1. Opening and welcome by the President of the EAA

The EAA President, Prof. Friedrich Lüth, inaugurated the EAA Annual Business Meeting by welcoming its (approx. 118) attendees from among the members of the Association. 

Before continuing the agenda of the ABM, Prof. Lüth asked the audience to stand up for a minute of silence in memory of the distinguished former EAA member Prof. Barry Raftery who passed away on 22nd August 2010. Gabriel Cooney addressed a few words in memory of Barry.

Resuming the agenda, Prof. Friedrich Lüth expressed gratitude to the local organizers and Congrex, the organizing company, for a very efficient running of the conference, and thanked sponsors and volunteers for their contribution. The credit for a successful meeting goes not least to the delegates - with 1026 registered participants from more than 50 countries the 2010 conference and membership year will belong among the most successful ones. Altogether 536 papers (as compared to 474 in Riva last year) were collected and presented in 70 sessions (51 in Riva), along with 64 posters. However, there were 30 cancellation of papers during the last two weeks prior to the conference and one whole session cancellation. All submissions are evaluated by the Scientific Committee, which must reject some due to limited space; last minute cancellations or no-shows are unfair with respect to the rejected proposals. Means to avoid this are the earlier submission and registration dates introduced this year that provide the Scientific committee with more time to prepare a quality scientific program. This year, a sudden illness of a key person from the organizational structure delayed the approval schedule and we apologize for the inconvenience, having learned a lesson for the future. 

Friedrich Lüth briefly mentioned the meetings of EAA boards throughout the year and the main topics discussed: work and composition of the Nomination committee, the Journal, future of the conference, composition of membership and desirable increase of its numbers. Participation in EAA election is very low - less than 10% actually vote, and higher participation in the democratic processes must be encouraged. The Journal does not in any way mirror what the EAA stands for and what the EAA deals with at its Annual Meetings. Planned negotiations of the Incoming Editor Robin Skeates, representing the newly re-structured Editorial board, with the Publisher - SAGE - will hopefully translate into a more satisfactory Journal. 

Friedrich Lüth encouraged members to raise relevant matters either during the ABM or by e-mail to the EAA Secretariat or Executive board.
 

2. Honorary membership

EAA President Friedrich Lüth, in the absence of former EAA President Anthony Harding, presented the diploma corresponding to Honorary Membership of the EAA, awarded to him already in 2004, to Oeivind Lunde. By offering an EAA secretariat from 1993 to 1996 he made it possible to lay the foundations of the Association, to establish the organization, and develop the procedures necessary for running it - in other words, to take the EAA from idea to reality. 

Oeivind Lunde thanked for the diploma and stated that the EAA has gone a long way since those beginnings and has thus fulfilled his dream of a flourishing Association.
 

3. Minutes of the previous ABM (circulated in TEA)

The minutes of the ABM in Riva del Garda 2009 were circulated by e-mail (and are published in the 34th issue of the TEA). The ABM approved them as a correct record of the previous meeting. The Minutes of the ABM in The Hague are circulated in the 35th TEA issue 2011 after the Executive Board has confirmed that they are accurate.
 

4. Matters arising from the Minutes

The ABM in Riva del Garda agreed upon regulation of Statutes' Article VII: Rules of Election: 1 A Nomination Committee  of three members shall be elected through a ballot in the normal election process. Nomination Committee Members shall serve for periods of three years, one retiring in rotation each year. No serving member of the Executive Board may be appointed to membership of the Nomination Committee. The change will now be taken forward and Statutes amended. 

An addition will be introduced in Article X: Publications: 4. The Editor shall be appointed by the Executive Board after advertisement of the position and prior evaluation of the candidates by the Nomination Committee. Ordinary Editorial Board Members shall be appointed by the Executive Board in agreement with the Editor. The Editor shall be appointed for a term of three years, renewable without limit. The Ordinary Editorial Board Members shall rotate on a regular basis, according to a schedule to be determined by the Executive Board.

The ABM in Riva del Garda suggested considering presence of a student representative on the Executive board, or creation of a whole Student committee. The EAA Executive board discussed the proposal at its meeting and decided to attribute responsibility for student affairs to a Board member post to be filled in 2011 and advertized as such in the election; for the time being and until this Board member is elected, current Board member Monique van den Dries will assume this responsibility.

Sylvie Marshall pointed out that EAA Statutes are too rigid not allowing students to participate in the official EAA bodies. However, since student status normally applies to an individual for a limited number of years only, their participation would require substantial changes in election norms as to rules for re-election, term of office etc. Mark Pearce proposed that there should be a Student Working party, connected to a Board member. Four different solutions resulted from an extended discussion:

1) Change of Statutes to enable students become EAA Executive board member
2) Create Student committee
3) Co-opt students to the Executive board
4) Ordinary Board member with responsibility for student affairs (temporarily Monique van den Dries)

A working group composed of Monique van den Dries, Mark Pearce, Timm Weski and Sylvia Marshall was established to formulate a proposal for Statutes amendment at the next ABM.
 

5. Annual Report by the Secretary and the Administrator 

As of the 24th of August 2010 the EAA had 807 paid-up members (compared to 871 prior to last year’s conference), but since many members renew their membership together with conference registration and with view to the number of delegates, the total expected membership for 2010 may be much higher. More than half of EAA membership are full members from Western Europe; together with Western student, retired and family members, the ratio of Westerners reaches almost 3/4 of the whole EAA membership. The most represented country is naturally Netherlands, followed by UK, Germany, USA, Poland and Hungary. The trend to "Westernization" is an on-going tendency and seems even strengthened this year perhaps due to costs involved in conference participation. The EAA efforts to provide colleagues from Central and Eastern Europe with grants (practically all applicants got support this year from Wenner-Gren funds), cheap student accommodation (the Students4Students initiative) and lower membership and registration fees do not seem to bear significant results, and the EAA Executive board will address this problem at its next meeting.

There is an increase in corporate members this year: 

OCENW - Rijksinspectie voor de Archeologie
English Heritage
Historic Scotland
NIKU - Norsk Institut for Kulturminnefors
FSCH - Field Service for Cultural Heritage
Institute of Archaeology, Prague
ASHA Albania
Archaeological Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Society of the Lithuanian Archaeology
Institute of Archaeology, Jagiellonian University
Stowarzyszenie Naukowe Archeologów Polskich

Payments by credit card on-line are by far the most popular payment method. Most membership applications are received already the previous year or early in the current year, with a secondary peak in early summer. Since 2011, 10% surcharge for late payment (after 31 March) will be introduced to compensate for the additional costs involved e.g. in re-sending the EJA spring copy.
 

6. Financial Report by the Treasurer and the Administrator 

The EAA has continuously created surplus over the recent years. However, as an NGO it is not meant to accumulate the surplus, but invest it in the future of EAA. In order to avoid paying tax in 2010, major investment should occur so that EAA has a balanced or slightly negative budget this year. Negotiations of financial and formal matters with SAGE may require this kind of investment, or else the money will be put for other EAA relevant purpose. No significant changes in expenses are envisaged for 2011, and the budget was approved.
 

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7. Membership fee level for the next year

The membership fees in 2011 will remain the same as this year.
 

8. Announcement of the 2010 Elections

The posts of Treasurer and two regular Executive board members have been available for election in 2010; the elected candidates will serve from 2010 to 2013. Following a Statutes change approved at the ABM in Riva del Garda, Editorial board members are no longer elected, but appointed. Call for nominations by members was sent out on 14 March; deadline for nominations was 10 May. One self-nomination, supported by ten full members, was received for the Ordinary Executive board member post. Board members whose position was available for election had all served two terms and could not be re-elected. The NC members approached proposed candidates in May and June; candidate's statements should have been received at the Secretariat before 1 July. Election materials were circulated via e-mail on 2 August. 120 received votes (3 received by regular mail, 29 received by e-mail and 88 at the conference ballot box) were counted by the Secretary (Eszter Bánffy), members of the Nomination Committee (Elin Dalen, Predrag Novaković), and the Assistant Administrator (Magda Turková). The EAA President announced the results to the ABM. 

9. Welcome to the new Board Members

Friedrich Lüth welcomed all elected Board members and thanked the unsuccessful candidates for their engagement. He announced appointed new members of the Executive and Editorial board: Robin Skeates as the new EJA Editor, Alexander Gramsch as the new TEA Editor, Lidka Zuk as the new Assistant TEA Editor, Leonardo García Sanjuan as the new Reviews Editor, Estella Weiss-Krejci as the new Assistant Reviews Editor, and Arek Marciniak and Elisabeth Jerem as new Editorial board members.

EAA President also thanked the outgoing members of the different EAA boards: Margaret Gowen (Executive board), Carsten Paludan-Müller (Executive board), Graham Fairclough (Executive board), Alan Saville (EJA Editor), Christina Marangou (Editorial board), Cornelius Holtorf (Reviews Editor), Troels Myrup Kristensen (Assistant Reviews Editor), Elin Dalen (Nomination committee), Willem Willems (Heritage Prize committee) and Paula Purhonen (Heritage Prize committee).
 

10. Election of new Nomination Committee member

This year is the last one that sees election of new Nomination Committee member by show of hands at the ABM - next year, the procedure will be the same as for all other elected posts. Elin Dalen has completed 3 years on the Nomination Committee; the Executive Board proposed Adrian Olivier to serve on the Committee and he was elected member of the Nomination Committee for the period 2010 - 2013.
 

11. Announcement of the EAA Student Award 2010

The Student Award Selection Committee composed of the EJA Incoming Editor and two members of the Executive Board received seven papers for consideration to the Student Award. It decided to award the 2010 Student Award to Camilla Norman for her paper "The Tribal Tattooing of Daunian Women". Camilla Norman's paper is interesting and very well-constructed. It convincingly rejects the long-established interpretation of the decoration on the forearms of the Iron Age statue-stele of Daunia as representations of gloves. Instead, it reinterprets this marking as tattoos, with reference to appropriate ethnographic evidence of the tattooing of women in a range of traditional societies. In the process, Norman succeeds in extending previous gendered interpretations of Daunian stelae and bodies whilst demonstrating an excellent knowledge of the relevant archaeological data. The winner received book gifts from Archaeolingua and a 100.- Euro voucher for purchase of books from Cambridge University Press. 

Students are welcome to submit their papers for the Student Award in the upcoming years, and professors are asked to encourage their students to do so.
 

12. Progress Report of the EJA by the Editor 

Robin Skeates introduced himself as the new EJA Editor, to fully take over with volume 14. Thanks belong to Alan Saville, the outgoing EJA Editor, who - with the support of the Editorial board - succeeded to bring the Journal back on track. Issue 13/1 was published in April 2010, issue 13/2 in August 2010 and issue 13/3 is due for publication in December 2010. Robin Skeates also appreciated the work of Cornelius Holtorf and Troels Myrup Kristensen as outgoing Review Editors, and expressed his expectations for a fruitful work with the restructured Editorial team and new Review Editors. EAA members were addressed a question, to be answered to Robin Skeates, whether they would publish their best paper in the EJA, and if not, why. Opinions are welcome at robin.skeates@durham.ac.uk.
 

13. Report by the Editor of TEA 

Alexander Gramsch briefly summarized the content of his first issue, TEA 33, sent to members in June 2010 and comprising 28 pages. ABM minutes from Riva del Garda were missing from the last TEA issue and will appear in the autumn one. The deadline for submissions for the TEA 34 autumn issue is 16 October and especially session organizers are welcome to submit their reports. Alexander Gramsch together with his Assistant TEA Editor, Lidka Żuk, are intending to introduce a number of new features to make TEA more lively and entertaining.
 

14. Reports from the Working Parties, Committees and Round Tables 

The EAA Vice-President, Margaret Gowen, acquainted the audience with the work of the different EAA Committees and Working Parties which are designed to extend the work of EAA into particular fields. An EAA Working Party is created for a limited period in order to achieve a particular result (formulate policy, develop a standard, create an inventory etc.) while a Committee is established only if the issue is considered to be of permanent concern to the EAA. The usual terms of Committee members are three years, starting and ending at annual meetings. The Board has responsibility to follow up the work of the Committees and Working Parties and to take the initiative in setting up new ones. The membership of each Committee and Working Party shall include a Board member to act as a link between the Committee and the Board.  This Board member reports to the Board about the progress of the Committee or Working Party. Each Committee and Working Party is asked to prepare and submit a short report for presentation, by the Vice President, to the Executive Board.  This (short) report should include:

- A summary statement of terms of reference of the work of the Committee or Working Party
- The status and progression of the work or the Committee or Working Party with particular reference to work undertaken during the year 
- A list of members and their status/duration of term
- Proposed sessions envisaged for the Annual Meeting
 

Committee on the Teaching and Training of Archaeologists
Chair Arek Marciniak, Secretary Mark Pearce

Mark Pearce's research on the implementation of the Bologna process is now concluded and will be reported on in TEA.  Copies of the full report will be made available in PDF from Mark Pearce.
The Committee has not met in The Hague but its discussions are ongoing in relation to a new focus of work.  This is likely to be on the question of "what is a PhD". The Committee plans to convene a session in Oslo to identify definitions, and the degree of variation in definition, supervision and assessment across Europe. 
 

Professional Associations Committee
Chair: Kenneth Aitchison; Secretary: Vesna Tintaric

The Committee currently has representatives from the UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Hungary, Ireland and Greece. Colleagues in Spain, Italy, Romania, Slovenia and Portugal (most of whom attended the Riva round table) have indicated that they wish to join and are now copied into the Committee's correspondence. 

Its current focus is: 1) the current state of the archaeological profession across Europe and in different particular states; 2) a potential repetition and expansion of the Discovering the Archaeologists of Europe project in 2012-13. 

This extensive project first collected and analyzed information about archaeologists' professional work in twelve states between 2006 and 2008, with national and transnational reports at www.discovering-archaeologists.eu.
 

Committee on the Trade in Cultural Material 
Round Table - Organizers: Amanda Chadburn and Leena Soytinki-Harmo

This Committee met in The Hague and presented to its participants a full review of its activities to-date, together with defining a clear programme of action for the coming year.

In addition, and following the paper by the keynote speaker Prof. Colin Renfrew at the Opening Ceremony, the Committee would like to bring a motion to the ABM in relation to a change in the wording of the text in its terms of reference; these are presented on the EAA website as follows:

The EAA is opposed to the illicit trade in archaeological and cultural material and urges governments to become parties to all relevant international conventions, including the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen and Illegally Exported Cultural Objects, the 1954 Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the event of Armed Conflict and its 1999 second protocol, and to adopt effective implementing legislation.

Furthermore, the EAA calls upon all national museums and local museums in Europe to formulate acquisition policies in relation to antiquities which are in conformity with the 1970 Rule and to publish these policies.
 

Committee on Archaeological Legislation and Organization in Europe

It is the intention of Jean-Paul Demoule to revive this committee. A short report on the proposed focus of the Committee's work will be prepared the TEA. 
 

Working Group on the creation of research strategies for the European frontiers of the Roman Empire, Chair: David Breeze. 

David Breeze, the EAA Heritage Prize winner for 2010 has successfully concluded the work of this committee as originally set out.
 

Working Group on Sustaining the Historical Environment within Farmed Landscapes in Europe
Chairs: Steve Trow and Jon Humble

The Working Group publishes its detailed annual reports in TEA and now functions as a Working Group, jointly, for both EAA and EAC. It will present a report to TEA again this year.

The Working Party has identified rural land uses (most notably agriculture and forestry) as amongst the most destructive of processes acting on the archaeological historical landscape in Europe. It is a particular concern that these processes, in contrast to construction and development, have few or no established mechanisms for impact assessment, avoidance or mitigation.

Membership of this working group has now reached nearly 30 participants or correspondents, representing 13 countries. Importantly, in 2009, colleagues from the Czech Republic and Hungary joined the group giving it a perspective of the situation in central/eastern Europe for the first time. The Working Group continues to seek additional members, particularly from Southern and Eastern Europe.

The Working Group seeks to find ways of lobbying for the better recognition of cultural heritage in the future direction of the CAP, while noting the serious challenges this poses. It will also pursue the publication of papers arising from conference sessions it organized in 2004 and 2009 and at the 2008 World Archaeological Congress in Dublin.

The group is delighted that EAC has agreed to jointly fund the publication of these papers, as volume 4 in its Occasional Papers Series, together with English Heritage, and the Forest Service, Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and National Monuments Service of Ireland. Progress with the volume to date has been good and the Working Group is on course to publish it before the end of 2010.
 

Working Group on Archaeology and gender in Europe
Chair: Sandra Monton

AGE has been established for two years and two of its members organized sessions at The Hague conference. They also published a short report on their Round Table in the TEA Winter 2009/10 issue.
 

Working group eRC

The EAA working group eRC has stopped its existence. Its purpose was to search EU funding for a project with many partners. Several attempts have been made but were not successful. It was decided to try and develop the still valid ideas in separate ways. The group thanks EAA for the trust and support throughout the years.
 

15. Location of future Annual Meetings 

The 2012 conference will be organized in Helsinki, Finland. Letters of interest have been received from Plzeň, Czech Republic, and Istanbul, Turkey, for locations in 2013 onwards.
 

16. Invitation for the 17th Annual Meeting in Oslo, Norway

The 17th EAA conference will be held on 14-18 September in Oslo, Norway, and will be co-organized by several academic and heritage bodies, one of them the Oslo university which celebrates its 200th anniversary next year. The venue will be the Radisson Blu Scandinavia hotel. The opening ceremony will be held at the Assembly hall of the Oslo University, followed by a reception at Fanehallen, Akershus fortress. Registration will take place in the Historical Museum. The annual dinner will be given at the Ekeberg restaurant. Pre-conference excursions are planned to the World Heritage Site Alta, from west to east: Bergen - Oslo and to inspect high altitude archaeology in Lom. Post-conference excursions will include city tour through Oslo, Bronze Age rock carvings in OEstfold and the Viking county Vestfold. The registration fees will rise a little in comparison with this year. It will be important to have a student session; the Students4students offer should be also continued and advertised more massively. Good flight connections to most cities in Europe exist from Oslo Gardermoen OSL Airport, Moss Airport Rygge or Sandefjord Airport Torp. Hotels of varying price levels will be pre-booked, including cheap hostel accommodation. The whole organization and registration is run by the Gyro Conference AS. The web site has been launched already at www.eaa2011.no. 
 

17. Any Other Business
John Collis asked that the notes for speakers at EAA conference, currently at EAA web page, have a direct link from conference web page so that all speakers read them. The question whether all presentations must be pronounced in English was raised and will be discussed at the next Executive board meeting.

An EAA table at the exhibition area should be offered for display of books written by EAA members; the Board will discuss feasibility of this proposal at its next meeting.

Since no other matters arose, Friedrich Lüth declared the Annual Business Meeting as closed, and thanked everyone for their participation.
 

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