As computational archaeologist, CAA (Computer Applications and Quantitative methods in archaeology) plays an important part in the work that Archaeovision completes. CAA is an international led conference package that meets once a year in different countries in order to increase participation from archaeologist, computer scientists and mathematicians all over the world. This year’s conference will meet in Oslo, Norway and the following year the conference will be held in Atlanta, USA. The conference is orientated towards support and regularly funds early researchers and low income individuals to attend the conference to present their work and to meet the people that have influenced them.
Archaeovision currently manage the international website on behalf of the steering committee and the local organising team. We have regularly attended this conference, haven given many papers and organised a number of sessions. We have been lucky enough to meet a number of our clients at this conference and we have managed to collaborate on a number of research projects that are changing the way in which computational archaeology is completed.
As part of the international led conference there exists a number of country based chapters. Any country can create a CAA chapter and are set up to advance the aims and interests of CAA, and to provide a focus for those who may be unable, for whatever reason, to attend the international conference. Hembo is currently the Chair of CAA-Estonia and James has recently been elected Chair of CAA-UK. These country based chapters allow for further interaction with the CAA community and affords the opportunity for students and researchers to present their work to those who are knowledgeable to gain feedback on the work that they complete. It can be seen as a footing on which to introduce new members to the wider CAA and allows for encouragement in the work that people are completing. At CAA-UK in Leicester, twenty papers were presented, some of which were presented by first time presenters and we were all on hand to provide contacts, research papers and guidance in where their work should go.
The CAA chapters usually hold a local meeting every year, and CAA-UK was this year celebrating its 20th anniversary. At this meeting James was elected Chair, taking over from Jess Ogden who has done a fantastic job in setting up CAA-UK as a membership community. James will move forward with this and aim to introduce more members to the computational methods that we complete in archaeology. As part of this, Archaeovision will be hosting CAA-UK 2017 in Winchester, and as the international conference will be held in the USA, we anticipate a larger number of delegates will be attending. CAA-UK 2017 will also see the first bursary scheme to be run within the chapter, who, having introduced a membership fee of £5 per member, will use this money to support those who financially struggle to attend. The conference will run from the 4th -5th March 2017 and we will be posting updates on the organisation of the conference.
CAA international takes place on the 29th March through to the 2nd April of this year. James will be running for the Student and Low income bursary position and will hopefully be able to introduce a few changes to the way in which the bursary applications are completed. If you are considering on going then register as soon as possible! If you are unable to attend then keep an eye on the Twitter feed, #caaoslo, as many of the delegates will keep a live feed of the sessions that have been organised. To those attending, we look forward to seeing you in Oslo.
