19.12.2023

Newletter EAA Urban Archaeology Community (11/2023)

Hello everyone!

This afternoon we had our second online community meeting in a row. The composition of the group was again slightly different from the first time. It is always good to see new and also familiar faces!
We discussed a number of topics together. Below is a brief overview (with some additions from my side):

- The session proposal for the Urban Archaeology Community Session at the EAA Congress in Rome has been submitted. The title is: Tracking the urban EAA. Unravelling the rise and fall of cities.
Hopefully the session will be accepted. We think it will be a great and interesting session.

- As a result, we have decided to postpone the deadline for the forthcoming Urban Landscape volume by six months in order to eventually include also contributions to the upcoming session. Authors will receive a separate email from me on this with the full planning.

- I have a request to people involved in other sessions at the EAA meeting that might also be about urban archaeology: could you please see if it is still possible to link your session to our community? This would need to be in a separate comment section on the submittance page on the website. There was a promise from the board representative to see if communities could be added to the tick list where, for example, MERC is already listed. Unfortunately, this does not seem to have happened yet.

- The annual Heritage Management Symposium of the European Archaeological Counsel (EAC) will be held in Brussels from 21-23 March 2024. The theme of this edition is ‘Urban Archaeology and the Cities of Tomorrow’.
The Call for Papers is already open. We look forward to meeting you in Brussels. Annual meeting 2024  (europae-archaeologiae-consilium.org)

- In Vienne (France) will take place a workshop on: Archaeological prospection and heritage management in the urban environment. It is not yet clear whether and to what extent it will be open to external participants. When I know more I will mention it in a future newsletter.

- I promised to add another link to the book published by the community, which can be read (and ordered) online at this site: https://www.sidestone.com/books/managing-archaeology-in-dynamic-urban-centres 

- The Netherlands Institute of Turkey has been organising several (online) meetings on urban archaeology and spatial planning as part of a course since September. The focus is mainly on the Netherlands and Turkey. The meetings are free and open to all. This can be done by following the links shown on this page: https://www.nit-istanbul.org/message/nit-urban-heritage-lab-public-lecture-series 

- There are plans to organise a round table on urban archaeology and climate change on the Wednesday immediately before the EAA Congress (August 28th), in the Urban Archaeology Community time slot. This will be in consultation with the Climate Change Community.
Topics to be discussed can be:
What are the research questions around climate change and the city (to be conceived)?
What are the impacts of climate change on the archaeological heritage in/under the city?
What ethical issues are raised by the effects of climate change? For example, should everything be preserved?
- Finally, it was thought that these monthly meetings should include a short lecture on a particular (stimulating) topic. At the next meeting Kasper van den Berghe (FIND-X archaeology) will give a talk on selection and de-selection of finds and sites in urban archaeology.
The idea is that each time someone else will give a short presentation. If you are interested, please let us know. These could be presentations on excavations and research, but also, for example, on archaeological heritage management. It will be a great opportunity to discuss your ideas with colleagues from all over Europe!

In short, our community is starting to come alive in this way. Wonderful! 

See you on 18 December (14.00-15.00 CET) with as mentioned a paper by Kasper van den Berghe on (de-)selection in Urban Archaeology!

All the best!
Jeroen