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181
XIII/2/2022
INTERDISCIPLINARIA ARCHAEOLOGICA
NATURAL SCIENCES IN ARCHAEOLOGY
homepage: http://www.iansa.eu
A look at the region
The Story of the International Scientifc Commission of the UISPP for
Archaeometry of Pre- and Protohistoric Inorganic Artifacts, Materials and
Technologies
Béla Török
1*
1
Institute of Metallurgy, University of Miskolc, 3515 Miskolc-Egyetemváros, Hungary.
1. Introduction – about the UISPP
The 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.hu
ARTICLE INFO:
Article history:
Received: 4
th
April 2022
Accepted: 8
th
September 2022
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24916/iansa.2022.2.7
Key words:
UISPP
commission
archaeometry
pre- and protohistory
inorganic materials
ABSTRACT
The 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 17
th
UISPP 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.
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Béla Török: The Story of the International Scientifc Commission of the UISPP for Archaeometry of Pre- and Protohistoric Inorganic Artifacts,
Materials and Technologies
182
More 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 objectives
In 2014, on the 17
th
UISPP 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
Figure 1.
The cover of the volume of
proceedings of the Session B34 of the 17
th
UISPP Congress.
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Béla Török: The Story of the International Scientifc Commission of the UISPP for Archaeometry of Pre- and Protohistoric Inorganic Artifacts,
Materials and Technologies
183
general of the UISPP and some lecturers of the session,
submitted a proposal to the Executive Committee of the
UISPP, based on the positive feedback, aimed at establishing
a new international commission named “Archaeometry
of ancient artifacts, materials and technologies”. At the
time, the founding members consisted of 15 persons from
13 countries and 3 continents. During the EC-meeting of
the UISPP held in Brussels, the proposal was provisionally
accepted. After the clarifcation of the title and the detailed
aims, the commission was ofcially established under the
name “Archaeometry of Pre- and Protohistoric Inorganic
Artifacts, Materials and Technologies” (Figure 2). The
new commission was eventually classifed in the domain
“Technology and Economy”. To widen the feld of materials
and technologies, the invitation of new members was
recommended. After votes and discussions among the
founders of the commission, eight specialists were invited
to join as new members of the commission, as well as the
UISPP, in the second half of 2015. In 2021, the commission
had 21 members from 16 countries (Béla Török – Hungary;
Alessandra Giumlia-Mair and Maria Pia Riccardi – Italy;
Michał Krueger – Poland, Ignacio Montero Ruiz – Spain;
Figure 2.
Logo of the UISPP Commission
for Archaeometry of Pre- and Protohistoric
Inorganic Artifacts, Materials and
Technologies.
Peter Bray and Chloë N. Duckworth – England; Marianne
Mödlinger – France; Ana Ávila Melo and Raquel Vilaça
– Portugal; Bianca Nessel – Germany; Dirk Brandherm –
Northern Ireland; Jiři Hošek – Czech Republic; Erez Ben-
Yosef – Israel; Mohammadamin Emami – Iran; Susan
Ferrence, Jerolyn E. Morrison and Mark Golitko – USA;
Yi-Xian Lin – China; Manako Tanaka – Japan; and Jairo
Arturo Escobar – Colombia) as one of the largest UISPP
commissions. The commission’s founder and (re)elected
president is Béla Török and its secretary since its inception
is Alessandra Giumlia-Mair.
The commission provides a platform for scholarly
discussion aimed at furthering the dissemination of new
approaches and discoveries, and at promoting best practice
in archaeometric research on metallurgy, glass making, lithic
and ceramic technologies in prehistory and protohistory. One
of the chief objectives is ofering access to analytical data,
results, and conclusions from the broadest possible range of
archaeometric projects and case studies relating to prehistoric
and protohistoric artefacts made from metal, ceramic, glass
and stone, with a particular focus on the characterisation of
raw materials and on production technologies. By making
Figure 3.
The commission’s remit in the
complex feld of archaeometry.
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Béla Török: The Story of the International Scientifc Commission of the UISPP for Archaeometry of Pre- and Protohistoric Inorganic Artifacts,
Materials and Technologies
184
relevant data accessible to the wider scientifc community
and formulating standards for scientifc databases, we wish
to promote the integration between archaeometric research
and other archaeological approaches. Commission members
also strive to formulate standards for the publication of
archaeological scientifc data, chemical standards and
material structures, and to create protocols for the archiving
and dissemination of existing or “legacy” datasets, which
would otherwise be vulnerable to being lost or overlooked. By
discussing relevant interdisciplinary research methods and
techniques, the members also wish to promote work across
academic disciplines and to investigate the relationships
and overlaps between ancient technologies. A fundamental
objective is to organise a commission meeting once a year,
and it is intended to hold a special session on the occasion of
the triennial UISSP Word Congress.
3. Events and activities of the commission
The members of the committee maintain contact with
each other in various ways. They try to organise annual
meetings, always at a diferent location, where they also
hold a professional conference with scheduled presentations,
in addition to discussing current research projects and
opportunities for collaboration. The presentations, whose
authors are not only members of the commission, can of
course also be attended by local visitors (professionals,
students, researchers). The committee’s main task is to
organise a session on archaeometry as broad as possible
at each UISPP World Congress and to publish the papers
of the presentations in a single volume (special issue) of
a professional journal. During the year, the members of the
commission inform each other about their current research
and publications via the internet.
On the 14
th
and 15
th
October 2016, the frst internal
colloquium of the commission and a scientifc meeting titled
“Latest Results and Examination Methodologies of Pre- and
Protohistoric Metals and Other Inorganic Materials” was
held in Miskolc, with the local coordination undertaken
by Béla Török, president of the commission. Ten scientifc
papers were presented by members of the Commission.
The papers were published in the UISPP Journal (Volume 2,
Issue 1, 2019).
In 2017, after the meeting of the Executive Committee
of the UISPP in March in Paris, where the activity and the
management of our commission were mentioned as a positive
example to be followed, the second internal meeting and
scientifc conference of the commission was held in June in
Pavia, organised by Alessandra Giumlia-Mair and Maria Pia
Riccardi (Figure 4). At this conference, twelve papers were
presented by members of the commission and other invited
archaeometry experts.
The 18
th
UISPP World Congress took place in Paris, at the
Sorbonne University, from the 4
th
to the 9
th
June 2018. More
than 1,650 participants, 119 sessions, 1,800 communications
and posters came from fve continents and all countries of
the world. The commission for archaeometry submitted
a proposal for a session covering all aspects of analytical
approaches to the studies of archaeological fnds made of
Figure 4.
Commission members participating at Pavia meeting (from left to right): J. Hošek, M. P. Riccardi, D. Brandherm, M. Krueger, A. Giumlia-Mair,
B. Nessel, M. Mödlinger, E. Ben-Yosef, I. Montero Ruiz, M. Emami, B. Constantinescu (†) and B. Török.
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Materials and Technologies
185
stone, metal, ceramics, and glass. Materials of all periods
from Prehistory to Medieval protohistoric cultures and
civilisations were taken into consideration. Special attention
was given to the quality of analytical performances. Finally,
a very successful session, one of the largest sessions of
the congress, with 20 oral communications and 7 poster
presentations was organised by Béla Török, Alessandra
Giumlia-Mair and Susan Ferrence (Figure 5). During
an internal meeting, held after the session, the board of the
commission was re-elected by a unanimous vote. Selected
papers of the presentations of the Paris session and a few others
from the Pavia meeting mentioned above were published in
a special issue of the Materials and Manufacturing Processes
(Volume 35, Issue 13, 2020) (Giumlia-Mair and Török,
2020).
In 2019, there was a good opportunity for a commission
meeting in conjunction with the 5
th
international conference
“Archaeometallurgy in Europe (AiE)”, which was held
between the 19
th
and the 22
nd
of June 2019 at Miskolc, since
the president of the commission was also the main organiser
of the conference. Twelve commission members submitted
a proposal for this conference and ten held a presentation.
Among many other things, the global epidemic situation
also had a serious impact on the scientifc activity of the
commission in 2020 and 2021. Nevertheless, members
of the commission kept in touch as much as possible, the
commission’s proceedings were published, and we had
an archaeometry session at the 19
th
UISPP Congress as well.
References
GIUMLIA-MAIR, A., and TÖRÖK, B. 2020. Archaeometry of prehistoric
and protohistoric stone, metal, ceramics and glass.
Materials and
Manufacturing Processes
, 35(13), 1401–1402.
NENQUIN, J., BOURGEOIS, J. and OOSTERBEEK, L., 2017.
Une
Brève Histoire de L’union Internationale des Sciences Préhistoriques
et Protohistoriques.
[online] ofcial website of the UISPP [viewed
3003/2022] Available from: https://www.uispp.org/about/history
Figure 5.
Some commission members after the archaeometry session at the UISPP Congress in Paris (2018). Top row from left: S. Ferrence, M. Tanaka,
M. Emami, P. Bray, M. Krueger, M. P. Riccardi. Bottom row from left: J. E. Morrison, A. Giumlia-Mair, B. Török and B. Constantinescu (†).
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