Community for the Americas - Community for the Archaeology of the Americas (EAA4Am)

We are many Americanist archaeologists related to the European ecosystem. As the largest organization of archaeologists in Europe, the EAA offers us the opportunity to create collaborative spaces and develop discussion forums to promote dialogue about the Americas from Europe.

Objectives:

To make visible the European research ecosystem in archaeology and heritage of the Americas
To promote collaborative networks among its actors - for academic training - for cooperation in scientific research - for the formulation of new projects based on feedback between the different expertise of the researchers
Contribute to open science through the sharing of data and research techniques
To contribute to the dissemination of information about ongoing scientific projects and upcoming scientific events

Topics

At the beginning of 2020, before creating the community, a survey was disseminated to figure out if such a community would make sense to other people. This figure shows the topics of interest expressed by some 150 persons who answered the survey.

The resources library section (for members) contains several documents including the reports of the process of community co-construction. Survey report is also published here.

Actors

Researchers, teachers, practitioners, students, and everyone interested in Americanist research in archaeology and heritage can register to the EAA and become a member of the community.

The community is administrated by a board which members are responsible for EEA4Am activities planning. These members are rotating annually.

2023-2024 Community Board: Carla Jaimes (co-chair, University of Bonn, cjaimes@uni-bonn.de), Natalia Moragas (co-chair, Universitat de Barcelona, nataliamoragas@ub.edu), Thibault Saintenoy (com manager, Incipit-CSIC, thibault.saintenoy@incipit.csic.es), Marisa Lazzari (University of Exeter, M.Lazzari@exeter.ac.uk), Carolina Orsini (Museo delle Culture de Milano, Carolina.Orsini@comune.milano.it), Frank Meddens (University of Reading, frank.meddens@googlemail.com, and Alexei Vranich (University of Warsaw, avranich@gmail.com).

2022-2023 Community Board: Thibault Saintenoy (co-chair, Incipit-CSIC, thibault.saintenoy@incipit.csic.es), Marcia Hattori (co-chair, Incipit-CSiC, marcia.hattori@incipit.csic.es), Alexander Geurds (University of Oxford, alexander.geurds@arch.ox.ac.uk), Carla Jaimes (University of Bonn, cjaimes@uni-bonn.de), Marisa Lazzari (University of Exeter, M.Lazzari@exeter.ac.uk), Carolina Orsini (Museo delle Culture de Milano, Carolina.Orsini@comune.milano.it), Mariusz Ziolkowski (University of Warsaw, mziolkowski@uw.edu.pl).

2021-2022 Community Board: Marcia Hattori (co-chair, Incipit-CSiC, marcia.hattori@incipit.csic.es) and Thibault Saintenoy (co-chair, Université des Antilles, thibault.saintenoy@univ-antilles.fr), Alexander Geurds (University of Oxford, alexander.geurds@arch.ox.ac.uk), John Carman (Birmingham University, j.carman@bham.ac.uk), Marisa Lazzari (University of Exeter, M.Lazzari@exeter.ac.uk), Rui Gomes Coelho (Durham University, rui.g.coelho@durham.ac.uk), and Mariusz Ziolkowski (University of Warsaw, mziolkowski@uw.edu.pl).

Actions

Community board meetings are organized on a quarterly basis, to exchange information and assess the development of new projects and activities.

EAA4Am administrates a mailing list for the dissemination of information about activities held in Europe: eaa4am@e-a-a.org.

Once a year, EAA4Am organizes the European Assembly of Americanist Archaeology, a public academic meeting held in the main European academic units conducting archaeological and heritage research in the Americas. The talks are available on EAA4Am video channel. The first assembly was carried out in Bornos in 2022, and the second at Incipit-CSIC in Santiago de Compostela in 2023.

EAA4Am organizes sessions at EAA annual meetings. Each year, a generic session allows to visualize the current research in the Americas, while thematic sessions are formulated by community members.

EAA4Am Map of Actors

This map of actors is aimed at visualizing the current Americanist research ecosystem in Europe. Clicking the dots allows you to identify and contact active research units, museums, and scientific societies.

For full screen: here .

Journals

The following European journals are publishing Americanist archaeology papers on a regular basis.

Announcements

EAA4Am at EAA2024 annual meeting in Rome
By

Thibault Saintenoy

on

August 27, 2024

Dear colleagues,

Our community is organizing two activities at Rome’s EAA annual meeting:

- A business meeting of the community will be held on Wednesday 28 August at 13 - 15 pm CEST at the Annual Meeting venue (Sapienza campus) in room no. XC=CU003-FL2-CIASCA. Everyone is welcome to discuss the future of the community, and to prepare its 2025 annual meeting in Italy.

- An academic session “Current research in the Americas: interdisciplinary research between past and present” will be held on Friday 30 August at 8:30 – 18:30.

See you in Rome,

The EAA4Am Board

0 replies
EAA4Am meeting at Reading, UK (May 20-21st 2024): call for papers
By

Thibault Saintenoy

on

February 8, 2024

The EAA4Am Community jointly with the University of Reading School of Archaeology, Geography and Environmental Science will organize the third European Assembly of Archaeology of the Americas.

The event will be held at the University of Reading on the 20th and 21st May 2024. Invited contributors will have their hotel and breakfast paid for three nights as well as lunches and the conference reception (travel arrangements and cost of dinners must be covered by the individual participants).

The University of Reading School of Archaeology, Geography and Environmental Science has been actively engaged in research in the Americas over the past 25 years, especially in the Peruvian Andes with a particular focus on Middle Horizon, Late Intermediate Period and Inca societies, sacred space, agropastoral food systems, environmental history, and climate variability.

The organising committee is eager for presentations on recent research that have a focus on ‘Water, life and civilisations’, especially archaeological, ethnographical and palaeoenvironmental perspectives on water management (its development and function), creation and utilisation of wetlands, water security and climate variability, water and agri-food systems, and water and sacred spaces and places. We would also ask each participant to consider the significance and value of information about the ‘past’ for the present day and future conservation and management of water resources as an aspect of their presentation. The wide geographical scope of the double continent will also allow us to comparatively discuss the diversity and complementarity of water-related topics through distinct regions, ecosystems, cultural landscapes and communities.

If you are interested in participating, then please provide a title along with a short abstract of 150 words for consideration by the committee, by email eaa4am@e-a-a.org before February 29th. Also, feel free to contact the conference organizers, Frank Meddens and Nick Branch, for more details: frank.meddens@googlemail.com, n.p.branch@reading.ac.uk.

In addition to the scheduled formal presentations there will be an option to submit posters for inclusion in the program.

Interested participants should be aware that the bi-annual South American Archaeology Seminar at University College London is due to take place on Saturday 18th May 2024. This is the Saturday preceding the event in Reading. Those interested in also attending the South American Archaeology Seminar in London should contact b.sillar@ucl.ac.uk.

Regards,

The EAA4Am Board

0 replies
Community meeting at Belfast EAA conference: 30/8, 15-17h
By

Thibault Saintenoy

on

August 18, 2023

Dear EAA4Am members,

Community meeting is scheduled on Wednesday August 30th, 15-17 BST.

Participants in Belfast will meet in the Peter Froggatt building room no. PFC/02/013.
Online participants can join the following virtual room: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89659509799 (password: 2854978).

This meeting will allow us to treat the following topics:
- debriefing of EAA4Am 2023 meeting at Incipit-CSIC,
- organization of 2024 meeting at University of Reading,
- renewal of EAA4Am Community Board, and
- others of interest to participants.

See you soon,

EAA4Am Board

0 replies
EAA4Am's channel
By

Thibault Saintenoy

on

July 3, 2023

The recorded talks at the assemblies held in Bornos (2022) and Compostela (2023) are available on EAA4Am’s youtube channel, here.

0 replies
EAA4Am sessions at 2023 EAA annual meeting
By

Thibault Saintenoy

on

January 27, 2023

Dear colleagues,

EAA4Am community is organizing two sessions at the next European Association of Archaeologists annual meeting. The conference will take place in Belfast between August 30^th and September 2^nd. It will also be open to online participation.

The two sessions organized by EAA board members are the following:

- Session 437, Current research in the Americas

- Session 516, Interrogating European archives of Americanist archaeology

Details can be found below, as well as on the EAA online program (https://www.e-a-a.org/eaa2023). The call for papers is open until February 9^th.

Regards,

The EAA4Am board

Session 437

Title

Current research in the Americas

Abstract

Organised by the EAA4Am Community, this session aims to creating a welcoming space for archaeologists participating in the 2023 annual meeting, and interested in introducing and sharing results of ongoing research on the archaeology and heritage of the Americas. Despite the long trajectory of research in the Americas by scholars based in European institutions, few spaces dedicated to Americanist archaeology exist in European archaeological meetings. This session aims to overcome this by sharing information on ongoing projects as well as providing insights about our research practices.

We welcome contributions that present archaeological and heritage research on the Americas from all time periods, and which adopt a variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives, including interdisciplinary and reflexive approaches (alterity, coloniality, gender, resistance, heritage production and conflict, amongst others). The goal of the session is not only networking, but also to generate debates about the possibilities, limitations, and perspectives of practicing Americanist research while based in Europe.

Keywords

Archaeology, Heritage, Americas

Co-organizers

Thibault Saintenoy, Marcia Hattori, Mariusz Ziolkowski, Marisa Lazzari, Carla Jaimes, Carolina Orsini and Alexander Geurds

Session 516

Title

Interrogating European archives of Americanist archaeology

From the earliest contacts of Europeans with native American cultures during conquests and colonization, artefacts, especially crafts and art produced by the latter, have constituted objects of interest, description and, in some cases, were taken to Europe to supply antiquity collections. In later times, and in particular from the second half of the 18th century onwards, pre-Columbian monuments and objects became the subject of more scientifically oriented research, accounts of which often accompanied the shipment of archaeological objects to European collections. The famous Trujillo del Perú codex, published by Baltasar Martínez Compañón in 1782-1785, may be viewed as an example of such an early scientific archive. As this process continued and grew during the 19th and the first decades of the 20th centuries, the production of “scientific” narratives (chronicles, measurements, graphic documentation, cartography, photography, etc.) also developed on a great scale. Most of this data has generally been accumulated in private and institutional collections throughout Europe. Today, these archives constitute a great resource, in order to research the American past as well as to better understand the history of European research approaches and practices in the Americas.

During these last decades, the archaeological collections of artefacts produced by European scientific practices throughout the Americas have often been the subject of reflections and debates, in relation to their analysis, curation, exhibition, and in specific contexts to their repatriation to their place of origin. In comparison, few have been done about the non-artefactual data (mainly texts and images).

In this session, we would like to approach the question of the scientific documentation archives of European investigations in the Americas. How well-known and easy to access are they? What is their potential for research? What is their meaning and utility for indigenous communities and American (and European) states? We would welcome both presentations on specific archives (related or not to artefact collections), as well as more global/critical reflections about the historical contexts of their production, and about the issue of archives management for their common access and use.

Keywords

Americas, history of archaeology, archives, collections

Co-organizers

Mariusz Ziolkowski, Thibault Saintenoy, Marcia Hattori, Marisa Lazzari, Carla Jaimes, Carolina Orsini and Alexander Geurds

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EAA4Am meeting at Compostela, Galicia (April 19-21st 2023)
By

Thibault Saintenoy

on

January 12, 2023

The Second European meeting of Americanist archaeology, organized by EAA4Am community, will be hold by Incipit-CSiC in Santiago de Compostela, in april. More info: https://www.incipit.csic.es/en/events#:~:text=eaa4am%20scientific%20meeting

0 replies
EEA4Am meeting at Bornos, Andalucia (May 9-13th 2022)
By

Thibault Saintenoy

on

May 12, 2022

Info, program and recordings are available at : http://www.ceacusco.pl/es/asamblea.html

0 replies
EAA 2021 - Session: #548 Tracing the Past, Charting the Future
By

Márcia Lika Hattori

on

April 15, 2021

Tracing the Past, Charting the Future: Exploring Archaeological Research Collaboration between the Americas and Europe International collaboration between European and American teams for archaeological research has a long history of both practical and theoretical interactions. In addition to scientific achievements resulting from dialogues between schools of thought and exchanges of technical knowledge, this collaboration has also contributed to the creation of international institutions dedicated to Americanist research, such as museums, conferences, research centers, and university programs. Through a historiographic perspective, we would like to reflect on the future of such practices of international collaborations in the current global world where ubiquitous interconnections coexist with national borders, geopolitical interests, and the ongoing decolonial process. This session welcomes testimonies and insights on diverse experiences of international collaboration for Americanist archaeological research based on the life stories of institutions, projects, and/or individuals. Contributions might refer to equity-related issues along the decolonial axis: what is happening on that end? In how far are there trends in Europe? What patterns do we see in local, regional, and national contexts in the Americas that shape such practices? Our goal is to understand which purposes drove past international collaborations and which ones should motivate us to conduct new projects in the complex local/global frameworks of our time. Keywords: International research practices, Archaeological theories, Americanist archaeology, Decolonialism, Scientific collaboration Organisers: Thibault Saintenoy (Université des Antilles, France) Marisa Lazzari (University of Exeter, United Kingdom) Marcia Hattori (Incipit-CSiC, Spain) Rui Gomes Coelho (Durham university, UK) Alexander Geurds (Leiden University, Netherlands) Mariusz Ziółkowski (University of Warsaw, Poland) John Carman (University of Birmingham, UK)

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