From the Editor

With this double-issue, the SAS Bulletin is back on track, and quarterly issues 21(3) and 21(4) will appear in the fall and winter. In future issues we should be able to publish more time critical material, including job announcements. Submissions should be sent to the Editor, preferably by email (address on back cover).

In this issue you will find several conference reviews. I had the opportunity this year to attend not only the SAA meeting where I participated in the SAS sponsored symposium (see the Membership Report on p. 5), but also the 14C and Archaeology conference in Lyon (reviewed here by Tim Jull on p. 21), the Archaeometry Symposium in Budapest, and the ASMOSIA meeting in Boston. This confluence of conferences in spring 1998 alone is testimony to the thriving state of Archaeological Science, and SAS members participated prominently in all of these meetings.

Also on these pages are reports from the Executive Officers, including our estimated and actual budgetary expenditures. The big news is that the subscription rate to Journal of Archaeological Science will increase. Since SAS negotiated its discount membership rate with JAS in 1992, they have increased the size of each issue and doubled the number of annual issues to 12. The regular individual subscription rate is now about $650 per year, so SAS members receive a tremendous discount. Felicia Beardsley, our Secretary/Treasurer, managed to stall the price increase for the last two years, but the cost of our Regular Membership will probably rise to $100-$115 for 1999. We realize this is a big increase, and SAS is negotiating with Harcourt Brace/Academic Press to see if a compromise can be reached. In the meantime, we remind our readers that several membership options without JAS exist, and their prices remain unchanged.

Kudos are due already to Charles Kolb, our Associate Editor for Archaeological Ceramics, who has regularly contributed to each issue of the Bulletin (almost enough for a stand-alone newsletter!), and to our Book Review Editor, Michael Glascock, who has done an outstanding job acquiring books to review, soliciting reviewers, and obtaining and editing the reviews.

Lastly, I remind readers that we welcome your contributions to the Bulletin. Please continue to send in your announcements, laboratory profiles, conference information, book review requests, etc. Your suggestions and comments are also welcome!
 


Robert H. TykotAugust 4, 1998