Dear Archaeologists,
The European Association of Archaeologists are having their annual conference in Belgrade this year (3–6 September 2025), and we are running a session on the Archaeometallurgy of the Baltic region from the Roman period to the Northern Crusades.
Everyone is welcome to submit a paper or poster for this event. You are most welcome to join us in person in Belgrade, but it is also possible to present your work via video as well if you do not want to travel.
Feel free to contact Marcus Adrian Roxburgh for more information. Also you can visit the conference website here.
Session number #116
Archaeometallurgy of the Baltic region from the Roman period to the Northern Crusades: production, technology, compositions and origin.
We invite full length papers that broadly explore the production and origin of metals used in the manufacture of artefacts at local, regional and inter-regional level around the Baltic Sea. We invite researchers from a wide range of metallurgical interests that can relate to – or apply their interests to – these dynamic time periods in this regions history. Starting with the Roman iron age, we include the folk migrations and the Viking age with its Scandinavian expansion, ending at the time of the Northern Crusades (1st—13th Centuries AD ).
Most research in this field is based on interdisciplinary collaboration and a synthesis of ideas between the Humanities and Sciences. For example, metallurgical research frequently employs typological approaches in the interpretation of data derived from X-ray spectroscopy (pXRF), mass spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and many others. But new research perspectives are also very important as advances in archaeometallurgical research often derive from original approaches, therefore papers focusing on new methods are very welcome. Students and young researchers are very much encouraged to present their ongoing work.
Together we can gain a better understanding of the rhythms of continuity and change in metalworking traditions in the Baltic region. These rhythms can also be explored in terms of trade and cultural exchange, especially in the adoption and adaptation of new technologies and finished goods by the many different cultures and societies in contact with each other.
