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Newsletter of the Association for Environmental Archaeology Latest edition: Newsletter 98 February 2008 ISSN 1363-6553 EditorialNews from the Committee Conferences & Meetings Conference Report AEA Bibliography Membership Form Standing Order Form Spring Meeting Registration Form |
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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 Ralph Fyfe, Room 211, 8 Kirkby Place, Drake Circus, Plymouth, Devon, PL4 8AA. UK; e-mail: membership@envarch.net
This issue of the AEA Newsletter contains information about the one-day meeting in Cardiff next spring on St David's Day. Offers of papers and posters are invited. The Editors are very grateful to Ralph Fyfe and Paul Davies for their report on the Autumn Conference in Poznan . Please note the reminder from the AEA's new Membership Secretary, Ralph Fyfe, about membership fees (in the News from the Committee section below). Forms are provided at the back of the Newsletter for anyone needing to renew or amend their subscription.
MEMBERSHIP RENEWALS The time is fast approaching to renew your AEA membership! A renewal form for 2008 is printed at the back of the Newsletter. You do not need to complete this if you have already 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 no postage charge for overseas members. Standing Order : 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 the Membership Secretary at the address below. If you have internet banking, you can set up a standing order yourself online , but we still need the form for our records . For standing orders, the first payment should be made for 1 at January 2008. In this case, please send in the completed form no later than 31 st December 2007 . Eurozone IBAN payment : 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 €0.50 – check your local bank for their rates). AEA membership fees for IBAN transfers are: €58 waged and €42 student/unwaged . If you would like to use this method of payment, please contact the AEA Secretary, Meriel McClatchie ( meriel.mcclatchie@gmail.com ), for further information. Visa : Payment by Visa can be made by non-UK 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. Members are asked to submit their payment on time (by end of December 2007), as reminders from the Membership Secretary are both costly and time-consuming. Membership Secretary: Dr Ralph FyfeRoom 211 8 Kirkby Place Drake Circus Plymouth Devon PL4 8AA United Kingdom Email: membership@envarch.net
THE JOURNAL Environmental Archaeology 12.2 is currently being distributed. If you have paid your 2007 subscription but do not receive your copy of 12.2 within the next month, please contact the Membership Secretary ( membership@envarch.net ) to check your current membership status. ONLINE ACCESS FOR ALL MEMBERS TO THE JOURNAL We are pleased to announce that online access to Environmental Archaeology (Volume 11 onwards) is now available to all members. If you would like to register for access the Journal online, please email Rob Craigie , the AEA Webmaster ( r.craigie@shef.ac.uk ) with your chosen username and a password . When your registration has been accepted, access to the Journal will be available through a link on the AEA website ( www.envarch.net ). Please note that access will only be made available to fully paid-up members.
SUMMARY OF THE AEA AGM MEETING, 13 th SEPTEMBER 2007 , POZNA N , POLAND At the AEA AGM in Poznan , 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: Meetings in 2007: Thanks were extended to Meriel McClatchie and Mick Monk for organising the spring one-day meeting, Environmental archaeology in Ireland : new perspectives and recent research , at University College Cork, Republic of Ireland in February. The meeting attracted almost 100 delegates and provided a useful introduction to what's happening in environmental archaeology in Ireland . A review of the Cork meeting appeared in the May 2007 Newsletter. The AEA autumn conference, Eurasian perspectives on environmental archaeology , took place in Poznan , Poland , in September. The meeting was organised by Miroslaw Makohonienko and Daniel Makowiecki (with the help of a large number of colleagues), and they were thanked for co-ordinating this much-enjoyed event. A review of the Poznan conference appears later in this Newsletter. Meetings in 2008: The next AEA one-day meeting will take place in Cardiff University , Wales on 1 st March. The meeting will be organised by Jacqui Mulville. Please see p.7 of this Newsletter and the AEA website for further information on the meeting ( www.envarch.net ). The next AEA autumn conference will take place in Arhus , Denmark on 12 th -14 th September. The meeting will be organised by Peter Hambro Mikkelsen ( Moesgård Museum ). Further information on this conference will soon be available on the AEA website. Meetings in 2009: A request to find a host for the one-day spring 2009 meeting was announced at the AGM. Paul Davies ( Bath Spa University , England ) and David Smith ( University of Birmingham , England ) responded by kindly offering to host this meeting. They suggested that ‘Analogues' might be the theme of the meeting. Their offer was welcomed and will be put to the AEA Committee in the near future. The autumn 2009 conference will take place in York , England , where we will celebrate the 30 th anniversary of the AEA! This anniversary provides an appropriate opportunity to celebrate the achievements of both the AEA and environmental archaeology as a discipline. It also provides an opportune moment to consider how we, as an organisation and practitioners, should maximise future opportunities and meet contemporary challenges. The conference, entitled Environmental archaeology in a changing world , will focus on long-term climate change and sustainability, and will be organised by Andy Hammon (English Heritage, York) and Allan Hall & Harry Kenward ( University of York ). Further information on this conference will soon be available on the AEA website. Poster prize It was suggested at the AGM that the AEA should consider extending the AEA poster prize (£50 for the best student poster) to the annual conference. The poster prize is currently only awarded at the annual one-day meeting. The Committee will discuss this issue at their next meeting. JOURNAL UPDATE: Submission of papers to the Journal Ingrid Mainland is the Co-ordinating Editor of Environmental Archaeology , and she 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. Dr Ingrid Mainland, Co-ordinating Editor of Environmental Archaeology ,Department of Archaeological Sciences, University of Bradford Bradford BD7 1DP United Kingdom Tel: +44 [0]1274 23 3541; Fax: +44 [0]1274 235190 E-mail: i.l.mainland@bradford.ac.uk Journal receives ‘A-rating' The Committee was very pleased to announce that the Journal has received an A-rating in the European Reference Index for the Humanities (funded by the European Science Foundation). The ABC-ranked lists of archaeological journals can be consulted a t: Congratulations are due to the current and previous co-ordinating editors of the journal, Dr Ingrid Mainland and Prof. Glynis Jones respectively, for their hard work over the years. New appointments to the Journal boards Two new appointments were made to the Journal's boards. Dr Holger Schutkowski ( Bradford University , UK ) has been appointed an Associate Editor and Dr Bill Boyd (Southern Cross University, Australia) has joined the Advisory Board. Maney The publisher of the Journal, Maney, continues to provide an online edition of the Journal to institutional subscribers via IngentaConnect. Maney have also revised their marketing strategy relating to the Journal, which it is hoped will result in a further increase in institutional membership. PUBLICITY AND WEBPAGE UPDATE: AEA seminar series: The 2006-07 seminar series, organised by Richard Thomas (Publicity Officer), has now concluded. 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 2006-07 series was again successful – a total of eight speakers presented seminars in England , Scotland and Wales . It is hoped to extend meetings more broadly in the future, and AEA members are asked to contact Richard if they are interested in becoming seminar hosts ( rmt12@le.ac.uk ). It was suggested at the AGM that the AEA should consider linking up with colleagues around the world who are holding one-day meetings in environmental archaeology. These meetings could be ‘local' AEA meetings, held in addition to the annual main AEA one-day meeting and conference. The Committee will discuss this proposal at their next meeting. It was further suggested at the AGM that the AEA should consider linking up with student members in order to support post-graduate symposia run by students for students. The Committee will discuss this issue at their next meeting. Website ( www.envarch.net ): The website continues to be maintained by Rob Craigie ( University of Sheffield , England ). 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 . A redesign of the website – under the direction of Richard Thomas and Rob Craigie – is almost completed and will soon be unveiled. 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 (contact details on page 1 of Newsletter). James Greig continues to produce a bibliography for AEA members, and the Committee are most grateful to James for this work. AEA DISCUSSION LIST The AEA Discussion List will soon be launched, and it will be available to AEA members already on the JISCmail (email) system. It is hoped that the new discussion list will encourage members from a variety of backgrounds to pose questions and discuss their work in a wider forum. Members will receive an email when the list commences, with the option of being removed at any time. Further information will be provided in the near future. It was suggested at the AGM that the AEA should consider making the AEA Discussion List an ‘open list' available to all, rather than restricting it to the membership. The Committee will discuss this suggestion at their next meeting. MEMBERSHIP UPDATE: Membership figures: The Membership Secretary, Nicki Whitehouse, has reported that we now have more than 380 fully paid-up members. The AEA Committee has worked hard over the last couple of years in an effort to increase our membership numbers and also to make sure that people are paying on time. This has resulted in a substantial increase in fully paid-up members. Many thanks are due to the hard work carried out by Nicki Whitehouse in encouraging our members to pay on time. Thanks also to Richard Thomas who, as Publicity Officer, has introduced a range of new initiatives to increase membership. New payment system Payment by all members is now required by 1 st March (at the latest) each year. If payment is received after this date, members will not receive Issue 1 of the journal until Issue 2 is published (around October), when both issues are sent together. The AEA Committee has found that this system has been successful in encouraging more people to pay on time, and we plan to continue using this system. Methods of payment: A number of methods of payment are currently available to members:
Tax relief for UK-based members Good news for UK-based AEA members! The UK Inland Revenue has approved the AEA's application for tax relief in respect of annual membership subscriptions. The AEA's name will now appear on the Inland Revenue's list of approved bodies when it is updated later this year. TREASURER'S REPORT: Jacqui Huntley (Treasurer) submitted accounts to the end of December 2006, which were presented at the AGM. Sterling account Income : As predicted, income from ICAZ book sales in 2005 are displayed in 2006. The generally high volume of book transactions demonstrates the value that members attach to this service. The Committee thanked Allan Hall for continuing to manage this facility. Expenditure : Oxbow (the former publisher of the Journal) costs have now been completed. Maney (the new publisher of the Journal) did not invoice volume 11 in 2006. Euro account The Euro account continues to work well, although members are urged to fill in all boxes on the form, as about 10% of payments come with no names, just bank code numbers.
Jacqui Huntley, Treasurer; 19 th April 2007
ELECTION OF NEW COMMITTEE MEMBERS: Elections Biographies of the nominated candidates were provided in the August Newsletter and in subsequent emails to members.
The new committee structure ( http://www.envarch.net/aea/committee.html ) is as follows: Elected Committee members Elected term in [ ]
Co-opted Committee members
Thanks were extended to retiring Ordinary Committee members Alan Outram and Anna Mukherjee for their contribution to the AEA. This AGM also saw the retirement of the AEA Chair, David Earle Robinson, who has lead the Committee through an eventful period over the past four years. The AEA Committee is enormously grateful to David for his very hard work, including the considerable task of overseeing the changeover in publisher of the Journal. Members at the AGM noted that, particularly in recent years, the AEA has made great strides in strengthening its international links, and, it was commented, appears to be in ‘very good shape' these days! David was thanked by the Committee and members for his many contributions to the AEA. THE ROLE OF ENVIRONMENTAL ARCHAEOLOGISTS IN PROFESSIONAL ARCHAEOLOGY Earlier this year, the AEA was advised of redundancies and restructuring affecting environmental archaeological specialists at a number of UK archaeological companies/organisations. After lengthy discussion, the Committee felt that, whereas it could not on the AEA's behalf comment on specific cases, it would be worthwhile to issue a general statement outlining the importance of environmental archaeology in professional archaeology and the great benefits of retaining in-house specialists. This statement was issued in the August 2007 Newsletter: AEA Committee statement Environmental Archaeology – the recovery, recording, analysis and interpretation of ancient bioarchaeological and geoarchaeological remains – plays a key role in developing our knowledge and understanding of the past and is central to current archaeological practice and theory. The Association for Environmental Archaeology is committed to promoting best practice through integration of environmental archaeology at all stages of field and research projects. To this end, we actively encourage and support opportunities for the involvement of qualified environmental archaeological specialists in the full range of archaeological institutions and organisations: museums, commercial archaeological units, state archaeological services and academic departments. In addition to broadening the general professional environment, the specific benefits of establishing and developing specialist teams in these various institutions include:
It was suggested at the AGM that local government organisations should also have been listed in the range of institutions and organisations noted in Paragraph 3 of the statement above. The AEA Committee took note of this suggestion and will endeavour to include this category in future statements where relevant.
AEA Meeting Saturday March 1st 2008 Cardiff University
Unconsidered Trifles? Environmental Archaeology at a Small Scale Association for Environmental Archaeology Spring 2008 One-Day Meeting The 2008 Association of Environmental Archaeology Day meeting is to be held on Saturday 1 st March ( St. David's Day ) at Cardiff University . The theme for the conference is the little things in life that fill the majority of peoples' lives and how these intersect with larger events. The meeting will take place at 9.00am in the Wallace Lecture Theatre in the main building of the University. The deadline for registration is 14 th February . Archaeology has many grand narratives covering huge sweeps of time, mass accumulations of individuals and materials. Whilst an increasing interest in identifying smaller acts of ‘ritual' significance has resulted in a greater understanding of more distinctive patterns in archaeological accumulations – the smaller scale practises of daily life remain largely unconsidered. As a science based discipline the need for valid sample sizes coupled to the cost of fine-grained analyses often result in an agglomeration of data that produces unrealistic archaeological results (e.g. considering hundreds or thousands of years as one cultural event). By examining what can be achieved through a detailed consideration of small scale acts different tales can be told about the human experience in the past. This conference seeks papers that explore the minor and intimate stories in environmental archaeology: the domestic and the mundane experiences that are played out on a daily, monthly, yearly or lifetime cycle and the effects that individual events have on people and places in the past. Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:
Proposals from for papers are invited by email to: aea2008@cardiff.ac.uk Proposal outlines should include a 300 word abstract for a 20 minute paper and must be submitted by 7 th January 2008 . Individual poster proposals are also very much welcomed by 7 th January 2008 . Registration information is can be found on the website and a small fee of £14 for members will be necessary to cover costs. This will include a buffet lunch, tea, coffee and abstracts. We will arrange evening entertainment for those staying on Friday or Saturday night (Skittles anyone?). Please send any questions or queries to aea2008@cardiff.ac.uk . For further, up-to-date information on registration, accommodation, amenities and travel, please consult the Association for Environmental Archaeology Meeting web pages at the Cardiff University Archaeology and Conservation Website. Accommodation Participants are invited to make their own arrangements. Cardiff has a number of high quality hotels in the city centre, most of which are within walking distance these include the Holiday Inn (from £65), and The Big Sleep (from £55). Good value, city centre, budget accommodation is available in Cathedral Road, a short and pleasant stroll across Bute Park to the conference and has been a popular hotel location for previous conference participants: please see the following web site for details http://www.a1tourism.com/uk/cardiff.html or alternatively call Cardiff Visitor Centre on Tel: 0870 909 2008 (UK only) +44 (0) 29 2022 7281 (from abroad) and they will book your accommodation. Hotel contact details:
Limited parking is available at all these hotels. Outside the City there are three hotels just off the A48, a distance of approximately three miles from the centre of Cardiff . They all have good parking facilities.
Other useful websites http://www.ukhotelnet.com/cardiff/hotels.htm There is also a youth hostel only a short distance from the University: Roath Park Youth Hostel tel: (029) 20462303 And a backpackers hostel and budget hotel NosDa right opposite the Millennium Stadium: http://www.nosda.co.uk/backpacker.php For further enquiries please contact Jacqui Mulville or Richard Madgwick aea2008@cardiff.ac.uk .
6 th ICAZ BIRD WORKING GROUP MEETING August 23-27, 2008 The 6th ICAZ Bird Working Group (BWG) meeting will be held at the Groningen University of Archaeology, Groningen University , The Netherlands. There will be three days of presentations on all kinds of topics regarding birds and man, and a one-day bird watching trip to the Lauwersmeer. Information: http://www.alexandriaarchive.org/icaz/icazForum/viewtopic.php?t=887 ; Registration form: http://www.alexandriaarchive.org/icaz/icazForum/viewtopic.php?t=888
AEA annual conference: 12-15 September 2007, Poznan , Poland Eurasian Perspectives on Environmental Archaeology The annual conference of the AEA in 2007 marked a new watershed for the Association with the expansion of activities eastward and the greatest number of participants, papers and non-western contributions in the program. It was therefore fitting that following welcomes from the local dignitaries (including the Marshal's Office of the Wielkopolska Region, the Rector of the Adam Mickiewicz University, the Head of the region's Office for Monument Conservation and the Host of the Poznan Archaeological Museum) and the conference convenor Dr Misoslaw Makohonienko the first paper was given by our outgoing Chairman, David Robinson. David took this opportunity to describe the evolution of the AEA and environmental archaeology in general, and left us with his vision for the future: a proactive discipline in both academic and commercial sectors that develops and applies new methodologies, published and disseminated to shape scientific and social advances both within and beyond archaeology. This was followed by a second opening lecture by Yoshinori Yasuda who described developments in environmental archaeology in Asia , and in particular the important role that the discipline is having in understanding relationships between people and their environment through the use of annually laminated sediments. We then embarked on an ambitious schedule of papers, and the individual session Chairs deserve thanks and praise for maintaining the tight program so that none of the important coffee (sorry, poster) sessions were eroded from us! Sessions were arranged by geographic spread of interest and methodological advances. The first sessions were focussed on Man and environment interactions in the Atlantic Regions of Western and Northern Europe . A widely ranging set of papers included insularity and its effects on immigration, adaption and specialisation of remote island communities (Jacqui Mulville); the development of heathland across western and coastal NW Europe (Kari Hjelle); a revision of the evidence for cereal cultivars from ceramics and environmental deposits (Merial McClatchie); the possible social significance of the right-sided forelimb in animal butchery in prehistory (Richard Madgwick); a slide with images of doughnuts, Stonehenge, the Crimean War and a weevil-infested sea biscuit (David Smith – answers on a postcard please); and a discussion of the importance of molluscan taxocenes across Europe (Paul Davies). The end of the second session took us to lunch, at which we discovered the lengths to which our hosts had gone to ensure a smooth and enjoyable meeting. Lunches and suppers were all graced with bespoke AEA menus in local restaurants (which doubled as karaoke venues at night…) with excellent local Polish fare including exquisite mushroom soup. The conference banquet (at the end of day 1) was held in the local register office in the town square, after which we were treated to a performance of traditional music and dancing by the Song and Dance Ensemble of the Agricultural University in Poznan. Between lunch and the banquet there was just the small matter of 16 papers in three tight sessions. Session 3 focussed on Man and Environment interactions in Central and Eastern Europe with papers describing recent research and advances in the understanding of the development of Bohemia (now mostly within the Czech Republic). Papers had a predominantly palynological flavour, linking landcover change to the archaeological records, and ranged from a Czech Starr Carr at Švarcenberk (Pokorný et al .), attempts to reconcile pollen analytical evidence with period-specific archaeological sites and monuments (Dagmar Dresloerová et al .) and the use of historical mapping and pollen analytical evidence to describe the impact of recent woodland management (Vojtech Abraham et al .). Session 4 presented recent advances and developments in environmental archaeology and covered the process of visualising pseudo-realistic landscapes from environmental data (Ralph Fyfe et al .), the role of coleopteran modern analogue studies in revising some of our most fundamental understandings of “pre-disturbance” woodland dynamics (Nicki Whitehouse et al .), and their role in differentiating wells from water holes (Magnus Hellqvist). The final session of day 1 was devoted to the Lake Megata 2006 project: a high resolution study of the past environment in East Asia using annually laminated sediments from northeastern Japan . The lake is a focus of large scale investigations in an attempt to derive high temporal resolution data for a range of lines of evidence. The six papers gave an insight into the level of detail and resources that are being invested into this lake sequence, including analysis of the sediments (Kazuyoshi et al .), their geochemistry (Markus Schwab et al .; Yoshitsugu Shinozuka et al .), pollen analysis from varves (Junko Kitagawa et al .) and tuning of varve properties (colour, thickness) to the dendrochronological record to extent an annually-resolved climate reconstruction for the region beyond the last 2,000 years (Hitoshi Yonenobu et al .). The second day of the conference was shortened to four sessions, starting with two further sessions on Man and environment interactions in the temperate zone of central and Eastern Europe . The day began with a group of Polish papers, including a consideration of the impacts of prehistoric societies on their physical environment, notably increased alluviation and colluviation in loess-dominated areas (Kazimierz Klimek), a discussion of the geographic preferences of early prehistoric settlers in the Polish lowlands who exclusively settled ‘black soils' (Janusz Czebreszuk) and the subsistence patterns on early medieval strongholds from archaeozoological data (Daniel Makowiecki). The second session saw us push even further east, with papers on the stratigraphy and chronology of open-air Upper Palaeolithic sites from Belarus (Alena Kalechyts), combined palynological, archaeozoological and archaeological evidence for the emergence of stock rearing in Belarus during the 5 th -4 th millenniums BC (Kryvaltsevich et al .) and a discussion of a single copper mine in the Ukraine which alone saw the production of 3000 tonnes of metal between the 17 th and 14 th centuries BC (Yuriy Brovender)! Prior to the final two sessions, a number of unavoidable withdrawals of papers from Russia colleagues meant that the conference delegates were offered the opportunity of a guided tour around the Archaeological museum in Poznan by one of the curators. The museum boasts a large number of important Polish antiquities, as well as a small Egyptian gallery and material from on-going excavations in Syria . The penultimate session was focussed on Man and Environment interactions in southern Siberia and opened with a description of ongoing research into lifestyles and dietary practices in the Minusinsk Basin in Russia based on stable isotope work, revealing the interrelationships between resources and populations through time (Svyatko et al .). The theme of environment-society relationships was taken further in a discussion of climatic variability and human subsistence patterns through the last glacial-interglacial cycle in the Altai region (Jirí Chlachula), and the relationships between Holocene climate and land cover change, suggesting that human impact on regional vegetation was less important than climatic cycling (Pavel Tarasov et al .). The final session relocated us to continental East Asia, where we were treated into insights into the developments of the cultural landscape in northern and eastern China . Mayke Wagner gave us an initial overview of the earliest process of domestication in northern China, which was followed by two papers covering some of the problems with differentiating domestic and ‘wild' resources: a detailed study allowing the positive identification of rice-paddy cultivation from phytoliths through extensive sampling across a site (Gui-Yun Jin et al .) and the problems of differentiating wild and cultivated rice and foxtail millet in the archaeobotanical record (Hiroo Nasu). It was fitting that our host, Miroslaw Makohonienko gave the final paper of the conference, with an excellent overview of the correlation between cultural development and climatic changes in the Manchurian Plain and the consequent impacts on the natural ecosystems of the region. This was an excellently organised conference with a number of recurring themes across the spatial and temporal distribution of papers. In addition to the 39 oral contributions there were a further 33 posters that were viewed and discussed during coffee and delegated poster sessions. The list of participants was quite unlike the majority of the UK-based AEA meetings, being dominated by delegates from central and eastern Europe (over 80 percent) and contributors from the far east (Japan and China). In fact, only 11 of the 109 delegates were members of the AEA, and we must thank the conference organisers Miroslaw Makohonienko and Daniel Makowiecki for the fantastic opportunity to distribute the activities of the AEA beyond our traditional membership. Following the formal conference many of the attendees opted for the two day field excursions. On day one the majority of the excursion was devoted to sites associated with the founding of the Polish state around the end of the tenth and beginning of the eleventh centuries AD. The first stop was the Museum of the First Piasts at Lednica, where artefactual displays were supplemented with a large-scale reconstruction of part of the settlement on the nearby island of Ostrów Lednicki , site of one of the earliest stone houses in Poland and an associated chapel within a large timber fortification covering most of the island. A trip to the island followed. An impressive scale-model of the island at the time of occupation clearly outlined the major features of the occupation and the substantial timber fortifications and revetments. Time was spent walking around the island and viewing the ruins with substantial commentary from our Polish colleagues on the importance of the site at the time when the Polish state was just emerging. Following lunch the theme continued with a visit to the Museum of the Founding of the Polish State at Gniezno , known as the first capital city of Poland . Here we were given special access to one of the major exhibitions covering the establishment of the state with an impressively choreographed lighting and video accompaniment guiding the viewer through key historical and geographical events. A short drive to nearby Lech Hill and the impressive Gothic Cathedral followed, with time to admire the scale and grandeur of one of the oldest gothic cathedrals in Poland , complete with twelfth century doors carved with the story of St Adalbert. Another drive brought us to the city of Torun , a UNESCO World Heritage Site and once the home of Nicolaus Copernicus. An impressive walled city it contains many historical buildings from gothic tenements to neo-renaissance halls. After exploring the central square most participants climbed the Medieval Town Hall Tower and enjoyed a remarkable panoramic view of the historic city centre. Following an evening meal another drive to Chelmno delivered some of the participants to their hotel while the rest had another short drive to their overnight stop at an ‘Agrotouristic Farm'. The coach driver is to be congratulated for his skills in negotiating the narrow entrance and reversing in total darkness. Day two began with the participants being reunited prior to meeting with the Mayor of Chelmno who gave a warm welcome to all in the splendid setting of the sixteenth century town hall. A short drive then brought us to Kaldus, a site of a medieval stronghold overlooking the Vistula Valley . Here, presentations were given on the settlement history, landscape reconstruction based upon pollen evidence from the valley sediments, and the importance of the site as a modern-day refugia for many threatened plant species. Following lunch in Chelmno another short drive brought us to the final field destination, Biskupin. Following its accidental discovery in 1933 Biskupin rapidly became one of Europe 's most famous Early Iron Age sites dating from the seventh century BC. Attracting over a quarter of a million visitors a year our visit coincided with the main day of the week-long annual Archaeological festival. Festival stands offered the opportunity to buy items ranging from wild boar skins to replica weapons or pottery items. A visit to the Museum orientated the party for the forthcoming visit to the reconstruction of the main two-hectare fortification area with its double row of 13 connected houses separated by a narrow ‘street. Also at the museum was an impressive ‘visiting' display of Baltic archaeology. The reconstruction of the Iron Age settlement itself is impressive in scale. A double gateway leads to a small square with the double row of houses straight in front. Each house is identical, with a main room, containing a hearth and a plank bed, and a vestibule. It was in one of these that the evening meal (and beer) was served around a roaring fire with participants being asked to perform songs or poetry from their own country. Many hours passed with conversation, singing and the cooking of sausages on the open fire. Alas it had to end with a final journey of the day to a hotel in Lubowo. The following morning a return to Poznan marked the end of the fieldtrip with attendees saying their farewells and heading home. For those of us with a few hours to wait before heading to the airport a medieval festival just off the main square provided some morning entertainment, with the outgoing AEA Chair, David Robinson, showing some frighteningly good archery skills with a medieval bow. Perhaps fortunately we were not allowed to throw the axes and knives! A short visit to a multimedia diorama display of the history of Poznan was followed by lunch and then finally dispersal to the airport. As for the conference itself, all the organisers and other colleagues who met us at each particular site are to be thanked for their wonderful hospitality and organisation. The fieldwork itinerary was ambitious, but delivered with the minimum of fuss and maximum good-humour. Hobbit-like ‘second breakfasts' on the coach were welcomed by all and were illustrative of the degree of planning that went into both the conference and fieldtrip. The 400+ pages provided in the conference abstracts and fieldtrip guide illustrate this effort further. All are to be congratulated in making the first AEA conference in Eastern Europe such a success. A full photographic record of the conference and fieldtrip can be found online at http://picasweb.google.com/AEA.2007.Poznan Ralph Fyfe Paul Davies
See Bibliography to view and download
Membership Form and Standing Order Form
Spring Meeting Registration Form See Past Events 2008
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