image/svg+xml181XIII/2/2022INTERDISCIPLINARIA ARCHAEOLOGICANATURAL SCIENCES IN ARCHAEOLOGYhomepage: http://www.iansa.euA look at the regionThe Story of the International Scientifc Commission of the UISPP for Archaeometry of Pre- and Protohistoric Inorganic Artifacts, Materials and TechnologiesBéla Török1*1Institute of Metallurgy, University of Miskolc, 3515 Miskolc-Egyetemváros, Hungary.1. Introduction – about the UISPPThe International Union of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences (UISPP) is an international association of scholars, stating that the universality of science is the basis of all its activities. Its aims are the collaboration of scholars from all countries in activities that contribute to the advancement of pre- and protohistoric sciences. The UISPP declares its total commitment to academic freedom. The history of the UISPP started in 1865, when the International Palaeoethnological Congress (IPC) was held at the University of La Sapienza, and a few years later, in 1867, with the International Congress of Prehistoric Anthropology and Archaeology (ICPAA), as the direct forerunner, before its ofcial foundation in 1931 in Bern, as the International Congress of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences (ICPPS). In 1955, the association became a member of the International Council of Philosophy and Human Sciences (ICPHS), part of UNESCO. This afliation to the ICPHS made it necessary to change the title of the organisation to the name it still bears today (Nenquin et al., 2017).The study of mechanisms of adaptation and the behavioural dynamics of human societies is the core of the scientifc interest of the UISPP. In order to achieve these goals, the UISPP organises periodically a world congress on prehistoric and protohistoric sciences, in order to develop the progress of knowledge and to defne common research objectives. For this purpose, the UISPP installs scientifc commissions dedicated to specifc research themes. The UISPP promotes prehistoric and protohistoric studies through multidisciplinary collaboration within the mentioned scientifc commissions and afliated organisations, be it regional or thematic, but sharing the same goals, and other scientifc institutions.Volume XIII ● Issue 2/2022 ● Pages 181–185*Corresponding author. E-mail: bela.torok@uni-miskolc.huARTICLE INFO:Article history:Received: 4thApril 2022Accepted: 8thSeptember 2022DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24916/iansa.2022.2.7Key words:UISPPcommissionarchaeometrypre- and protohistoryinorganic materialsABSTRACTThe International Union of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences (UISPP), an organisation with over 90 years of history, includes all the felds and disciplines that contribute to the development of prehistory and protohistory. To achieve their goals, the UISPP organises periodically a world congress on prehistoric and protohistoric sciences. Based on proposals received, the general assembly decides on the creation of scientifc commissions, following the advice of the executive committee of the UISPP. The main objective of these commissions is to promote and coordinate international research in a specifc or specialised domain of the prehistoric and protohistoric sciences between each world congress. Based on the success and interest shown in a session of the 17thUISPP Congress, the need has arisen to create a new scientifc commission in the feld of archaeometry. This brief text describes the creation of this commission and its scientifc activities to date. The commission aims at discussing and transmitting the archaeometric approaches to technologies in Prehistory and Protohistory concerning lithic technology, metallurgy, ceramics and glass making; gathering and organising the results, conclusions and circumstances of archaeometric case studies of artifacts; paying particular attention to production, procurement and characterisation of raw materials, and fabrication technologies; and discussing relevant interdisciplinary investigation methods and techniques.
image/svg+xmlIANSA 2022 ● XIII/2 ● 181–185Béla Török: The Story of the International Scientifc Commission of the UISPP for Archaeometry of Pre- and Protohistoric Inorganic Artifacts, Materials and Technologies182More than thirty scientifc commissions make up UISPP, representing a worldwide network of scholars of Prehistory and Protohistory. The commissions cover all aspects of archaeology: historiography, archaeological methods, and theory; material culture by period and by continent; palaeoenvironment and palaeoclimatology, but also archaeology in specifc environments; archaeometry; art and culture; technology and economy; biological anthropology; funerary archaeology; and archaeology and societies. The commissions are grouped into six larger domains: Historiography, Methods and Theory; Technology and Economy; Culture, Economy and Environments; Archaeology in a Specifc Environment; Art and Culture; Archaeology and Society.2. The creation of the UISPP commission for archaeo-metry and its objectivesIn 2014, on the 17thUISPP World Congress in Burgos, new statutes were approved, and a new bureau elected: Jean Bourgeois (president), Luiz Oosterbeek (secretary general) and François Djindjian (treasurer). Because of the success and interest shown for a session of the mentioned congress titled “Archaeometry Approaches Regard The Study Of Networks of Trade in Raw Materials and Technological Innovations in Prehistory and Protohistory” (Figure 1) the decision to create a new scientifc commission in the feld of archaeometry was taken.In June 2015, Béla Török, speaker of the opening lecture of the mentioned session, after discussions with the secretary