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Newsletter of the Association for Environmental Archaeology Latest edition: Newsletter 94 November 2006 ISSN 1363-6553 News from the Committee |
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Edited by Wendy Carruthers and Vanessa Straker (e-mail addresses: wendy.carruthers@virgin.net; vanessa.straker@english-heritage.org.uk AEA Membership Secretary; Dr Nicki Whitehouse, Palaeoecology Centre, School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, BT7 1NN, UK.; e-mail: membership@envarch.net
NEWS FROM THE COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP RENEWALS The time is fast approaching to renew your AEA membership! A renewal form for 2007 is printed at the back of the Newsletter. You do not need to complete this if you have arranged to pay your membership fee by standing order. There will be no change in the membership fee, which remains at £38 for waged and £28 for students/unwaged. In addition, there is now no postage charge for overseas members. If you do not already have one and would like to set up a standing order to renew your membership automatically each year, please complete the standing order form at the back of the Newsletter, which will be forwarded to your bank. The completed form should be sent to NICKI WHITEHOUSE at the address below. Payment by Visa can be made by overseas members only. For reasons of security, the AEA do not hold members’ Visa details. Members using this method of payment must therefore confirm payment each year, providing their payment details each time. If you have internet banking, you can set up a standing order yourself online, but we still need the form for our records. The first payment should be made for 1st January 2007. In this case, please send in the completed form no later than 31st December 2006. Members are asked to submit their payment on time (by end of December 2006), as reminders from the Membership Secretary are both costly and time-consuming. Membership Secretary: Dr Nicki Whitehouse
MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL IN THE EUROZONE If you are living in the Eurozone, you may be interested in paying AEA membership fees using the IBAN (International Bank Account Number) electronic transfer system. With this system, an AEA member can go to their local bank and transfer money to an AEA account for a small fee. The AEA has set up a bank account in the Republic of Ireland to enable payment of membership fees using this method. Your bank’s charge for payment will vary, depending on the bank and country, but the fee should be low (for example, many banks in the Republic of Ireland charge around 50 cents – check your local bank for their rates). AEA membership fees for IBAN transfers are: €58 waged and €42 student/unwaged. Please also fill in the renewal form at the back of the Newsletter and send it to the Membership Secretary at the address above so that we know where to send the Journal issues and newsletters. Your bank will require the following details relating to the AEA’s bank account. Please ensure that you use the IBAN number and that your name is recorded on the transfer. If possible, please also ensure that the transaction is marked as ‘AEA sub’. Bank: Ulster Bank, High Street, Wilton, Cork, Republic of Ireland If you have any queries about using the IBAN system, please contact Meriel McClatchie (m.mcclatchie@ucc.ie).
THE JOURNAL Environmental Archaeology 11.2 has recently been distributed. If you have paid your 2006 subscription but did not yet receive your copy of 11.2, please contact the Membership Secretary (membership@envarch.net) to check your current membership status. Online access for institutional subscribers to 11.1 Environmental Archaeology is now published by Maney Publishing and is available free online as part of your institution's subscription. In order to gain access to the full text online, your librarian must have activated their online subscription via Maney's online service provider, Ingenta Connect at: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/register/institutional. The process takes about 5 minutes and full instructions are provided at each stage. If your librarian does not have a pass number, this can be obtained from Maney Publishing by emailing subscriptions@maney.co.uk. If you have not seen the first issue of this year in your library, please remind your librarian that there has been a change of publisher, and ask them to check that the renewal has been processed through Maney Publishing at subscriptions@maney.co.uk.
SUMMARY OF THE AEA AGM MEETING, 26 SEPTEMBER 2005, UNIVERSITY OF PORTSMOUTH At the AEA AGM in Portsmouth, a review of the Committee’s activities was presented, along with the Treasurer’s report and elections for new Committee members. A summary is presented below: CONFERENCES UPDATE: New conference officer: Gianna Ayala was appointed Conference Officer, taking over from Nicki Whitehouse, who moved to the position of Membership Secretary. The Committee extended its thanks to Nicki for her work as Conference Officer. Publications: Papers from the 25th Anniversary conference held in Bad Buchau in September 2004 were published in Environmental Archaeology 11.1. The volume, Economic and environmental changes during the 4th and 3rd Millennia BC, was guest-edited by Ralf Baumeister, Sabine Karg, Helmut Schlichtherle, and David Earle Robinson. Meetings in 2006: Thanks are warmly extended to Alan Outram for organising a very successful spring conference, Novel Environmental Archaeology: Integrating new lines of evidence and rethinking established techniques, at the University of Exeter in March. The conference attracted around 140 delegates, and there are plans to publish the proceedings of a number of the sessions held at this conference. The AEA autumn meeting, Sea changes: environmental archaeology in the marine zone, from coast to continental shelf, took place at the University of Portsmouth in September. Zoë Hazell and Andy Hammon of English Heritage organised the meeting, and they were thanked for co-ordinating this much-enjoyed event. A review of the Portsmouth meeting appears later in the Newsletter. An AEA session was held at the European Association of Archaeologists conference at Cracow, Poland in September. The session, “Continuity or Change? Working through Neolithic landscapes”, was organised by Nicki Whitehouse and Rick Schulting, Queen’s University Belfast. Preparations for the publication of a number of papers in the session is already planned, and the session organisers are to be thanked for taking the initiative in assembling an AEA sessions at large international conferences. A list of papers is provided below and abstracts have been posted onto the AEA website: http://www.envarch.net/latest/pastevents06.html Adrian Balasescu1, Thomas Cucchi2, Lenka Kovacikova2,3, René Kysely3, Valentin Radu1& Anne Tresset2 (1National Museum of Romanian History, Bucarest Romania; 2 UMR 5197 du CNRS, Paris, France; 3 Institute of Archaeology, Academy of Science of the Czech Republic, Praha, Czech Republic) Of cattle, mice and men: tracing the first domesticates and commensals along the Neolithic danubian routes. Alena Lukes (University of Sheffield) Two peas in a pod? A social perspective on identity, daily life and material culture of the early LBK Peter Bogucki (Princeton University, USA): Working Neolithic Landscapes in the Polish Lowlands Nicki Whitehouse1, John O’Neill2 and Gill Plunkett1 (1Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland and 2 University College Dublin, Republic of Ireland): Settlement and eco-dynamics in Neolithic and Bronze Age Ireland Oliver Harris (Cardiff University, Wales): Alternative continuities? Challenging change in the Early Neolithic of Dorset Henry Chapman and Ben Gearey (University of Birmingham, UK): Neolithic landscapes in the Humberhead Levels: domestic, ritual and environmental change dynamics. John O’Neill (University College, Dublin, Ireland): Ballygalley, settlement histories and the Irish Neolithic. Marlu Kühn, Stefanie Jacomet, Lucia Wick (Basel University) The role of animal fodder in the subsistence economy of Neolithic lake shore settlements in the Alpine range and its palaeoecological implications Lesley McFadyen and Richard Thomas (University of Leicester, UK). Animals, architectures, and changing human-animal relationships in Neolithic Cotswold-Severn long barrow sites. Tony Brown1, Phil Allen1, Ian Meadows2 and Karen Deighton2 (1University of Exeter UK; 2Northamptonshire Archaeology, Northamptonshire County Council, UK) Continuity or Change in the Neolithic Landscape of the Nene Valley, Central England? Gabriel Cooney (University College Dublin) Working stone, linking arenas and actions of Neolithic life
JOURNAL UPDATE: New editor: Ingrid Mainland has now taken over from Glynis Jones as Co-ordinating Editor of Environmental Archaeology. Ingrid would particularly like to encourage AEA members to submit research papers, review articles or short contributions on any aspect of environmental archaeology. Full details regarding submission to the Journal can be found on http://www.maney.co.uk/search?fwaction=show&fwid=671, or contact Ingrid Mainland for further information (address below). Dr Ingrid Mainland, Tel: +44 [0]1274 23 3541; Fax: +44 [0]1274 235190 New publisher: Maney Publishing has now taken over publication of Environmental Archaeology. The new publishing agreement is the result of the AEA Committee’s desire to publish the Journal online. Maney currently has c.60 journals under its imprint, including Medieval Archaeology, Postmedieval Archaeology, Industrial Archaeology Review, The Antiquaries Journal, and the PalestineExploration Quarterly. For more information about Maney, please visit their website: http://www.maney.co.uk/. Environmental Archaeology is now available online via IngentaConnect. Institutional subscription is only £78 and includes online access to the full text. Please recommend Environmental Archaeology to your institution! If your institution already subscribes, please check with your library representative that they are aware of the change of publisher and that the Journal is available online from 2006. There were questions from the floor concerning online access for individual members. At first, online access will only be available through institutional subscription and only the 2006 issues will be available. The AEA Committee continues to investigate the provision of online access to members over the longer term – it is hoped that we will have more news on this issue soon. Another issue that arose during the AGM related to the AEA Institutional subscription fee. It was suggested that this fee is rather low and should be increased. The Committee will endeavour to re-examine the Institutional subscription fee in the near future.
PUBLICITY AND WEBPAGE UPDATE: AEA seminar series: The first year of the AEA seminar series, which was set up by Richard Thomas, has now ended. The seminars have been organised in association with a number of academic departments around the UK to provide members with the opportunity to hear the latest research and developments within environmental archaeology. All seminars are free to AEA members and include refreshments. The first seminar took place at the School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester, in February 2006, and was attended by 35-40 people. It is hoped to extend meetings more broadly in the future (the second annual seminar series will soon be underway – see programme later in this Newsletter), and AEA members are asked to contact Richard if they are interested in becoming seminar hosts (rmt12@le.ac.uk). New AEA logo: Members will have seen the new AEA logo in the August Newsletter. The new logo has been commissioned by the Committee and organised by Richard Thomas. Work is now being carried out to update membership leaflets to include the new logo. A new AEA poster – to be produced by Richard Thomas and John Vallender (English Heritage graphics) will be available in the near future. The Committee thanked Richard Thomas for all of his work. Webpage: The webpage continues to be maintained by Rob Craigie at the University of Sheffield. In order to keep the website as up to date as possible, please keep sending items and comments to the Webmaster: r.craigie@sheffield.ac.uk. Rob Craigie and Richard Thomas are currently exploring the redesign of the website to reflect the new AEA image.
NEWSLETTER UPDATE: The committee is grateful to Wendy Carruthers and Vanessa Straker for their continuing good work on the Newsletter. Please keep on sending your announcements, news and conference reports to the Newsletter Editors. The series on environmental archaeology worldwide continues, with a recent contribution from Australia. If you would like to contribute to this series, please contact the Newsletter Editors. James Greig continues to produce a bibliography for AEA members, and the Committee are most grateful to James for this work. EDUCATION OFFICER: Richard Thomas has covered this position while Jen Heathcote was on maternity leave. This role, among other things, involves contact with the Higher Education Academy (HEA) to discuss the provision of electronic images/resources for teaching environmental archaeology. Jen is now back from maternity leave and will continue with this aspect of the AEA’s work.
TREASURER’S REPORT: The accounts for 2005 were presented at the meeting and are published in this Newsletter.
Jacqui Huntley, Treasurer; 18th April 2006
MEMBERSHIP UPDATE: New Membership Secretary: Jane Richardson retired from this position during the year, and she has been succeeded by Nicki Whitehouse. The Committee would like to thank Jane for her work in this position over the years. A number of problems relating to delays in communication between the Membership Secretary and AEA members resulted from the changeover. These Issues are now largely resolved, and the Committee would like to thank Nicki Whitehouse for her very hard work in her new role as Membership Secretary. Methods of payment: A number of methods of payment are currently available to members:
Details of these methods of payment are provided above. Membership figures: There are currently around 300 fully paid-up members of the AEA. Many non-payers are still, however, on the database. Nicki Whitehouse is working hard on resolving this issue.
Upcoming events in 2007: (see below in the section on conferences for more details) The AEA spring meeting will take place on Saturday 17th February 2007 at University College Cork. The meeting is being organised by Meriel McClatchie and Mick Monk, and the theme is Environmental archaeology in Ireland: new perspectives and recent research. The conference programme is now full, but offers of posters, to be presented in an A1 format, are welcome. Poster titles and abstracts (approx. 150 words) should be sent to the conference organisers by 19th January 2007. Participants are reminded that they must register by 19th January 2007. Further details and registration forms will soon be available at the conference website. The AEA 2007 annual conference will be held in Poland, 12-15th September 2007 with the theme Eurasian Perspectives on Environmental Archaeology. The conference organisers are Mirek Makohonienko (Adam Mickiewicz University of Poznan, Poland), Mayke Wagner (Deutsches Archaeologisches Institute, Eurasien Abteilung, Berlin) and Pavel Tarasiv (Alfred Wegener, Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Potsdam). Further details will soon be available. Upcoming events in 2008: The AEA spring 2008 meeting will take place at the University of Cardiff, and the meeting will be organised by Jacqui Mulville. The Committee is pleased to announce that it has recently received an offer to host the AEA autumn 2008 annual conference – more details will be announced following discussion of the offer by the Committee.
CHANGE TO THE AEA CONSTITUTION: In order to add the manager of the JISC-mail list to the list of members that can be co-opted onto the Committee, the Committee proposed the following change: “13. The Managing Committee may co-opt up to six members who may serve as membership secretary, a representative of the journal editorship, A vote was taken, and this change was passed at the meeting.
ELECTION OF NEW COMMITTEE MEMBERS: Elections and co-options Biographies of the nominated candidates were provided in the August Newsletter and in a subsequent email to members. Andy Hammon, Ralph Fyfe and Amy Bogaard were elected as Ordinary Committee members. Anna Mukherjee was also co-opted to the Committee to fill the vacant position (remaining term: one year) resulting from the early departure of Jane Richardson. No nominations were received for the position of Treasurer. The Committee has decided to co-opt Jacqui Huntley as Treasurer, who continues in the post. The Committee also co-opted Nicki Whitehouse as Membership Secretary so that she can continue her work in this position for one more year. The Committee would like to thank Jacqui and Nicki for agreeing to remain in the AEA Committee. The new committee structure (www.envarch.net/aea/committee.html) is as follows:
ELECTED COMMITTEE MEMBERS (elected term in [ ]) Gianna Ayala (Sheffield) – Conference Officer [2005-2009] CO-OPTED COMMITTEE MEMBERS Wendy Carruthers (Llantrisant, Wales) – Co-editor of the Newsletter Thanks were extended to retiring Ordinary Committee member Roel Lauwerier for his contribution to the AEA.
CONFERENCES & MEETINGS
All seminars are free to members of the Association for Environmental Archaeology. For membership information please check the AEA website: www.envarch.net. For further information regarding specific events please contact the AEA Publicity Officer (rmt12@le.ac.uk).
AEA CONFERENCE UPDATE One-day Spring Meeting, Saturday, 17th February 2007, University College Cork, Republic of Ireland Environmental Archaeology in Ireland: new perspectives and recent research The programme for the AEA spring one-day meeting in Cork is now full, but we are still accepting offers of posters (to be presented in A1 format). The meeting is being organised by Meriel McClatchie and Mick Monk. Poster titles and abstracts (approx. 150 words) should be sent to the conference organisers by 19th January 2007. It is hoped that the meeting website will go online in the next couple of weeks. The website will include information on papers and posters being presented, as well as details of how to get to Cork and other related information. An email will be sent to members in the near future to advise them of the website address. A registration form for the one-day meeting is included at the end of this Newsletter. The deadline for registration is 19th January 2007.
2007 AEA conference in Poland, 12-15 September 2007 Eurasian Perspectives on Environmental Archaeology The Association for Environmental Archaeology in Poland (Stowarzyszenie Archeologii Srodowiskowej SAS) along with Deutsches Archaeologisches Institute, Eurasien Abteilung in Berlin, Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Potsdam and International Research Center For Japanese Studies in Kyoto, Japan, are organizing a two-day symposium “Eurasian Perspectives on Environmental Archaeology”. This AEA symposium, held for the first time in Eastern Europe, is intended to provide a forum for discussion on recent research in Environmental Archaeology in the broad context of temperate areas of Eurasia. We are kindly inviting for presentations and discussions palaeoenvironmentalists and archaeologists working in Western and Eastern Europe, and northern Asia as areas of former Soviet Union, China or Japan. The symposium will be followed by two-day excursion in Wielkopolska (Great Poland), an area of great importance in the formation of the early medieval Polish State, during the 10th century AD, in the western Slav territory. The main Slavic sites in Poznan, Ostrow Lednicki, Gniezno and Kaldus will be presented. We will visit also Biskupin - a fortified settlement from the turn of the Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age, one of the best known archaeological reserves in Central Europe. At the archaeological sites the issues of environmental studies will be discussed. The official conference language is English. Full details on the conference will be provided soon on the AEA Web Site. Contact address: Miroslaw Makohonienko, Adam Mickiewicz Univeristy of Poznan, Institute of Palaeogeography and Geoecology, Dziegielowa 27, 61-680 Poznan, Poland. E-mail: makoho@amu.edu.pl
Conferences in 2008 The AEA spring 2008 meeting will take place at the University of Cardiff. Many thanks go to Jacqui Mulville for offering to host the day meeting. Further details will be made available in the future. The AEA annual symposium 2008 will take place at Arhus in Denmark. Many thanks to Peter Hambro Mikkelsen for offering to host this meeting. Further details will be made available in the future. Gianna Ayala
TRAG / RAC CONFERENCE The seventeenth annual Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference in conjunction with the seventh Roman Archaeology Conference will be hosted by UCL and Birkbeck College, University of London from the 29th March to the 1st April 2007. As part of this conference there will be a workshop session that might be of interest to AEA members entitled: Food for thought: Economics, natural resources and the Roman military organisation. The Roman military organisation required a lot of natural resources: timber, traction, textiles, food. How were these produced and procured? How did methods vary according to circumstances (aggressive invasions, long term occupation, special events & luxuries...)? The first part of this workshop will introduce (very briefly!) a range of different economic theories and hypotheses which are relevant to all resources, whether organic or inorganic. It will then debate how these might be tested archaeologically for natural resources, and how we need to recover, record and analyse our data. Natural resources (plants, animals and their products) provide a particular challenge because their biodegradable nature has major implications both for their original production and procurement (what seasons were they available? how long could they be stored? how far could they be transported?) and also for how they might survive in the archaeological record. Speakers will be invited to present theories, issues and case studies, and to lead group discussions that will then report back to the whole session. The aim is to stimulate debate and to encourage explicit hypothesis testing in preference to routine analysis and interpretation. If you are interested in participating, please contact the coordinator: Sue Stallibrass, English Heritage& University of Liverpool (Sue.Stallibrass@liv.ac.uk) Department of Archaeology Tel: 0151 794 5046 The homepage of the Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference (TRAC) and the Roman Archaeology Conference (RAC) (which run concurrently at the same venue) is http://www.ucl.ac.uk/RAC/index.htm There will also be a session that might be of interest to ZOOARCH members entitled: Feeding the Roman army: the archaeology of supply chains and provisioning networks. This session seeks to bring together a growing body of new archaeological evidence in an attempt to reconsider the way in which the Roman army was provisioned. Clearly, the adequate supply of food was essential to the success of the Roman military. But was the nature of those supply networks? Did the army rely on imperial supply lines from the continent, as certainly appears to be the case for some commodities, or were provisions requisitioned from local agricultural communities. If the latter was the case, was unsustainable pressure placed on such resources and how did local communities respond? Alternatively, did the early stages of conquest include not only the development of a military infrastructure, but also an effective supply-chain network based on contracts? Beyond the initial stages of conquest, how were provisioning arrangements maintained in the longer term, did supply chains remain static or did they change over time and, if so, what precipitated those changes? Addressing such questions is critical if we are to understand the nature of Roman conquest and the extent of interaction between indigenous communities and the Roman army. If you are interested in participating in this session please get in touch with; Dr. Richard Thomas, CONFERENCE REPORTS Sea Changes: Environmental Archaeology in the Marine Zone, from the Coast to the Continental Shelf. AEA One-Day Meeting, University of Portsmouth, Tuesday 26th September 2006. This conference was organised – excellently – by Drs Zoe Hazell and Andy Hammon of English Heritage’s Archaeological Sciences Section in Portsmouth. Its theme was also English Heritage inspired, being prompted by an important change to the organisation’s remit in 2002 when it took on responsibility for maritime archaeology in England’s coastal waters. As a consequence, participants could perhaps have expected a day of Anglo-centric presentations focussing primarily on English Heritage agendas, but this was far from the case. True, projects sponsored by English Heritage, and by the UK Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund which the organisation administers, were clearly in evidence and also surfaced regularly in the discussions, but the 13 lectures and the posters which were presented achieved a much greater overall breadth and diversity. Geographically, most of the speakers (and the audience) were UK-based, with Ireland, Norway and Australia also represented. In terms of subject matter, coverage was considerably broader with most contributions having clear links to, and relevance for, marine situations over most of Northwest Europe and, in several cases, far beyond. Almost every aspect of “traditional” environmental archaeology was touched upon and new contacts with related disciplines were also much in evidence. We are definitely seeing a broadening of the term ‘Environmental Archaeology’. Approaches varied greatly too – from Greg Campbell’s elegant analysis and interpretation of marine mollusc assemblages on the Atlantic coast of France, Alex Pluskowski’s assessment of environmental resources around medieval Venice, and specific techniques for survey, analysis and in situ preservation (Ruth Plets et al., Anne Hufthammer et al. and Mark Staniforth) through Simon Mays’ practical guidance on the legal and ethical aspects of human remains in the marine environment and invaluable overviews such as Zoe Hazell’s assessment of Offshore Peat Resources and Cluny Johnstone’s exploration of the Origins of Sea Fishing, to the broad-brush assessments and modelling of the potential of submerged landscapes by Virginia Dellino- Musgrave, Ingrid Ward and Piers Larcombe. Throughout the day, the word “potential” cropped up time and time again, even with reference to the Mary Rose – that great benchmark of maritime archaeology. Here, Frank Green and Sheila Hamilton-Dyer demonstrated admirably the extent of the resources still waiting to be tapped from this great find. Realisation of this submerged archaeological potential relies to a great extent on forging links between terrestrial, coastal (intertidal) and marine environments, as graphically illustrated by Fraser Sturt, Scott Timpany, Martin Bell and Peter Murphy. Comparing, contrasting and assessing value: how does the archaeology of these environments fit together? Where, from an archaeological and an environmental archaeological point of view, should efforts and resources be applied? When and how is collaboration fruitful? This was a very useful day, which almost certainly raised more questions than it answered. Thanks are due to the organisers for assembling an excellent programme and for ensuring a very smooth-running, informative and enjoyable conference. On the day after the conference, an excursion had been organised to Chichester Harbour, a huge area of tidal channels and creeks on the South Coast which has been designated an area of outstanding natural beauty, Here, a small but enthusiastic group of conference-goers met the staff of the Chichester Harbour Conservancy (http://www.conservancy.co.uk) over a sandwich lunch and were introduced to the organisation’s many activities. After lunch we were given a very different view of the harbour, its wildlife and cultural history from the moving platform of the Conservancy’s own solar-powered boat – a marvellous way to spend the day and to put many aspects of the previous day’s lectures into perspective. Many thanks to the conference organisers and to the staff of the Chichester Harbour Conservancy for a very enjoyable, informative and memorable day. Lectures presented at the meeting: (Abstracts will be posted onto the AEA website: www.envarch.net/latest/pastevents06.html)
Posters presented at the meeting: Anne Hufthammer, H.I. Høie, C.A. Dahl, A. Folkvord, A. Geffen, L. Jaksland and U.S. Ninnemann (University of Bergen, Bergen Museum, Norway): ‘Mesolithic seasonal sea temperatures revealed from stable isotope analysis of cod otoliths’ Ruth Plets, J. Dix, J. Adams and A. Best (University of Southampton, UK): ‘3D High resolution acoustic imagery: implications for site management’ Scott Timpany (Headland Archaeology, Republic of Ireland): ‘Palaeoenvironmental assessment of a wetland site, Newrath, Waterford’ David Earle Robinson
Report on AEA sponsored conference session at the European Association of Archaeologists annual meeting, Krakow, Poland, September 2006. In an attempt to foster closer working relationships and dialogue between cultural and environmental archaeologists at a European level, Drs Nicki Whitehouse (Queen’s University Belfast), Rick Schulting (University of Oxford) and John O'Neill (University College Dublin) organised a full day session at the EAA annual meeting in Krakow, Poland, entitled ‘Continuity or Change? Working through Neolithic Landscapes’. The aim of this session was to consider the nature of early Neolithic settlement and economy, particularly the transition from hunter gathering to domestication. In total, eleven papers were presented by academics based within the UK, Ireland, mainland Europe and North America highlighting research utilising a combination of approaches to this theme, from the science-based landscape and environmental (familiar to members of the AEA) to more post-processual perspectives. A number of papers demonstrated how advancements in science- based methods, for example, in the field of genetic finger-printing, can help unravel patterns in faunal assemblages and it is clear that we live in exciting times if the diverse strands of archaeology can find a common language of discussion. A major theme throughout the session was that Neolithic activities can only be understood by moving away from the analysis of discrete sites, to consideration of patterns within entire landscapes. To the first Neolithic settlers, it was argued that Polish Neolithic landscapes was frontiers in all sorts of ways; clearly, we need to understand how people viewed these landscapes and the barriers they created to everyday activities, perhaps even from the angle of gender. Other speakers argued that some of the best archaeological evidence for this time period may still to be uncovered, coming from wetland landscapes, which until recently have been considered by the majority of archaeologists as marginal to Neolithic activity. The capture and analysis of ever-larger datasets has necessitated the development of new approaches to information management and the role of Geographical Information Systems in fulfilling this need was amply demonstrated. Indirectly, the use of computational power for spatial analysis and interrogation of georeferenced datasets also offers exciting opportunities for analysing human behaviour through modelling (with environmentalists helping to define the rules that determine individual behaviour within any model); it also offers the possibility of three-dimensional visualization of environments and phenomenological approaches using the latest immersive technologies (e.g. Amira software coupled with a Fakespace Powerwall). In conclusion this session was a great success and attracted a large, archaeologically diverse audience. As environmental archaeologists, we have a great deal to offer towards the advancement of debates concerning the Neolithic, especially since there is a continued need to communicate developments within science-based archaeology to the wider archaeological community. A.J. Howard
PUBLICATIONS See Bibliography to view and download
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