The Leiden conference was the very first Association of Archaeological Wear and Residue Analysts (AWRANA) conference! The Material Culture Studies group of the Faculty of Archaeology at Leiden University, the Netherlands, was hosting the conference with Annelou van Gijn as conference chair. At the Leiden conference, we also held the first AWRANA general meeting, on Saturday, 30th May, 2015, after the last session. It was a great success !
AWRANA (Association of Archaeological Wear & Residue Analysts) was established three years ago to create a platform for students and specialists. Ca 140 people, coming from every corner of the world, gathered in Leiden and the many young people present showed that the field is thriving. Wear and residue analysis is being applied to objects made of an ever wider range of materials (e.g. sessions on metal, rare stones, bone and shell). Noteworthy is that use-wear and residue analysis are increasingly used in a complementary way and innovative methods of analysis are being developed. For those who missed the meeting it is possible to download the book of abstracts which has been published by Sidestone Press.
The conference was concluded with a general meeting of AWRANA during which the first poster prize was awarded to Pedro Muñoz Moro (MA student at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) with a poster entitled: Emblematic elements for Bell-Beaker grave goods: the function of archer bracelets in the Spanish Central Plateau. During this meeting the place of the next AWRANA conference was also announced: Sylvie Beyries has offered to organize the second meeting in Nice, France, an offer that was gladly accepted by all present.
Congratulations to Annelou van Gijn and the Leiden team for organising such a fabulous AWRANA conference! Annelou is working to provide us with an archive of the program, the revised book of Abstracts and some pictures of the action. We welcome participants to visit our Facebook Group and upload any conference images.
Richard Fullagar, President
