Welcome to the Autumn (or Fall) 2017 issue of TEA, the final issue of this year. In this issue we present the EAA Annual Report, news from the EAA 23rd Annual Meeting in Maastricht, messages from the EAA president and the president of WAC, and the calendar for the next quarter, followed by reports and announcements.
We thank the organizers in Maastricht for their hard work and dedication to making the 2017 Annual Meeting a success. We were left with lots of positive energy and a feeling of good will, and we received expression of similar experiences from many of the 1742 EAA delegates who joined us in Maastricht (also on our EAA Facebook page).
Building Bridges was theme of the EAA Maastricht 2017. While the past couple of years have seen a focus on re-building bridges within the EAA, the 89% of the vote that our current and continuing President, Felipe Criado-Boado, received this year is an indication that the membership has renewed confidence in the leadership of our Association. The EAA Executive Board is now redoubling efforts to build new bridges to the European commission, Europa Nostra, the Society of Africanist Archaeologists (SAfA), the Society for Historical Archaeology (SHA) and others, while strengthening existing relations with sister organizations such as WAC and the SAA.
And as pointed out many times by our Dutch organizers, and repeated by representatives of archaeology and heritage organizations from across the world, archaeologists must build bridges with the public, the voters and taxpayers, as well as with politicians and developers. We must acknowledge the very different needs and desires of these diverse groups, and learn to speak their languages. As EAA President Felipe Criado-Boado points out in this newsletter, we must stop being the “No people”, and balance our requirement to say no you cannot build here, no you cannot collect that, with yes you can interact with archaeology. Finally, we must produce a clear and concrete answer to the questions of why archaeology should be funded, and why heritage should be preserved.
So there is much work ahead, with many bridges still to be built, and TEA will provide constant reporting and commentary on the development of the new strategic and governance plans.
We also provide a place for all members to comment on or question these developments. From short letters to the editor to longer essays or debate pieces, you as members can have your voice heard on the pages of TEA. Please send us your contributions for the next issue, Winter 2017/2018, before January 2018. But do not worry if you miss a deadline – TEA appears four times a year (normally) and we will just include contributions you send into the next issue. Please work with us to keep your fellow EAA members informed about archaeology in Europe. Send your opinions, research updates, and conferences to us at tea@e-a-a.org
Katharina Rebay-Salisbury and Roderick B. Salisbury