Of course you would expect The European Archaeologist to be as European as possible. However, this issue of TEA is so European that it surprises even me. The Debate section in particular sees poignant statements that reveal a deep concern with Europe and its archaeology. Martin Rundkvist bluntly states: 'The thinking habits of North-western and Eastern European archaeologists are very different'. Is this true, despite the fact that the EAA for almost twenty years provides a forum for exchanging new data and communicating existing paradigms, and that also a number of conferences have debated 'Archaeologies East - Archaeologies West'? Rundkvist claims that much of archaeology in Eastern Europe is following the essentialist paradigm many 'Westerners' have abandoned due to the critical post-processual or generally theoretical debates. Is there a new East-West split in archaeological thought?

The Conference Report on a meeting in Russia that brought together young archaeologists from Eastern Europe may add fuel to the fire. It claims the unity of the former Soviet states, now loosely connected in the 'Commonwealth of Independent States' (CIS), and the author Vlasta E. Rodinkova expresses the wish that such a conference should 'form a common scientific and partly ideological field' for young CIS archaeologists. Obviously there is more than one European archaeology, and we should be aware of different traditions and trends, beyond the Western critical approaches.

Also Felipe Criado-Boado in his Debate paper emphasises this way of critical thinking. He
reminds us that the critical debates that we, i.e. Western archaeology, intensified in the last two or three decades enable us to be more self-aware and reflexive than traditional archaeology was: archaeology 'has never had the ability to be so transparent, or to be so unnaïve' as it has today, he says. And he reminds us that archaeology has started to play new, non-nationalist roles: 'from the 1990s onwards it became part of a project for a new Europe conceived as a hyper-nation. At the same time, it was part of a cultural critique to open the way for emancipatory demands, including the construction of a post-nationalist Europe'. However, Criado-Boado sees a pressing need to reconsider the construction of Europe and archaeology’s role due to the heavy crisis, which is not only a financial crisis.

Another conference, one dealing with two very particular types of monuments, is also able to
reveal different attitudes towards 'Europe'. While Sardinian Nuraghi and Scottish Brochs are
juxtaposed in Brian Smith’s Conference Report, it becomes clear that we can compare different European regions and histories without writing a 'Europeanist' history that deems apparently similar phenomena such as Metal Age stone buildings as an example of 'European' unity in diversity.' Rather, the conference obviously is an example how to write histories of Europe (rather than European history) through diversity.

However, even the concept of diversity is not an easy solution. Would we include the Ottoman Empire as a component of 'Medieval Europe', or would we consider the Balkans to be beyond 'Europe'? These are questions posed and discussed during a session at this year's EAA meeting in Helsinki - see the Session Report by Søren Sindbæk and Sam Nixon.

Other topics that re-emerge every now and then are metal-detecting and how to turn it into a somehow useful practice as well as the engagement with voluntary and hobbyist uses of heritage (Suzie Thomas' conference report), publishing in archaeology (Report by Emese Sarkadi Nagy, Debate paper by C. Stephen Briggs, and Session Report by Robin Skeates and Estella Weiss-Krejci). And this issue contains a remarkable number of Session Reports and Announcements concerned with our heritage under water (s. Riikka Alvik and Elena Pranckenaite; Björn Nilsson; SPLASHCOS conference announcement).

Finally, let me remind you that the 2013 EAA Meeting will take place from 4-8 September in
Pilsen. The deadline for session proposals is 15 November! The Deadline for articles and
announcements for the TEA 39 summer issue is 15 April 2013. Looking forward to hearing from you!
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Alexander Gramsch TEA Editor