The annual meeting of the "European Association of Archaeologists" is the largest archaeological conference in Europe, and it has one particular feature: it keeps growing and growing. According to rumors, this year's event in Rome saw almost 5,000 archaeologists in attendance for the first time, which was somewhat overwhelming:

• A traffic jam during the holiday season is nothing unusual. But a traffic jam made up entirely of archaeologists? Quite the novelty—especially when it happens on an ancient Roman road above the Colosseum. Most of us marveled for more than an hour before we finally reached the Arch of Titus and the opening ceremony!
• Navigating the conference program was also a challenge. In printed form, it was almost 900 pages long, and choosing which lectures to attend was tough given the sheer number. Except for Friday morning, that is!

This day marked our own session (Trade Hub? Save Haven? Ritual Centre? The Role of Ditch Systems and Central Sites in the Neolithic). It was planned for a long time by the UBC project team, together with colleagues from Germany and Slovakia. The session focused on the role of enclosure systems and central settlements in the Neolithic period, with a particular emphasis not only on the two Linear Pottery sites of Asparn/Schletz in Austria and Vráble in Slovakia. The ten papers presented offered practical, methodological, and theoretical insights from many authors across Central Europe. The abstracts for a closer look at the details can be found here.

Of course, at such conferences, professional and personal exchanges during breaks and in the evenings are crucial as well. Some of us stayed a few days longer for personal reasons. After all, the museums in Rome offer more than “just” finds from the Roman period.

A must-see for anyone interested in prehistory: The Pigorini Museum houses objects from the Italian lakeshore settlement "La Marmotta." The site is roughly the same age as Asparn/Schletz, but its location underwater has led to spectacular preservation, including wooden artifacts. Enormous dugout canoes, charred textiles, sleek-looking tools, and wooden vessels... everything that makes an archaeologist's heart beat faster!