretariat and the Scientific Committee have worked with more than 50 different versions of the programme before a final schedule was identified that accommodated most requirements. As members you are all aware of the huge level of interaction that occurs when so many sessions are required and so many papers need to be presented. It is unfortunately Mission Impossible to achieve a clash-free programme in such a complex situation. All this means that, ultimately, there can only be limited flexibility for last minute scheduling demands, not to mention the unwelcome pitfalls created by late cancellations. Therefore, the printed programme reflects all those changes made before 23 July. Any later alterations to the programme will be announced on-line and in errata offprint.

The success of the Annual Meeting in 2018 is now up to you, the delegates. We are really excited about it and have enjoyed preparing it for you. Thank you for the 34 MB of positive emails received from you at helpdesk@e-a-a.org. We like to, and try to, give personal attention to everyone.

We look forward to your further feedback and specially to seeing you all in Barcelona.

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General Data Protection Regulation

The European Association of Archaeologists has always been committed to ensuring secure handling and privacy of our members’ personal data. In line with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which entered in force on 25 May 2018, you will be required to read and accept a disclaimer upon logging in at the EAA or the Annual Meeting web sites; you will be able to review the information any time in your personal profile, and you will be asked to confirm your acceptance once per calendar year.

The EAA will continue to analyse every aspect of the GDPR with regard to your data in order to guarantee compliance with the regulation and security and privacy of your data. If you have any questions in this regard, please email helpdesk@e-a-a.org.

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EAA Publications

The EAA publishes a newsletter, The European Archaeologist (TEA), the quarterly European Journal of Archaeology (EJA), a monograph series THEMES in Contemporary Archaeology, and now a new series Elements: The Archaeology of Europe, in collaboration with Cambridge University Press (see announcement in this issue of TEA).

The European Journal of Archaeology, under the editorship of Robin Skeates and Catherine Frieman, is a peer-reviewed, international journal currently published by Cambridge University Press. Formerly known as the Journal of European Archaeology (from 1993-1997), EJA publishes papers on all aspects of archaeology, including archaeological methods and theories, history of archaeology, archaeological heritage, and recent discoveries, with a focus on, but not limited to, European archaeology. 


Recent articles include:

Contents alerts can be delivered to your email inbox by signing up at https://www.cambridge.org/journal-alerts

Members receive four issues a year as part of their membership benefits. Information for authors, including information about Open Access opportunities and publishing agreements, can be found at the EJA page on Cambridge Core.


THEMES in Contemporary Archaeology, the monograph series of the European Association of Archaeology.

View available volumes at https://www.routledge.com/archaeology/series/TCA

Historical Archaeologies of Transhumance across Europe

Editors: Eugene Costello and Eva Svensson

Transhumance is a form of pastoralism that has been practised around the world since animals were first domesticated. Such seasonal movements have formed an important aspect of many European farming systems for several thousand years, although they have declined markedly since the nineteenth century. Ethnographers and geographers have long been involved in recording transhumant practices, and in the last two decades archaeologists have started to add a new material dimension to the subject. This volume brings together recent advances in the study of European transhumance during historical times, from Sweden to Spain, Romania to Ireland, and beyond that even Newfoundland.

Conflict Archaeology

Editors: Manuel Fernández-Götz and Nico Roymans

In the past two decades, conflict archaeology has become firmly established as a promising field of research, as reflected in publications, symposia, conference sessions and fieldwork projects. It has its origins in the study of battlefields and other conflict-related phenomena in the modern Era, but numerous studies show that this theme, and at least some of its methods, techniques and theories, are also relevant for older historical and even prehistoric periods. This book presents a series of case-studies on conflict archaeology in ancient Europe, based on the results of both recent fieldwork and a reassessment of older excavations. The chronological framework spans from the Neolithic to Late Antiquity, and the geographical scope from Iberia to Scandinavia.

Isotopic Investigation of Pastoralism in Prehistory

Editors: Alicia R. Ventresca Miller and Cheryl A. Makarewicz

Pastoralists were a vital economic and social force in ancient societies around the globe, transforming landscapes poorly suited for agriculture into spaces of vast productive potential while simultaneously connecting mobile and sedentary communities alike across considerable distances.
Drawing from the rich archaeological records of Asia, Africa, and Europe, Isotopic Investigations of Pastoralism in Prehistory brings together the latest studies employing heavy and light stable isotopic analyses of humans and animals to investigate pastoralist diets, movement, and animal management strategies.

Going West? The Dissemination of Neolithic Innovations between the Bosporus and the Carpathians

Editors: Agathe Reingruber, Zoï Tsirtsoni, and Petranka Nedelcheva

Going West? uses the latest data to question how the Neolithic way of life was diffused from the Near East to Europe via Anatolia. The seventeen authors of this book have dedicated their research to a renewed evaluation of an old problem: namely, the question of how the complex transformations at the transition from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic can be explained. They have focused their studies on the vast area of the eastern Balkans and the Pontic region between the Bosporus and the rivers Strymon, Danube and Dniestr. Going West? thus offers an overview of the current state of research concerning the Neolithisation of these areas, considering varied viewpoints and also providing useful starting points for future investigations.

Trypillia Mega-Sites and European Prehistory 4100-3400 BCE

Editors: Johannes Müller, Knut Rassmann, and Mykhailo Videiko

In European prehistory population agglomerations of more than 10,000 inhabitants per site are a seldom phenomenon. A big surprise to the archaeological community was the discovery of Trypillia mega-sites of more than 250 hectares and with remains of more than 2000 houses by a multidisciplinary approach of Soviet and Ukrainian archaeology, including aerial photography, geophysical prospection and excavations nearly 50 years ago. The extraordinary development took place at the border of the North Pontic Forest Steppe and Steppe zone ca. 4100–3400 BCE. Since then many questions arose which are of main relevance: Why, how and under which environmental conditions did Trypillia mega-sites develop? How long did they last? Were social and/or ecological reasons responsible for this social experiment? Are Trypillia and the similar sized settlement of Uruk two different concepts of social behaviour?

Assembling Çatalhöyük

Editors: Ian Hodder and Arkadiusz Marciniak

Assembling Çatalhöyük, like archaeological remains, can be read in a number of ways. At one level the volume reports on the exciting new discoveries and advances that are being made in the understanding of the 9000 year-old Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük. The site has long been central to debates about early village societies and the formation of ‘mega-sites’ in the Middle East. The current long-term project has made many advances in our understanding of the site that impact our wider understanding of the Neolithic and its spread into Europe from the Middle East. These advances concern use of the environment, climate change, subsistence practices, social and economic organization, the role of religion, ritual and symbolism. At another level, the volume reports on methodological advances that have been made by team members, including the development of reflexive methods, paperless recording on site, the integrated use of 3D visualization, and interactive archives. The long-term nature of the project allows these various innovations to be evaluated and critiqued. In particular, the volume includes analyses of the social networks that underpin the assembling of data, and documents the complex ways in which arguments are built within quickly transforming alliances and allegiances within the team. In particular, the volume explores how close inter-disciplinarity, and the assembling of different forms of data from different sub-disciplines, allow the weaving together of information into robust, distributed arguments.

EAA members can buy print and e-copies of all THEMES volumes at 30% discount - please email administrator@e-a-a.org who will assist you.

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Calendar for EAA members July - October 2018

  • before 7 August - EAA election launched
  • 10 August - Deadline for Student Award submissions
  • before 23 August - Documents for AMBM circulated to current members
  • 24 August - Deadline for booking lunches at the 24th EAA Annual Meeting in Barcelona
  • 30 August - Deadline for booking Annual Dinner and MERC Party at the 24th EAA Annual Meeting in Barcelona
  • 31 August - Deadline for postal ballot papers to be sent to EAA Secretariat
  • 5 - 8 September - 24th EAA Annual Meeting in Barcelona
  • 5 September - Opening Ceremony
  • 6 September - EAA Annual Party
  • 7 September - Deadline for ballot papers to be returned to the ballot box at the Annual Meeting and for electronic voting at 12 pm
  • 7 September - AMBM and announcement of the election results
  • 8 September - Annual Dinner
  • 2nd half of September - Call for sessions for 25th EAA Annual Meeting in Bern opens
  • 15 October - Registration for 25th EAA Annual Meeting in Bern opens
  • 15 October - Deadline for sending in articles and announcements for TEA autumn/fall issue

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Upcoming Events

2018
2019
2020
 

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