Archaeological Institute of America: 17th Annual Pomerance Award for Scientific Contributions to Archaeology

Martin J. Aitken, who retired in 1989 as Professor of Archaeometry and Deputy Director of the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, Oxford University, joined the Research Laboratory in 1957 and began to apply magnetic methods to both the dating and location of kilns and hearths. In 1958, he undertook the first archaeological proton magneto-meter survey on the Roman city of Durobrivae, near Water Newton. Also in 1958, the Laboratory published the first volume of the journal Archaeometry, which has become one of the leading vehicles for the publication of scientific research in archaeology. Aitken turned his attention to the application fo the phenomenon of thermoluminescence to the dating of ceramics in 1960, and in 1990, he produced his most widely known volume, Science-based Dating in Archaeology, which has rapidly become the standard undergraduate text on the subject, both for archaeologists and the wider geological audience. In recognition of his scientific achievements he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1983 - a tribute not only to his outstanding ability as a scientist who chose to work in archaeology, but also a recognition of the fact that science in archaeology had come of age. (from the AIA Newsletter 13(2)1998:6)

The 1997 award went to Scott Pike, Wiener Laboratory, American School of Classical Studies at Athens, for his poster "A Petrographic Characerization Study of Bronze Age Sandstone Quarries in East Crete and its Application to Minoan Archaeology."

Society for American Archaeology: Fryxell Award

This year’s winner of the Fryxell Award for Interdisciplinary Research in archaeology is John W. Weymouth, who earned his PhD in physics from the University of California-Berkeley in 1951. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, he explored the application of a variety of physical and analytic techniques - among them x-ray diffraction of ceramics - to archaeology. Since the early 1970s, he has made physical sensing techniques his prime research focus. He initially experimented with proton magnetometer survey as a tool for locating buried features at archaeological sites. Since then, and even in retirement, he has expanded his purview, working with resistivity, ground penetrating radar, and chemical surveying. Weymouth has continually refined these techniques, pioneering their use in a wide range of historic and prehistoric contexts in North America, Japan, and Europe. In addition, Weymouth is a generous scholar, eager to share his knowledge, expertise, maps, and data. He is a patient teacher, enthusiastically explaining the complexities of geophysics to archaeological and diverse popular audiences. He has consulted with countless archaeologists, pushign sensors or filters to perform at the highest possible level. For making geophysical techniques an indispensable part of the archaeological tool kit, SAA is honored to present this award to Weymouth. (from the SAA Bulletin 16(3)1998:18)

Several awards were given out at the International Symposium on Archaeometry, held in Budapest, Hungary, 27 April-1 May 1998. The winner of the Society for Archaeological Sciences Poster Award was Peter Tomkins (University of Sheffield), with coauthors Peter M. Day (Sheffield) and Vassilis Kilikoglou (NCSR Demokritos, Greece). Their poster was entitled "The First Pottery in Europe: Technology, Production and Conusmption in Early Neolithic Knossos, Crete." Tomkins will receive two years’ full membership in SAS, including a subscription to JAS.

The Martin J. Aitken Awards for Best Posters were won by Robert Linke, Manfred Schreiner (both Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna), H. Winter and M. Alram (both Kunst-historisches Museum, Vienna) for their poster "Friesacher Pfennig. Energy-Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence Analysis of Medieval Silver Coins," and by Elizabeth Aveling and Carl Heron (both University of Brad-ford) for their poster "Characterisation of Mesolithic ‘Chewing Gums’."

Recipients of the Canadian Awards were V. Kilikoglou and G. Vekinis (NCSR Demokritos, Greece) for their poster "Finite Element Analysis for Failure Prediction of Archaeological Pottery"; E. Aveling and C. Heron (see above); B. Fabbri, S. Gualtieri (CNR, Faenza, Italy) and S. Santoro (University of Bologna, Italy) for their poster "The Importance of Firing Atmosphere in the Production of Coarse Ceramics with Calcite and Chamotte Inclusions"; and M. Cowell, S. La niece (both British Museum) and J. Rawson (Oxford University) for their poster "A Study of Later Chinese Metalwork."

Abstracts of these presentations are still available at the Symposium website: http://gw.ace.hu/MNM/MN/ametry/index.html