Conference review: International Congress of Archaeological Sciences in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East (ICAS-EMME), The Cyprus Institute, 12th - 14th November 2019

By Artemios Oikonomou, associate editor of archaeological glass and vitreous materials

Last November (12-14/11/2019) the 2^nd International Congress on Archaeological Sciences in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East, or ICAS-EMME 2 for short, took place at the premises of the Cyprus Institute in Nicosia, Cyprus. This congress was co-organized by the Science and Technology in Archaeology and Culture Research Center, (STARC) of the Cyprus Institute together with the Archaeological Research Unit of the University of Cyprus (ARU) and the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute (CAARI) and brought together researchers and scholars from the EMME region and beyond.

In total the conference hosted 102 contributions divided in 2 public Keynote Lectures, 68 oral and 32 poster presentations. The conference consisted of seven oral sessions ranging from Art Characterization to the use of Synchrotrons in Archaeology, from Crops, Foods and Landscapes to Human Osteoarchaeology, and from Archaeological Materials to Digital Archaeology and Computation in Archaeology. Each session started with a Keynote Lecture from a senior scholar from outside Cyprus followed by the subsequent high-level oral presentations, while the posters were presented during the corresponding poster sessions covering the aforementioned topics. The first Public Key Note Lecture presented by Professor Sturt Manning of Cornell University dealt with the recent progress in dendrochronology studies in Cyprus, while Dr Vassilis Kilikoglou, representative of The Hellenic Society for Archaeometry (HSA) (former president), presented the second Public Keynote Lecture on archaeological materials studies and modern innovation and how these are connected through examples from the study of ceramics and mortars.

Regarding the participants and their affiliated institutions, more than 250 co-authors from 112 unique institutions contributed in the total of 100 papers which were presented and at least people of 27 different nationalities participated in the conference. Among which colleagues from Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, Egypt, Greece and Cyprus and of course from the European union, Asia and Oceania have joined the works of the ICAS-EMME 2. In addition, the conference organisers offered Travel Support Bursaries for students registered in archaeological science programmes in the EMME region giving the opportunity to young researchers to present their work. 

Overall, this congress succeeded to fulfill its main aim to highlight recent advances in archaeological sciences and its applications to archaeology and cultural heritage becoming an international academic forum in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Near East. We are looking forward for the next ICAS-EMME congress in few years from now. More information regarding the book of abstracts and the titles of the presentations can be sought at the official website https://icasemme2.cyi.ac.cy/.