Issue 60 - Spring 2019

Published  6 May 2019

TEA 60
(Adobe PDF File)

Editorial

25 Year anniversary of the European Association of Archaeologists!

Despite challenges and fears relating to obvious threats to democracy, freedom and cultural heritage, we at EAA are celebrating! 2019 is the 25 year anniversary of the European Association of Archaeologists, and we see these challenges as opportunities to remind our communities, our members and ourselves that the success of EAA is but one example of people working together to build bridges and maintain the collaborative institutions necessary to have an open and inclusive society. We will be celebrating all year with photos and other memorabilia from past annual meetings, essays from members thinking about how the EAA has evolved, and thoughts about how we can continue to improve and contribute to the protection and presentation of both archaeological heritage and our democracies. This issue also marks the 60th issue of The European Archaeologist, another exciting achievement, and one which we are proud to be part of!

This issue of TEA includes a debate essay in which Raimund Karl presents the pros and cons of legal, organized, metal-detector tourism. Sure to provoke some heated discussion, the essay acknowledges concerns that archaeologists have, but offers a pragmatic take on the practice. We ask that you send your responses – positive or in disagreement – to TEA, and we are sure that our members will keep it civil. We also have three short essays celebrating the 25th anniversary of EAA. Two are from members who have participated in EAA since the first annual meeting, offering their different perspectives on how far we have come and where we might be headed. The third is from Michael Potterton, a former TEA Editor.

In this issue, you will also find the call for the European Archaeological Heritage Prize 2019, with a 1 June 2019 deadline for nominations, and a flyer about the EAA Student Award. The Student Award is awarded annually for the best student paper presented at the EAA conference, with the winner announced at the Opening Ceremony of the EAA Annual Meeting. If you are a student presenting at the 25th Annual Meeting in Bern, the deadline to submit your paper is 8 August 2019. We also include reports by two EAA Communities, a conference report, and several announcements. Among the announcements is a call for international collaboration in the Historic Graves Project, an EAA / SAA co-sponsored research initiative for studying human migration over time, and an invitation to participate in Connecting Archaeological Associations in Europe.

In less happy news, we are shocked and saddened by the damage to the cathedral of Notre Dame, and by the death of our colleague and EAA member Sebastiano Tusa. The obituary and tribute offered in these pages give an inkling of Sebastiano’s vast contributions to archaeological heritage at so many levels. One of us (RBS) had the fortune to collaborate with Sebastiano in Sicily. As we continue our year of celebrations and use the success of EAA to encourage us to persevere in the face of enormous challenges, Sebastiano’s attitude and life’s work serve as an example of how we can work together to overcome the trials ahead, as EAA has overcome adversity in the past 25 years. The positive energy Sebastiano brought to Sicilian and international archaeology, his openness and welcoming manner, his recognition and acceptance of the responsibility that all archaeologists have to global archaeological heritage, and his collaborative outlook offer a model for all of us to embrace. We will miss him, but his example can live on in the EAA.

We remind you that the announcement of successful conference grants for Bern 2019 has been made; if you applied for money to attend the 25th Annual Meeting, check your emails! We thank the Oscar Montelius Foundation for their generous contribution to EAA members.

Send your memories or photos from past EAA events, your announcements, or debate responses to tea@e-a-a.org. The deadline for the Summer issue is 1 July 2019.

Katharina Rebay-Salisbury and Roderick B. Salisbury