EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN ARCHAEOLOGISTS 4TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 28 September-4 October 1992. Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente (IsMEO). Rome, Italy. Submitted by Jan Wisseman Christie.
The Association, until recently entitled the Association of Southeast Asian Archeology in Western Europe, has, with the removal of the barriers between Western and Eastern Europe, broadened its scope to include colleagues in Eastern Europe on a formal basis, and has renamed itself the European Association for Southeast Asian Archaeology (EurASEAA). The meeting hosted by IsMEO in Rome was the first biennial meeting to be held since this change in membership scope. Unfortunately, given the lack of funds available for Eastern European archaeologists to attend the meeting, none were able to come this year. It is to be hoped that in the future, improved financial situation in Eastern Europe and perhaps increased support from the EC will enable a number of colleagues from Eastern Europe to attend.
As it was, over forty papers were delivered, and those attending were drawn not only from the Western European states of Italy, Britain, France, Denmark, The Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland, but also from the U.S.A., Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Japan and India, along with representatives from the Southeast Asian states of Indonesia, Thailand and Laos. The wide catchment of the conference presentations reflects the fact that the EurASEAA conferences are the sole regularly-occurring meeting which draw a truly international attendance for papers on all periods of Southeast Asian archaeology. These meetings provide a forum where prehistorians, historic period archaeologists and early historians, epigraphers, art historians, and anthropologists, both those working in the field and those working in museums, are able to meet and exchange views and information. The contacts made and projects discussed have proved to be as valuable as the papers presented. Of the conference papers so far delivered, most have either already made it into print or are now in the progress of being published. The papers from the 1st biennial conference held in London have already appeared in the Oxford BAR International Series, edited by Dr. Ian Glover and Emily Glover of the Institute of Archaeology in London; those from the 3rd conference in Brussels have just been published by the Centre for South-East Asian Studies at Hull (Dr. Ian Glover has undertaken the editing and preparation of this set as well, because of the sad death of the original organiser of the conference, Janine Schotsmans Wolfers).
The 4th Conference was very ably organized by Dr. R. Ciarla, Dr. F. Risoli and the staff of IsMEO, who worked against a number if difficulties, including a week of crisis in the lira, anti-government demonstrations and a general national strike, which necessitated several scheduling changes as the meeting announced in the newsletter as soon as a decision has been reached.