The motto of EAA 2020 is Networking! The lives of human communities were and still are determined by networks. The identification of these networks through the material and spiritual heritage of past communities is one of the main goals of archaeology and of cultural heritage studies. We too are linked in many ways to many networks. Networks span enormous territories, even when there are no borders: the systems formed by networks are both stable and flexible. Collaboration between networks, sharing knowledge and experience, exploiting the power of interaction and communication is beneficial for all actors and contributes to the creation of new networks. Our choice of motto has a distinctly Hungarian flavour – Albert László Barabási’s research in network theory brought him international acclaim. His studies and research methods can be fruitfully applied in archaeology too.
Our motto has an exclamation mark – in our dynamically changing world fraught with individualisation, loneliness and social isolation alongside the many challenges we face on an almost daily basis, collaboration and networking has a particularly important role to play, and we encourage all members of the European Association of Archaeologists not to shy away form networks.
We found the perfect logo to accompany our motto on one of magnificent Roman-period silver ewers covered with a geometric design, part of a dazzling treasure exhibited in the Hungarian National Museum. Decomposing the strictness of the geometric network pattern, we opened up the closed design, alluding thereby the openness and receptiveness of our networks. The colours and elements of the logo and the motto refer to the never-ending cyclicity of nature, the relationship between the Sun and the Moon, and the declared intention of the host institutes to organise the Annual Meeting in a way that is consistent with our commitment to sustainability.
In this sense, our motto and logo both express and transmit the main message of EAA 2020 Budapest: networking!
The logo of the conference was designed by AKA (A. András Király)