We hope everyone is doing well in 2024, which is well underway! Please find in this newsletter extended information about the upcoming 2024 conference in Rome. We have 22 sessions that are associated to the PaM Community this year. In this spring’s newsletter you will find key dates and helpful links. As founding co-chair Sonja B. Grimm plans to step down, we are holding elections for three co-chairs for the PaM community. Current co-chairs Silje Evjenth Bentsen and Annemieke Milks are running again for election, and we are happy that ECR Andrej Maczkowski also expressed his interest to become a co-chair. Statements from each candidate are below, and the election will be held as part of the hybrid PaM community meeting in advance of the next EAA annual meeting (date TBD). We have also included some postdoctoral and job advertisements, as well as other conference announcements. Do get in touch if you need any help, have questions, or suggestions for us. We’ll be in touch again when a programme for the Rome conference is settled. Until then, all our best wishes! Silje, Sonja and Annemieke
COMMUNITY BUSINESS
Co-Chair Election Statements (in alphabetical order of first names)
Andrej Maczkowski M.A. (Institute of Archaeological Sciences, University of Bern and Oeschger Center for Climate Change Reasearch, Bern, Switzerland)
I am an archaeologist, born and grew up in Macedonia, did my Bachelor in Archaeology and History of Art in Skopje, Macedonia, then did a Master in Quaternary and Prehistory at both Universities of Ferrara, Italy and Tarragona, Spain (while spending some time at IPHES too). My Master thesis dealt with the lithic assemblage from the open-air site of Uzun Mera, near Mustafino, Macedonia, focusing on both the techno-typological and post-depositional analyses. As with most open-air sites in the region we likely dealt with a palimpsest assemblage, including a pronounced Middle Palaeolithic component.
Life has redirected my prehistoric trajectory into more recent periods. Since 2019 I’ve been doing my PhD at the University of Bern, Switzerland, on the dendrochronology of prehistoric pile-dwellings in the Southwestern Balkans. During my PhD, in 2022, I also stayed for half a year at the University of Arizona at the Laboratory for Tree-ring Research. Considering the universality of my new wood-anatomy and dendrochronology-related skills regardless of the period, I intend to work on some pre-Holocene wood (often as charcoal) remains too . As many archaeologist I’ve participated in fieldwork in various sites from Palaeolithic caves to Late Roman towns. Again, as many colleagues have done, I have also worked as a tourist guide for a while.
My passion for all prehistory, from Iron Age to the Lower Palaeolithic is definitely one of the main reasons I would like to be more involved in PaM. I also see it as an opportunity to get in touch with new people from the field and keep up with and help spreading all new data in the fast-developing research on the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic in Europe. Moreover, I would like to give more focus on the PaM research in the South-eastern Europe, as the region seems to hold an immense potential in opening new questions on the PaM. I would like to see the PaM Community offer an online ‘one-stop-shop’ for most things PaM, in a form of a more active online discussion group where people could ask for advice or get information on new positions, grants etc.
Annemieke Milks, PhD (Department of Archaeology, University Reading, UK)
I am a Palaeolithic archaeologist, currently on a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Reading (U.K.). I specialise in early weaponry, hunting and more recently, the archaeology of children. My work is interdisciplinary, linking together experimental archaeology, ethnography and artefact analysis, and I have developed collaborations across multiple countries and continents. I have served the PaM community now since 2020, joining founder Sonja B Grimm when the other co-founder, Natasha Reynolds, stepped down. In 2024, as Sonja herself steps down, I feel I am in a strong position to work together with the other elected co-chairs to guide the community forwards. As the PaM community has grown (along with the EAA annual meeting itself!), the presence, visibility, and organisation of both Palaeolithic and Mesolithic research at the EAA annual meetings has also grown. At the 2023 meeting in Belfast, I was the main organiser for the PaM community session on decolonising Palaeolithic and Mesolithic archaeology, and we are now collaborating to publish the proceedings in a joint special collection with a similar session from another conference (CHAGS). This combined experience means I am well-placed to work together with the other co-chairs to represent our community’s views to the EAA board and committees. In addition to this work to help organise the meeting, we try to bring together information to share with the community through our newsletters (usually three times per year), as well as social media. I am committed not simply to grow the PaM community, but to develop it in such a way as best benefits our community, as well as the EAA itself.
Silje Evjenth Bentsen, PhD (Nordland Fylkeskommune, Norway)
I am an archaeologist with a passion for fire, sustainability, and science communication. I explore aspects of pyrotechnology among early Homo sapiens in South Africa through experimental archaeology, and have extensive experience organising conferences, seminars, and sessions. I am, for example, the main organiser for the PaM community session on sustainability, where we have included a panel of discussants representing a wide range of perspectives on the topic. My current position is Project manager for the cultural route “Fotefar mot nord” through Northern Norway. I coordinate 4 county councils, the Sami Parliament, different museums, and other stakeholders in our effort to build sustainable dissemination of 10 000 years of cultural history in the area and to responsibly use cultural heritage as a resource for development. I have been a co-chair for the EAA PaM community since 2021, where my responsibilities are mainly managing our Facebook and Instagram accounts and facilitate overviews of PaM sessions at the EAA. I am committed to developing the quality of the PaM community in a way that benefits its members and the EAA itself.
Annual EAA Board and Committees election
Every year some positions in the executive board of the EAA, its committees and in the different editorial boards come up for (re-)election. Have a look at the following webpage and see the end of term dates to see whom’s position will be up for (re-)election:
So we are happy to let you know that this year a PaM member is running for one of the free positions in the EAA board. Daniel Groß from Museum Lolland-Falster would (if elected) support and represent the needs of the PaM community in the most relevant organisational unit of the EAA. Please, when offered by the EAA to cast you votes: Do vote! And please consider giving your voice to Daniel.
EAA Community Funding Opportunity
Funding for EAA Communities is continued to be offered. If you have a PaM-related project that you would like to co-fund with this scheme, please get in touch and we are happy to help. Further information:
Applications must be submitted by an existing EAA Community Chair / Co-Chair and clearly show how the project aligns with the Community goals. The application must demonstrate the project’s benefits for the EAA and its Members. Supported projects need to contribute to the fulfilment of EAA’s aims and its Strategic Plan (available upon signing in at https://www.e-a-a.org/StrategicPlan). External co-funding of the project is required and will be assessed on case-by-case basis by the EAA Executive Board. Received financial support must be used by the Community before the end of 2024 at the latest. One application can receive financial support amounting to a maximum of €1000.
• June 10th 2024
• September 25th 2024
The applications will be evaluated by the Executive Board, and the results will be announced within 30 days of the application submission deadline.
EAA ANNUAL MEETING 2024
The 30th EAA annual meeting, Persisting With Change, will be held in in Rome (Italy) from 28th – 31st August 2024!
As with the last conference, this will be a hybrid event.
We have listed the sessions associated with the PaM community, as well as a selection of sessions that might also be of interest for PaM members below.
We hope that many of you will join us!
If you are an organiser of one of the PaM sessions and want one or two PaM sessions to absolutely not overlap with your session – please, let us know as we will be asked to group the sessions for the scheduling software. We can suggest 3 to 4 groups of PaM sessions that should not be scheduled at the same time.
We consider this large number of session organisers that are happy to include Palaeolithic and/or Mesolithic contributions to their topics as a sign of the positive impact of our community within the EAA and our aim to integrate the hunter-gatherer past into the European archaeological community as a whole.
P.S.: If you find your session on this list but want it to be a PaM associated session, please get in touch with us asap!
PaM sessions
Session #18. Fish * Forms * Functions: The Importance and Societal Role of Aquatic Resources in Prehistoric Societies
Session #57. What you need to know to understand Stone Age Migration and Mobility
Session #151. The Beasts Among Us: A Closer Look at Synanthropic Human-Animal Relations in the Past
Session #248. Lithics, Fauna: Let Them Refit!
Session #355. Ochre and Culture: The Odyssey from Exploitation to Societal Significance
Session #364. Modeling Pleistocene Survival Dynamics: Ecology, Energetics and Evolution.
Session #452. Coastal Technology among Stone Age Hunter-Gatherers and Early Agropastoral Communities
Session #549. Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Middle Paleolithic Record of the Balkan Peninsula
Session #661. On Fire! Ancient Pyrotechnologies in Productive and Ritual Eastern Mediterranean and Near Eastern Contexts
Session #697. Human-Environment Interactions in European Calcareous Landscapes during the Pleistocene and Holocene
Session #871. Not Just Wear: The Synergy of Trace Analysis with Other Disciplines and Non-Invasive Techniques in Archaeology
Session #895. Perceiving and Shaping Landscapes
Session #916. Integrating Neandertal Legacy: From Past to Present. From Science to Society
Session #957. Destroyed, Submerged, and Unreachable: The Challenging Interpretation of Human Strategies across Lost Landscapes
Session #995. PaM Community Discussion Session: Sense and Sustainability in Foraging Communities
Session #1056. Telling the Stories of Others? Ethics, Epistemology, and Practices in Archaeological Discourses.
Session #1154. Stone Age Theory in an Undefined Paradigm: Gen-Y to Z, Third Science Revolutions to New Materialisms
Additional sessions of interest to our community
Session #331 Across Deserts and Seas: Tempos and Modes of Neolithization in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula
Session #334 Ethnographic Analogy and the Pleistocene Archaeological Record: Re-assessing Potentials and Pitfalls
Session #493 Animals mediating the real and imaginary: In Search for New Understandings of Human-Animal Relationships
Session #553 Advancing Paleolithic Intra-Site Spatial Analysis: New Methods, Applications, and Interpretation
Session #594 “All Roads Lead to the South”, Facing the European Palaeolithic from the South of the Iberian Peninsula
Session #710 Around the Black Sea: Resilience and Mobility in Prehistory
Session #835 The Horse in Archaeology: An Interdisciplinary Approach for Uncovering Relations between Horse and Humans in the Past
Session #842 Continuity in Change: Environmental, Cultural, Social and Material Evolution in Ancient Arabia
Session #849 Zooarchaeology in Transition(s): Subsistence Patterns, Cultural Changes and Continuity in European Prehistory through Old and New Tools
Session #854 Building Bridges: An Open Forum for Archaeology and Metagenomics
Session #973 Pyroachaeology: Fire-Related Engineering, Environment and Cultural Proxies
Session #1000 Advanced Methodologies for Life History Reconstruction in Bioarchaeology
Session #1004 Tracking the Life History through the Microarchitecture of the Human Bone
Session #1018 More than Just Data: The Role of Archaeological Theory in Refining Geoscience-driven Research Questions
Session #1024 Understanding Behavioural Changes through Material Studies – Adaptation and Social Complexity of the Homo Sapiens
Session #1046 Evolutionary Approaches to Archaeological Questions: Human Behavioral Ecology and Cultural Transmission Theory
Session #1049 ‘Til Death Do Us Part? Revisiting the Question of Double Burials
Session #1094 Performativity, Networks and Agency in Geometric Iconography. Towards an Aesthetics and Visual Language Archaeology
Session #1109 Mesolithic & Neolithic Evolutionary Trajectories at the Mediterranean
Session #1126 Prehistoric Tectonics: long-term and short-term impacts in human evolution (during the Holocene)
New dates and deadlines
31st May: Deadline for membership and Annual Meeting registration fee payment for presenters (first authors) of posters
31st May: Deadline for last cancellation of excursions (no refund after this date)
11th July: Deadline for last cancellation (no refund after this date)
28th – 31st August: Annual meeting in Rome
PhD OPPORTUNTIES, JOB OPENINGS and GRANTS
PhD opportunities
A PhD position on pressure technique during the Upper Palaeolithic in Northeast-Asia at Toulouse University is advertised by the CNRS with Nicolas Teyssanier (UMR5608) and YA. Gomez Coutouly (UMR8096) as advisors. Details in English and French are available at https.//employ.cnrs.fr/Offres/Doctorant/UMR5608-JOSRAT-009/Default.aspx?lang=EN Deadline for application is 20th May 2024.
Two funded PhD positions are advertised in the COEXIST project at the University of Reading: One is a Zooarchaeologist project, the other one is an Archaeological Science position for someone with lab experience using bone, collagen and/ or proteins. Further information can be found at https://reseach.reading.ac.uk/coexist/we-are-recruiting/ Deadline is 31st May 2024.
At the University of Western Australia a funded PhD position is advertised in the “Desert to Sea: Managing Rock Art, Culture and Country” project. https://researchdegrees.uwa.edu.au/projects/z2x83 The applicant shall be working on residues and use-wear on lithic assemblages to identify plant and animal use to help understand desert adaptation in collaboration with indigenous communities. Deadline for application is 28th June 2024.
Postdoctoral positions
The Centre for Palaeogenetics at University of Stockholm is recruiting a postdoctoral fellow in sedimentary genomics to better understand climate-associated impacts on an Arctic coastal ecosystem Deadline: 15th June 2024. More information here.
Job openings
University of Bergen
The University Museum of Bergen is recruiting an associated professor in osteology. Deadline for applications: 21st of May. See https://www.jobbnorge.no/en/available-jobs/job/261242/associate-professor-position-in-osteology
The Norwegian Institute in Rome (DNIR) is a centre for research and education in archaeology, art and cultural history related to Rome, Italy and the Mediterranean. DNIR is now looking to recruit a new Centre Leader for 2025-2028. Deadline for applications: 1st of June. See https://www.jobbnorge.no/ledige-stillinger/stilling/261840/senterleder
WELL DONE!
Many congratulations to Dr. Lucy Timbrell for winning the Dorothy Bishop Prize for her PhD work on developing collaborative and open data collection practises! Read more here. https://www.ukrn.org/2024/03/28/winners-of-the-2024-dorothy-bishop-prize/
We would like to continue this short section in our newsletters to congratulate those who have achieved a milestone in their career (PhD, habilitation, new jobs or grants awarded, etc) with a Palaeolithic and/or Mesolithic project. If you know a PhD student who has just passed their viva or if you yourself have just passed, or if you are or know a researcher who had some bigger funding success to celebrate, please send us a little note.
OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS
Unravelling the Palaeolithic 2024 is taking place at the University of York from 11/07/2024-12/07/2024. Registration will close on May 31st. More information here: https://sites.google.com/view/unravelling-the-palaeolithic/home
The 14th annual ESHE meeting will take place in person in Zagreb, Croatia from 11th to 15th of September 2024. More information on registration etc here: https://www.eshe.eu/meetings/
HOUSEKEEPING
EAA PaM Community Page (for EAA members): https://www.e-a-a.org/EAA/Navigation_Communities/Palaeolithic_and_Mesolithic_Community.aspx
EAA PaM Community Site (for non-EAA members): https://eaapalaeomesocommunity.wordpress.com/
EAA PaM discussion forum: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/eaa-pam-discussion/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EAAPaM
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaMCommunity/
Facebook discussion group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/312200922737965/
Got something to share with the PaM Community? If you have a short message (up to 150 words) that you would like to be included in the next communication to the PaM Community in spring/summer 2023 (job opportunities, conference announcements, calls for papers), please send it to eaa.palaeomeso@gmail.com. We are also happy to share these messages on our external website (see above). If you have something specific that you would like us to tweet/retweet on Twitter, just send us a DM at @EAAPaM with the details. If you have something that you would like us to share on Facebook, please message us with details or share it in the discussion group.
Please feel free to distribute this email among your networks as you wish. You can also direct anyone who is interested in joining the Community or our external mailing list to this link, where they will find all the relevant instructions: https://eaapalaeomesocommunity.wordpress.com/get-involved/PostBlock
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