archaeologist of the National Monument Service of Ireland. You're all very welcome here to Belfast and to this wonderful venue and to the 29th annual meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists. As I said, I'm Chief Archaeologist of the National Monument Service of Ireland over the next few days. To those visitors here, you'll hear a lot of geographical terms. You'll hear Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, the North of Ireland, the Ireland of Ireland, the South, the North, this place and that place. I don't worry about it, you won't get the handle of that by Sunday. But whatever one chooses to call this place, there is huge excitement among the archaeological sector across this island that the conference is taking place in Belfast. It is a credit to Queen's University of Belfast and to all the organisers. A really brave show of hands back in 2018 to host here, given what it takes to host EAA and one which our National Monument Service has been very pleased to be able to support. As an added note, as Secretary to the Board of the European Archaeological Council, this is the organisation of the EAA. On behalf of our President Under Grave and all the board, our congratulations to you all here for the immense work in hosting this week's conference. I will be your compare here for this evening. Air traffic chaos in the UK has obviously disrupted the plans of many, so give yourselves a good clap on the back for even getting here this evening. During this evening's ceremony we'll be entertained by some of the best talent from here in Belfast and beyond. We'll have an ancient Irish horn performance from the world-renowned RMI Reimers and archaeologist James McKee as we move from this wonderful room into the auditorium towards the end of this evening's ceremony. The name of Belfast in the Irish language Belfaster means the mouth of the ford, reflecting the importance of the river to the city and its origins on the banks of the River Lagan. And so to begin this evening's entertainment we welcome local singer Rose McCullough singing my Lagan love. It is a haunting song with reference to the River Lagan which runs next to us here. Rose will be singing and playing the traditional Irish harp, so please put your hands together for Rose. Thank you Rose for a beautiful performance. We now have a few welcoming addresses to you all starting with Eileen Murphy, chair of the local organizing committee. I'd like to welcome to the stage to say a few words. Thank you very much Michael. So on behalf of the local organizing committee of the 29th annual meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists I'm delighted to welcome you to the wonderful city of Belfast. So this event is organized by the Department of Archaeology and Paleocology at Queen's University Belfast and our conference has been generously supported by Visit Belfast and TourismNI in addition to a range of partners from across the island and much further beyond as well. So Belfast had its origins as a small medieval settlement at a crossing point over the river Lagan. By the late 19th century it had developed into a major industrial port on the Irish sea and it specialized in shipbuilding and the linen industry. So the old linen factories of Linenopolis have long since gone but our motto weaving narratives was chosen to reflect the impact that the industry had on our city and the motto also reflects the strong tradition of creative writing so from the 18th 19th century weaver poets through to household names like C.S. Lewis and Seamus Heaney and the ultimate outcome of our painstaking work as archaeologists is telling the stories of those who came before us so we are all the weavers of narratives of the past. Our conference logo depicts the enigmatic bow island figure from County Firmana and it's thought to date to the early medieval period so we can't be entirely sure of its meaning but it's been suggested that it's a representation of the Irish war goddess Bife which also means the hooded crow and we selected it for our logo because it has two faces so one's looking forward and one's looking backwards and we thought this was symbolic of what we do as archaeologists because we look to the past to help us inform the present and the future so wealth has been the capital of Northern Ireland since its establishment in 1921 and you know it's well known we have not been without our difficulties especially during the 30 year period from 1968 when the troubles raged and the signing of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement in 1998 it really did herald a new era for our people so given this we are truly delighted to have the EIA visit Belfast on the 25th anniversary of the signing of the agreement and hopefully our peace process can continue to provide hope in a world that sometimes feels very dark especially at present so the main venue of the annual meeting is Queen's University Belfast Queens was founded in 1845 and it's the ninth oldest university in the UK the historic Lanyon building where hopefully you've all been already today it's one of the great architectural set pieces of Belfast so we very much hope you enjoy exploring our campus and the leafy suburbs in which it sits so Belfast people were quite renowned you know for being fairly warm having easy ways and quite a plain speaking sense of humour so I hope you're not too sensitive when you're out and about and hopefully you'll enjoy learning some Norn Iron as we like to say flying so yeah just ask us to speak a bit slowly if you don't understand what we're saying it is English okay and of course our pubs are legend right and again I hope you all get to savour some of those so just before I finish just want to say a few words of thanks we're extremely grateful to Sylvie Sylvie Kat Kat Christina Magda and Sarah of the EIA Secretariat for the unwavering support and guidance they provided us with throughout the organisation process and a really huge thanks are also due to Emma and Orla from Conference Partners International because they provided just incredible conference management support we also need to thank the members of the scientific committee you know with the scale of the conference they really did have a big job this year reading all those session proposals and abstracts so thank you very much to all of them also want to thank the National Advisory Board the EIA Executive Board of course our fantastic volunteers who really help us keep the show on the road and you can see them all sporting their lovely green t-shirts and our excursion guides hopefully anyone who's been on one of our tours has enjoyed it especially because the weather has stayed nice and dry and also then members of the Queen's University support staff so all of these people have made a really significant contribution towards making this conference a reality so I can't believe we're actually here and I hope you'll all have an absolutely fantastic conference and all I can say is welcome to Belfast thank you Eileen as I said when you put your and step forward to host this a few years ago it was a testament to you um to Queen's University Belfast and your and your department um showing the the strength of your ambition and competence and and um always a pleasure to work with you on the various projects we have done but on next I'd like to officially welcome our Queen's University Belfast representative um is Margaret Topping Pro Vice Chancellor for Internationalization at Queen's University Belfast to say a few words Margaret good evening everyone and thank you for the welcome and introduction I am absolutely delighted to welcome you here to Belfast on behalf of Queen's University Belfast as Pro Vice Chancellor for Internationalization and Global Engagement it's such a pleasure to have colleagues from all over the world come to Queen's for a few days of intellectual stimulation new ideas dialogue the tests our disciplines and also just for the sort of conviviality and reconnection with colleagues that we sometimes only really get at our subject association conferences so I'd really like to thank the European Association of Archaeologists for selecting Belfast and Queen's to host the conference and also visit Belfast and Tourism Northern Ireland as our main sponsor as Eileen mentioned a number of other organizations have provided sponsorship and support and we'd like to extend our thanks to them also Queen's has been an anchor institution in Northern Ireland for over 175 years and this year has been an exceptional year for the University not least in terms of conferences in April as as Eileen alluded to we hosted a major global conference to mark the 25th anniversary of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement which brought peace to Northern Ireland that was attended by Queen's Chancellor Secretary Hillary Clinton the key architects of the agreement including Senator George Mitchell, President Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Bertie Ahern and global leaders past and present including UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Irish T Shockley of Redker and the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen this was a hugely momentous event for a university which is committed to its responsibility to our local community as well as to having the kind of global reach that is exemplified by our hosting wonderful events like the one we're welcoming you to today at Queen's we're proud of our impact on Northern Ireland both economically and socially an independent report published in the London economics by London economics puts the university's economic impact on Northern Ireland at three billion pounds that comes from research and knowledge exchange from our teaching and learning activities from our commercialization activity but our societal impact is also key to our responsibilities and our new strategy for 2030 commits us to ensuring that we're making the sorts of civic and social responsibility that can really make a difference in our region we've committed recently to embedding the UN sustainable development goals in every aspect of our work we're working closely with communities across the city to help address long-standing issues regarding deprivation and educational underachievement I'm very proud to say that 30 percent of our students come from non-traditional widening participation backgrounds we have programs that provide the opportunity for young people who have the talent to succeed at Queen's but may not have the opportunity to do so I just like to say that colleagues in archaeology have been absolutely key to this work of reaching out to the community beyond the university really bringing to life the value and the excitement of the research that we contribute here archaeology is locally committed but globally recognized it's a world-class department for teaching research and impact recently recognized in the top 100 archaeology departments in the qs world university ranking it was 12th in the united kingdom in our most recent national research excellence framework 15th in the uk times good university guide and that's down to the passion and the commitment of colleagues such as eileen murphy who has taken on this monumentous task of organizing this event alongside being deputy head of school and much more besides so I thank the ea a I've thanked visit belfast and tourism and I but I'd like to recognize eileen and they're the gargantuan efforts that she has put in place over the last couple of years actually longer than I realized since 2018 I know she's delighted that the conference is finally here eileen congratulations to you for all of your work I hope you actually get to sit down and enjoy the next couple of days but can we just take a moment to recognize eileen and the team that has supported her as from my point of view whatever achievements any given university can boast none of it's done in isolation it's through partnership and collaboration locally nationally and internationally and that's why from the point of view of the work that I lead on in the university it's such a pleasure and a real privilege to welcome colleagues from all over the world to queens so I hope for those of you who are visiting us for the first time that this will not be the last I look forward to welcome you back to belfast at some future date maybe just to visit maybe to present your work hopefully to develop the partnerships the seeds of which I hope will be planted over the next couple of days maybe even some of you will come to join our scholarly community as members of staff but in the meantime enjoy these few days subject association conferences I think are very special events because they do provide us with those wonderful increasingly rare opportunities to step away from the admins step away from all the challenges and remind ourselves how much we love what we do and why we do it so enjoy weaving your narratives as a subject association and above all make sure you find some time to enjoy what we in Ireland call the crack that's one of those it's not just the northernism it's it's across the island and if you don't know what that is yet you're guaranteed to know what it is by the end of the night enjoy I wish you a fruitful few days and hopefully see some of you in the campus on the next couple of days but also in the future thank you thank you very much Margaret um as Margaret and Eileen have alluded to is very much a partnership here in Northern Ireland and in belfast in particular and bringing you all here and bringing this together um it's a wonderfully vibrant city as both Margaret and Eileen have referred to which you'll experience over the coming days and uh that doesn't happen by accident it happens with huge input including from organizations such as visit belfast which has been crucial to hosting um EAA here in belfast this week and uh I'd like to welcome Debra Collins head of business events at visit belfast who accompanied Eileen to Barcelona uh when the the the offer of hosting in belfast was planned um I think we're all reminded how many years ago as Margaret said that was but uh we welcome Debra please to the stage mrs president ladies gentlemen and distinguished guests on behalf of visit belfast it gives me great pleasure to welcome you all to belfast and to the ICC on the occasion of the opening of the 29th EAA annual meeting may I first take this opportunity to thank and remember some of the wonderful EAA community who I met back in Barcelona in 2018 and they get then again in belfast in 2019 when they first came to visit Felipe Mags Sylvie and of course Karen Waugh who I want to make special mention of as someone whose energy kindness and spirit shone bright I hope she would be proud of the meeting and program that has been woven here together in belfast I also want to say a huge personal thank you to Eileen Murphy and her brilliant team who not only made me feel incredibly welcomed to the archaeology community but for their unwavering commitment to making this event happen in belfast as it has been alluded to already this year marks the 25th anniversary of the belfast Good Friday agreement and 24 years since visit belfast was set up with foresight from belfast city council and tourism northern arms since then tourism has become one of the city's success stories and the key driver in belfast renaissance creating and supporting jobs and driving economic growth and urban regeneration across the city region investment has enabled belfast to flourish and now more than ever we are working on tourism as a force for good that gives back to our communities we are bringing the world to belfast and ensuring our events have inclusivity sustainability legacy and impact at their heart we thank EAA and the local organizing committee for their commitment to these objectives and I hope all of this will be evident from the program I want to make special mention of our pioneering food poverty program called changing the menu for good which EAA have kindly partnered on with us in order to help those in belfast who are experiencing food insecurity you will have the chance to donate by a qr codes at key points around the queen's university campus and so far three events coming to belfast this project has raised over 20 000 pounds for our local food bank called the people's kitchen and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for making a difference to our local communities for those of you who are visiting belfast at the first time I hope that you will get the chance to explore our great wee city and perhaps partake in a pint of the black stuff in one of our many historic pubs and bars be sure to suck up the atmosphere in the lively cathedral quarter where you will be assured of the crack as we say in northern ills I also hope you will have time to experience the beauty of our rugged landscapes on one of the planned excursions the only thing we can't promise is the weather but I think it's to be nice I know you have a busy program ahead so I would just like to finish up by wishing you every success in your meeting I have no doubt the learnings friendships and knowledge exchange will motivate and inspire far beyond these few days in belfast and we hope to see you all back with friends and family very soon on behalf of visit belfast belfast city council tourism northern northern ireland and all of our industry partners thank you for choosing belfast and have a wonderful conference thank you very much debora before we have a little bit of a musical and dance entertainment um importantly want to welcome the president of the ea ester banshee to say a few words to you include a few moments of reflection for some some colleagues who are no longer with us ester welcome ea in the northwest atlantic gateway of europe for the second time after the covid pandemics we have come together here more in number than ever before we have more than 3 000 participants for the first time in ea ester banshee we have come together to celebrate archaeology to celebrate that we are stronger than the external obstacles be them of any kind of nature we have come together to celebrate ideas common brainstorming old and new friendship and collegial corporation first words of gratitude go to our hosts in belfast who have been committed to hard work for years to make this meeting possible they together with the wonderful and professional ea ester have overcome the bumps of organizing a fully hybrid meeting again something the ea ester has become a real pioneer among similar associations the composition of the social events and the content of themes and sessions is an outcome of the joint intensive work of the belfast scientific committee the executive board and our ea ester and of course a special thanks goes to my predecessor haleepa together with the board members the officers in that time including the late karen woe just mentioned who first embraced the idea of bringing the ea a annual meeting to belfast and started the organisational work back in 18 and 19 the program is the richest ever you will have seen the program book by now and some of you might be a little bit desperate about the number of clashing sessions you are not able to attend as we are all aware it is not a real possibility to extend the lengths of the annual meeting logistics and especially financing conditions hardly allow us a longer stay I wish you fulfill your curiosity and make the most out of these coming three days and use the coffee breaks the black beer and guineas times for exchanging results forging new plans among yourselves some of the six main themes are about sustainability in a more and more unsustainable world others offer coping practices for both the plethora of new data as well as the urging necessity to preserve these data for the future the data are not just always about results of new research or heritage activity but are also an important tool for the strategy to monitor and preserve archaeological heritage that is becoming and more and more endangered either by the climate change or by war conflict about the current situation of the letter we keep the possibilities for our Ukrainian members to attend without membership and registration fee and there is a new initiative plans to being launched this year to help Ukrainian archaeologists within the family circle of information flow we ask authors and publishers to send copies to Ukrainian institutional libraries data is our work in progress but meanwhile we do encourage our members who food who feel that they are up to making personal contacts with Ukrainian individual members and vice versa in order to exchange information data news pdfs and more upon personal interest and agreements the goal is to keep each other in the loop for the mutual benefit while certainly help Ukrainian members to hold a secure place in EAA's family after the Budapest annual meeting I close my words expressing my wish that the next meeting would take place while there is peace in Europe again this is not the case but for all that the power of culture the power of thinking and discussing together will hopefully point at future times when the archaeology will bind us together without frontiers in Europe for Europe and beyond Europe to experience the validity of this thought one cannot find a venue better and nicer than Belfast with its long past historically multiple bonds and meanwhile a vibrant and overwhelming openness and joy in sharing hosting cooperating for the joy of us all thank you for your attention now I would like to ask you to raise for a moment of silence remembering our fellow colleagues EAA members who passed away the last year thank you very much Esther reminding this that that that with all your words that that archaeology is is without border and how wonderful it is to be able to gather and and and nurture the friendships of old and and it's wonderful to see so many colleagues of all they don't say all colleagues anymore but colleagues of old here this evening it's it's a lot of fun but also very stimulating and sharing our experiences in terms also in terms of management of archaeology I'm always reminded through our EAC gatherings that one always comes away feeling one is not alone everyone faces the same issues but how wonderful to be able to gather here thank you Esther we're going to have a few moments of of wonderful Belfast entertainment we come to a few more presentations and bear with us now because the flight chaos has caused a few things and a few people to be stuck in places that they're not supposed to be so we're we're winging this right now and so but that's okay it shows that it's not over rehearsed and so but we're going to move to presenting the EAA's prestigious prizes for 2023 and first up if you arrive from an airport is yes I see a hand up we welcome Jaime straight out of a taxi Jaime Almanza chair of the EAA heritage prize committee who'll be presenting a number of European archaeological heritage prizes and first prize to the taxi drivers of Northern Ireland take on indeed in extremis I thought I was not going to make it I was supposed to be here last Monday no I've written in flight disruptions that probably most of you suffer these days well I just made it here like 20 minutes ago right enough to grab some air and report what I'm going to say so well first of all I guess you will know what the European archaeological heritage prizes know as members because you receive the information every year and actually we keep getting a lot of nominations so I just want to encourage you to think about it also next year who should deserve on your opinion either as an individual or as an institution project etc a prize for next year anyway first thing I would like to do is thank the whole EAA committee for the support to this prize since already like over 20 years no we're trying to to make it bigger better it takes a lot of effort and hopefully you know in the next few years we will be able to offer an even more prestigious prize no because it's already a very good one I would also like to thank the committee you know that I have the pleasure to chair for the first year well I'm Jaime Almanza and with me we have Paulina Florianovich, George Haagren, Jan Marek and Nursant Jalman so thank you very much to them for their big work during these months you know both to gather nominations and also to evaluate and give them I would also like to thank all the nominees and the people who nominated them you know because it's quite a challenge you know to to go ahead and say yeah I think this person deserves it so let's go for it and also to accept you know running for for the prize but with no further delay I would like to start with the prices because it's what we are waiting for here and the first one will be the first individual European archaeological heritage price since the Asian aggression to Ukraine in February 2022 protecting archaeological heritage has been a challenge in the context of a major humanitarian crisis within Europe the conflict is still open and we take a moment to remind the statement adopted by several archaeological societies this April including ours in support of our Ukrainian colleagues the efforts joined during the first weeks to protect and evacuate artifacts allowed the safeguard of dozens of thousands of archaeological materials in danger only in the national museum of the history of Ukraine almost 120 000 its team not only rushed to protect archaeological heritage in the first moments of the attack helping other regional museums to do so but as soon as it was safer it has continued to conduct research to open new exhibitions and to organize outreach activities while monitoring looting cases for his leadership in the protection of Ukrainian archaeological heritage during the war for his commitment to raise awareness about the importance of archaeological heritage in these difficult moments and for his overall professional and scientific profile professor Fedir Andreshuk is awarded the 2023 individual archaeological heritage prize of the European Association of Archaeologists. Fedir I have been instructed to speak to make a very brief speech so I feel I need this. Well thank you very much for this prestigious heritage prize it is an honor to be recognized for the work that has been done by our museum and I am humbled to have been a part of such a dedicated team I would like to express my deepest thanks to my colleagues at the museum the commitments and tireless efforts have played a pivotal role in ensuring the safety and preservation of our invaluable collection I would also like to extend my gratitude to all those who have supported our museum in many different ways your support has allowed us to protect the collection and develop new forms of work and activities at the museum during the war time without your support none of this would be possible lastly I would like to acknowledge the importance of collaboration in our field it is through the collective efforts of museum researchers and cultural institutions worldwide that we can ensure the longevity of our shared heritage in conclusion I'm truly honored to receive this heritage prize but I must emphasize that this experiment is not mine alone it is a testament of other dedication and hard work of my colleagues at the museum as well as the support of different people and institutions thank you all once again for this incredible honor now we're going to move on for the institutional award during the excavation in irulegi archaeological site two summers ago an interesting object was that it's a study uncover one of the most significant findings in europe of the last years for its social and political impact the hand of irulegi represented the oldest inscription in proto basque language and it was not in latin characters since the announcement in a matter of weeks the hand has become one of the most iconic elements for basque culture fostering all kinds of manifestations from music to urban art as well as a deep academic and political interest that reach millions of people in the national and international media all this is part of the great work of a society that becomes 75 years old now and has been working with great success for the research protection and dissemination of archaeological heritage for its commitment to archaeological heritage and historical memory for the deep social and political impact of its work and especially for the outstanding discovery of the hand of irulegi the sociedad de ciencias aranzadi is awarded the 2023 institutional archaeological heritage prize of the european association of archaeologists good evening on behalf of aranzadi science society i would like to start by thanking the european association of archaeologists for this recognition and of course dr yosun arbarte of the university of the basque country we are beyond grateful for this recognition aranzadi science society has been working on the research management and dissemination of natural and cultural heritage since 1947 and it is a renowned institution in the basque country we work on a community led archaeology model where volunteers local communities and archaeology professionals partake on the archaeological interventions organized by the society every summer in fact some of my very talented and skilled colleagues are here today and they will actively participate with several or representations during the annual meeting so i hope you you'll have the chance to meet and network with all of them in these past 76 years we have discovered many caves with marvellous prehistoric paintings megalithic burials roman cities medieval castles shipwrecks ancient ironworks and since 2000 we have applied archaeological methodology to dig mass graves and retrieve remains of thousands of disappeared people in the context of the spanish civil war or the conflict in western sahara working with heritage is quite conflictive but it is our responsibility as heritage professionals to contribute to a broader discourse in the current global climate of fear war and polarization scientific research of our past is a tool that enables us to think critically and our work may serve also as a way to advocate for the defense of human rights on a regional level aranthadhi represents all of these values and has always defended the idea that we need memory to know our past and science to know our future and at the core of an entire science society is the sense of community and and belonging on the daily basis our work wouldn't be possible without volunteers with the effort and looking for synergies from the bottom up we hope to keep working with the same passion at least 75 more years this ea heritage price will sure fuel our passion because without the motion there is no archaeology and now our director general juan chahire maulion would like to thank you briefly in uskera the basque language our mother tongue but also the language that we use on a daily basis to work and to do archaeology so me last year on it's that i'll be there until that's all you for those of you who don't know uskera that probably is most because i don't know it either the only word that you should learn now is scary casco thank you now well as i said before this year we had many many nominations and it was very difficult to choose the the winners no so we decided to give two honor our inventions one for the individual price and another one for the institutional one so we will move forward now for the first honor our invention in the individual archaeological european archaeological heritage price and well it goes as follows some achievements can only be valued in the perspective of a long career over three decades of daily work in the configuration of a modern discipline from the periphery helping to develop the current models of archaeological heritage management in his region pushing for an open science that makes archaeological heritage available to people and devoting a life to the iberian culture for research and management for his trajectory and his impact in andalusian spanish and european archaeology we want to award a special mention to professor arturo ruiz rodríguez i think isabel moriano is going to to collect it so thank you good evening everybody first of all i want to thank the ea organization on behalf of professor arturo ruiz for granting him with this important price for professor ruiz this award means the culmination of a long career dedicated to the research and promotion of the archaeological heritage and more specifically of the protohistoric societies of iberia i will i would like to share with you some important aspect for the future of arturo ruiz his timeless desire to investigate prehistoric iberian societies in the south of the iberian peninsula is for us his colleagues who work side by side with him an example of how it is necessary to build historical narratives from the periphery to obtain a more complete and complex vision of the human past to stay away from cliches meet him more open and inclusive in this sense professor ruiz gave the inaugural talk of the first ea conference held in santa oe compostela in 1992 it was entitled a Europe of diversity i view from archaeology for us his students at the university of haem the lifetime career of arturo ruiz is an inspiring example of how archaeological research must transfer the borders of the academy to reach the entire society in addition he's also a reference for a large number of archaeological professionals in space since arturo ruiz played a great role in the professionalization of archaeology in our country finally we must underline his timeless struggle for the socialization of heritage which has resulted in the construction of a new world of uh visitable archaeological sites as well as a unique thematic museum of the iberians in haem which are today a hallmark of our territory thanks to Felipe criado for the nomination uh and the organization of the ea for granting professor ruiz with this award and thanks arturo for your enthusiasm and effort in internationalizing the iberians thank you very much well and last but not least we have the honor dimension for the institutional price that goes as follows along the last few years a group of researchers museum workers as well as other community and political stakeholders from those countries drove an initiative to showcase the largest international exhibition about the recent prehistory of southeast europe on touring the usa from 2022 to 2025 it is already receiving thousands of visits for the efforts in the organization of such a great venture for the impact and relevance it is having and for the precedent in cooperation between different countries overcoming conflict with archaeological heritage we want to award a special mention to the international organizing team on the first kings of europe exhibition i think uh adela ute is collecting the prize here well uh i'm standing here representing over 200 people uh from altogether 13 countries so this project the first kings of europe exhibition project was specifically created to actually present the magnificent archaeological heritage of the Balkans and the surrounding countries for this recognition in the name of this uh organizing team really we are talking about hundreds of people i would like to thank the ea for the recognition uh well you need to understand that it was not an easy right we are talking about seven years of very close collaboration and cooperation among these people side by side uh trying to overcome conflicts trying to overcome frictions that characterizes this region for hundreds of years uh i would like to in the name of the organizing team thank uh some institutions including the field museum who was the official developer of this exhibition and committed to this seemingly insane project for years in bad days and good days including the covet for example also i would like to express my gratitude to the national endowment of humanities the america for blog area foundation and the constant cuts an institution of archaeology for the support of this project for us and uh let me be a little bit more personal uh for me and also the curator of the exhibition who cannot be here bill parkinson this project represents a little bit more than the exhibition itself which is very important and the books are also very important that came out it really just represents unity cooperation and we really hope and we see the first signs that this project is a catalyzator of further similar and non-similar non-archeological projects that would promote the archaeological heritage and would eventually lead to a better more peaceful world in the Balkans and elsewhere thank you guys thank you very much and just uh thank you everybody for your interest always in this prize and start thinking about the nominations for next year have a nice conference thank you haimi um we're going to move on straight i will say this to all the award winners i've just agreed with haimi um at the end of this if you'd like if you'd like a photo taken if you'd like to come up to the stage we'll get a a group photo taken of all this year's winners but we're going to move next i'm going to invite ellen dalin chair of the board of trustees of the oscar montelius foundation to present the award of the oscar montelius foundation's early career achievement prize ellen their hosts their ea a members and conference participants on behalf of the oscar montelius foundation it is my great pleasure to award o.m.f. early career achievement prize 2023 to two to phd candidate arbella with at university pompeo in spain before doing so i would like to remind about the idea of this prize which is to encourage formally recognize and value the work undertaken by young archaeologists wherever they work be it in academia museum heritage management or commercial archaeology we urge all our young and early career members to continue to keep up the quality and excellence of work you all do and we look forward to continuing high standard of applications in the years to come the trustees of the oscar montelius foundation were really impressed with the standard of all applications received for the early career achievement prize in 2023 many of the applications were of very high quality but there were three applicants in addition to the prize winner who were exceptional and deserve a non-remention in alphabetical order these were maria pareo comings for her work on cross-disciplinary work on monkey imagery to redefine edgian bronze age you would have done work for his work on the history or at the atlantic gray whale his use of research to establish the factors required for return of the gray whale to european waters and simon drachenko for his significant and valuable work on saving cultural heritage in ukraine i mean i'll read the justification for the prize arbor louis awarded the 2023 prize of the grounds of the social innovation interdisciplinary and international impact of his early career work arbor louis is a young researcher using a combination of archaeology and ethno archaeology applying his knowledge to inform responses to climate change his doctoral thesis is entitled resilience and adaptation to drylands in north eastern ethiopia most of his work is already published and providing new unvaluable insights into the past identifying practical implications for sustainable agriculture and pointing out direction for further archaeological exploration this makes him an exceptional candidate for doscomontalios prize arbor louis in his scientific work together with colleagues they have investigated the interaction between environment and traditional agro systems and new ethnographic data finger millet pearl millet and shorghum are amongst the most important draft tolerant crops worldwide they constitute primary staple crops in drylands where their production is known to date back more than 5000 years the models used in eru it's work shows that the duration of the plant's growing cycle as soil water holding capacity and soil nutrient availability are determined in the cultivation as for traditional cultivation practices of millet and shorghum need to be reckoned reconsidered in response to the increase in erity the levels worldwide local traditional cultivation methods and knowledge therefore play a vital role to meet climate change and provide potential to contribute to resilience and system benefit system ability in dryland agriculture arbor louis's work contributes to find solutions to one of the biggest challenges in our time with climate change this summer we witnessed extremely hot temperature worldwide which affected the viability of modern food production in this light arbor louis work is of outstanding importance demonstrating that the use of traditional crops and cultivation methods can meet climate change in view of his work arbor louis can be truly considered an outstanding early career archaeologist fulfilling all selection criteria he's therefore awarded the 2023 early career achievement price of the oscar montelius foundation mr ruiz please come to the front good afternoon everyone first of all i would like to thank the organizers for putting this event together to all the volunteers performance performers and everyone working today i am grateful to the oscar montelius foundation and their current board of trustees for selecting me for this early career achievement and to my phd supervisors carla lancelotti and stefana via yeti for nominating me at thinking that i was uh deserving of of of this award i am also thankful for the companionship of past and present members of my research group culture archaeology and sociological systems led by marco madela in pompeo faba university in barcelona and i wish also to acknowledge the support of the eastern tigray archaeological project led by catherine dantria of seimon phraser university in british columbia canada climate change is one of the most pressing concerns of our generation one might wonder what can we do about it as archaeologists this question was already addressed during the ea a annual meeting just two years ago when a diverse group of 40 archaeologists from all over the world constituted the kyle summit for a social archaeology of climate change in an inspiring manifesto they explain how archaeology can be a key tool for enhanced sociological resilience and adaptive capacity of human societies through the study of past adaptive behavior throughout my doctoral research i have been working on past adaptation to our environments in the northern horn of africa uh indeed drylands are expanding every year and still we have very poor understanding of how to produce food there both in the present but also in the past um in the framework of the ring rox project we have studied sustainable resilient agriculture practices in drylands based on the cultivation of african c4 crops i have particularly focused on the case of tigray in north in ethiopia where we have highlighted the characteristics of an agroecological system that has been in place for over 3 000 years these practices and techniques represent an outstanding body of uh traditional ecological knowledge in order to face the challenges that are being raised by the ongoing notification of the planet uh finally i cannot leave without thanking the people of tigray for their kindness patience and help during my fieldwork there it is thanks to their incredible support that i was able to carry out the research that led me to be awarded with this prize i'm grateful to my dear friend uh professor jamane meressa from axum university who took care of me during my last stay in tigray in december 2019 since then i have not been able to be back to go with 19 but also to the awful civil war that affected the region between november 2020 and november 2022 and whose effects still continue to limit the access to the region uh before finishing i want to uh thank the organizers of this event once again for giving me the opportunity to raise awareness about a neglected conflict whose consequences are affecting the lives of millions of people in ethiopia thank you everyone congratulations aval and and um and uh thank you ellen i'm going to invite now next kate freeman editor of the european journal of archaeology and chair of the 2023 ea student award selection committee to present the 2023 ea student award if there's anything more wonderful than chairing a panel that gets to assess the brilliant work coming from archaeology students i don't know what it is this is the best part of my job as editor every year to read the amazing contributions being made by students just launching their careers and joining us at the ea the european association of archaeologists has instituted the ea student award in 2002 and the prize is awarded annually for the best paper presented by a student or archaeologist working on a dissertation at the ea annual meeting the papers are evaluated on for their academic merit and innovative ideas by the student award committee that i'm very lucky to chair and we award a prize that i want to thank uh many of our partners who are publishers and our friends in the society of american archaeology as this is an award for a student this is a prize that helps them build their knowledge and build their connections so it's hundreds of euros worth of books journal memberships and an annual membership to the ea and we thank our partners for contributing these prizes to help our student members grow their careers and so now i will read the the laudatio for this year's winner this year the european association of archaeologists awards the student award to matilde vestigate meyer for her paper growing up in little ice age greenland the contrasting roles of Norse and tulle children in adapting to climate to changing climates uh childhood is a life stage of great interest to many archaeologists not the least because it is one we often find difficult to access and document children were and are significant members of their communities and their play can help us understand social values identities and a wide range of practices as well as the way childhood itself was understood in different times and places in her paper growing up in little ice age greenland matilde vestigate meyer examines children's toys uh from greenland deriving from Norse and tulle Inuit communities she uses these to gain insight into the different childhoods experienced by juveniles in these two societies and how those differences may have impacted their cultural adaptations to climate change meyer situates her research within the broad field of niche construction theory a strand of evolutionary theory that focuses on how organisms adopt and alter their environments building on this literature she argues that toys and play activity are loci of identity creation social learning and cumulative knowledge production thus making them especially valuable for understanding cognition adult behavior and social norms to test these ideas she collated a database of 64 Norse toys and 2271 Inuit toys from published excavation reports and her own investigation of museum collections these she categorized into five shared types games social transport tools and weapons she notes that at all periods there were more and more variable toys in Inuit communities and the number and variety of these increased during times of major social and environmental change she concludes by contrasting the narrower toy kit of Norse settler children with the more diverse Inuit toys and she argues that Norse children had less scope to explore and exploit the resources around them because their toys remain few in type and closely linked to older ways of life this then may have affected their cognitive architecture hindering their ability to adapt to a changing Greenland environment we can graduate Matilda and look forward to the publication of her paper as she continues to develop her research yeah I just wanted to say thank you very much I'm really honored to getting this award and I'm really grateful and it really reaffirming my belief that childhood archaeology is very important so thank you congratulations Matilda and thank you Kate um the final prize says of the evening I believe is the EAA book prizes um and I'm going to ask Robin Skeets who's chair of the book prize selection committee to the stage to present those awards Robin thank you very much and good evening on behalf of the EAA book prize committee the EAA book prize is intended to celebrate books recently published by EAA members the range of books considered is broad even past as we experienced including research monographs public facing books and books addressing issues in archaeological heritage management a committee of 11 EAA members uh agreed first a short list of 10 books details of which were announced via the EAA's website and then to rank these books and agree a winner based ultimately on our perceived impact of the book I'd like to thank sincerely the committee members for their service they're really great service uh in this process thank you very much selecting a winner was difficult and ultimately we failed that is we failed to choose a single winner and my my punchline was sort of stolen as a moment ago but we did succeed of course in identifying two equally ranked outstanding books one of these books is titled growing up in the ice age fossil and archaeological evidence of the lived lives of Plyo Pleistocene children is authored by April Noel and it's published by Oxbow Books I must say children are certainly taking centre stage tonight and wonderfully so here is our commendation of this book everyone should be able to relate to and learn from this fascinating book about paleolithic children and childhood it represents an admirable effort to combine well-defined theories and hypotheses with an interdisciplinary array of scientific information including a surprisingly wide range of archaeological data to make a novel contribution to this still underexplored aspect of paleolithic societies a socially inclusive emphasis on dynamic and diverse childhoods in which children are seen to have been active social and economic agents is successfully combined with a wider evolutionary perspective showing how children and socialization affected the longer trajectory of the human species so perhaps I'll present I wasn't quite clear if of our prize winners were given the stage but at this point I'll award this prize first before I introduce the second book so April would you like to step up congratulations April well thank you so much to the EAA and to the selection committee I have to say that this was the best email to wake up to in Canada I was just overwhelmed so it was such an honor and tonight one of the common themes that we've been hearing is the importance of collaboration exchange of ideas mutual support and in that light I just wanted to very briefly thank a few of my friends and colleagues who are in this room tonight Jane Baxter Tracy Ardern and Eileen Murphy but this time as a researcher just in terms of the kinds of pioneering work that these women have done in the with the archaeology of childhood showing us really that children aren't invisible that it is possible to know the their lives and in multi-dimensions and then to see this continuing with the with the student prize that is being carried on to the next generation is so exciting so I wanted to invite all of you to the session on childhood that will be happening on Saturday in honor of Greta Lillehammer who is the first person to call for an archaeology of childhood she can't be with us but we will be there celebrating her work and just the final thing that I wanted to say was that I wrote this book during COVID during the year of 2020 when everything shut down and I couldn't travel anymore and I couldn't avoid the emails from my editor and and I sat there when I was sitting there on my bed typing because I that's you know I just haven't changed since I was a student that's why I sit and work I just the idea that we would all come together there would be a time when we could all be together again and celebrating uh was just completely unimaginable so um so this is so special to me for that reason and a deep honor so thank you so very much brilliant the other book the other outstanding book is titled the Routledge Handbook of Archaeosanatology practice that if you uh after a few drinks bioarchaeology of mortuary behavior and it's edited by Christopher Knussel and Eileen Schotzman's and it's published by Routledge so here's our commendation for this book this comprehensive guide to archaeosanatology or the bioarchaeology of mortuary behavior should have significant global impact on students and professionals working in and around this important interdisciplinary field written by experts the 34 chapters cover a wealth of themes fascinating case studies and innovative methodologies the volume whose editors benefited from both french and european union funding and whose contents connect francophone and anglophone approaches to the archaeology of death is also a positive european significance this is underlined by the distinctive lexicon of terms used in archaeosanatology which will facilitate future research integration internationally so we have chris to come and accept the prize chris here you go well i just like to say that i'm representing my co-editor as well Eileen is actually doing archaeosanatology in a forensic environment so she can't be here but she sends her wishes and she and i are both very enthusiastic about this and very thankful for the selection by the committee i'd just like to say that it's quite interesting because what i've seen about weeding essentially is what this book was trying to do it's a confluence of archaeology and biological anthropology looking at the human body how it preserves how it decomposes and how it actually influences our interpretations of the past i think it's a key resource and we think that the book hopefully portrays this to everyone who would be interested in such an effort and so i just again i'm going to keep this relatively short but just to say that this is as robin very clearly and cleverly noted in his description it is a joining of anglophone and francophone researchers that is not easy because they simply have developed independently it's changing now in the ea and i'm really pleased to see that i have a number of colleagues french colleagues that are here at these meetings and this is something really important the other thing it does is it unifies as i said biological anthropology and archaeology and also forensic work that's where archaeology is going in other words it's not necessarily just for the past but also for the present and how does it do this well it's basically ground-truthing it's testing things that people thought were possible to explain the patterning that they were seeing in the mortuary record and i think that's a really it has a lot of implications for a whole variety of practitioners and professionals and i think it's something that will have an effect far beyond what we originally anticipated and that that's the i think the the key aspect of this it's a platform by which to begin to develop a deeper conversation leading to what i would hope to be a better comprehension of humans their artifacts their contexts in the past and bring it into a sort of reality for for modern people and i'd just like to say again it's a very honor very happy yeah i'm happy i'm happy and so they lean to get this award so thank you very much well every day's a school day archaeophonatology um we'll go down that internet rabbit hole later um and the fact rob and i apologize and the fact that i stole your shows how beautifully unrehearsed and natural this whole ceremony is um my genuine apologies though on that i had not realized end of the awards but not the end of the end of acknowledgement and i'd just like to invite briefly ea president again ester balfi back to the stage to do some unfinished business from last year regarding honorary membership ester yes you said it quite right this honorary membership has a story behind many of you might remember the fact that ergie bedjerem one of our earlier vice presidents a board member and member of many committees and last but not least a long-term supporter of the of the student award for ea was awarded the honorary membership in 2022 at the buddhapesh annual meeting we were very pleased to see how happy she was to get this honor in her hometown at an annual meeting she was hoping for many many years to happen and as it happens she was diagnosed with COVID-19 infection just one day before the opening so i will not repeat now the lord atio i said last year and she was given the opportunity of saying a few words in her weak voice online from her bed lying with high temperature there so putting all together we felt that it is just right to invite her on stage this year because she deserves to get her certificate of her honorary membership in front of all of you and you should also be given the opportunity to give her a big applause for her work thank you ester and before thanks all of you because i had the privilege to follow ea's growing over the last two decades and i still do hope that i will be able to serve ea in one or in the other way in the next future as well so thanks again thanks for the organizers and thanks for everybody who is coming and working for the organization thank you