The European Archaeologist
Creators: name: The European Association of Archaeologists (EAA)
name: Walsh, Matthew
name: Reiter, Samantha S.
Publisher: name: The European Association of Archaeologists
Year: 2023

description: Letter from the Editors

 

Dear colleagues,

Happy New Year!

First and foremost, we would like to wish you all the best in 2023! 2022 was certainly a busy year for us as your TEA editors! Looking back at our first full year of editorship shows a rewarding learning process full of challenges and the hard work to bring new ideas to your inbox and the TEA archive! We hope that you as readers have benefited from and enjoyed this past year’s content. That said, we would like to thank everyone that contributed to the 2022 issues of TEA. Your time, efforts and expertise are greatly appreciated; thank you for sharing your work with all of us! As such, we hope to continue to add interesting and valuable content to the newsletter, including continuing features such as In Case You Missed It, various Chats with EAA personnel and Meet a Member over TEA and other interviews. We also hope to continue to provide informative research disseminations such as Research-, Project-, and Session Overviews, Short Reports, Debate and Opinion pieces, Special Interest Sections, and much more! Please do not hesitate to contact us regarding possible contributions or feature ideas. We are also very eager listeners if you have a hot new ‘tip’ on an interesting topic you would like for us to cover!

In last year’s winter editorial, we recognized that 2022 was likely to be “another bumpy year.” Unfortunately, this has rung true in a few unforeseen ways. For those of us in Europe, this may be most directly illustrated by the continued conflict in Ukraine, which began just a few weeks after the release of last year’s winter issue. As presented in that issue, the Annual Meeting (AM) in Budapest was a topic of some controversy which opened discussions regarding EAA policy on a number of issues, not just the selection of host cities for the AMs. That noted, it is our impression that the Budapest AM was overall a splendid success in a welcoming venue in a beautiful and vibrant city. Speaking of the 28th AM, Michael D’Aprix offers a personal review of the Budapest AM in this issue, with a discussion focused on the themes of communication during sessions and access to participation for early career and non-academic archaeologists. In a Special Section in this issue, editor Samantha S. Reiter takes a closer look at the decision-making process surrounding the selection of EAA AM venues.

In addition to the EAA Calendar, In Case You Missed It, a Chat with the Secretariat’s Sára Tylšová and Meet a Member with Horia Ciugudean, this issue also features an Ongoing Research Report by Mathias Hutzler and colleagues on the hunt for brewing yeasts in the Caucasus and a Research Overview by Dominik Lengyel and Catherine Toulouse on the power of visualization and perspective in architecture and archaeology. In addition, Eve Derenne et al. provide a Project Announcement for the Seascapes project, Daniel van Calker et al. give a Conference Report from the EuroPre: First International Meeting and Jose Nicolás Balbi et al. introduce the Archaeology & Astronomy in Culture (SEAC) Community. Also, on the cover is Balbi’s award winning image from our recent photo competition (which even landed him some local recognition back in Argentina!). Congratulations to José and the other winners, whose work you will see futured in upcoming issues! TEA’s next few covers will highlight other inspiring images that reflect the diverse work of some of our EAA members, showcasing the theme of ‘The spirit of archaeology in 2023.’ Rounding out this issue Sophie Hüglin and Jean-Olivier Gransard-Desmond call for participants in establishing the EU Election Benchmarks for Archaeology and Heritage Protection 2024-2029.

 

Best wishes for an excellent 2023,

-Matthew J. Walsh & Samantha S. Reiter