Conferences & Networking
The SAS regularly sponsors conferences, workshops, and conference sessions. If you're planning an event on any topic relevant to the goals of the society, please get in touch with the VP of Intersociety Relations so that we can explore partnering with you and your organization.
If you're a student SAS member interested in getting involved with the society and promoting professional fellowship among your peers, check out the Student Ambassador program and reach out to our VP for Membership Development to learn more.
- Braden Cordivari
SAS is excited to share news of the 2025 recipients of the Student and ECR Research Support Award, given earlier this spring! This year’s awardees are Malavika Chatterjee (Postdoctoral scholar, Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar), Braden Cordivari (PhD student, New York University), and Amit Ranjan (PhD student, Ashoka University). The awards will support these three scholars as they undertake research into lithic technology (Malavika), ceramic production (Amit), and metallurgy (Braden). The recipients will conduct analysis using a range of established and cutting-edge techniques, from gathering microstructural and compositional data to morphometric modeling and machine learning, and we look forward to following the results of their research!
Malavika Chatterjee: “Towards developing an analytical and digital framework for the Indian Palaeolithic”
The project examines the variability in Palaeolithic artefacts from key sites in southern India by digitally documenting them through 3D scanning and Photogrammetry and analysing them with Geometric Morphometrics. These innovative digital documentation methodologies will supplement decades of published literary research (on explorations and excavations) and traditional approaches in lithic analysis (typo-technological analysis) to develop a comprehensive, open-source digital database of the Indian Palaeolithic. By understanding variability in lithics through different methodologies and adopting machine learning, an attempt will be made to develop a model(s) with a lexicon and glossary for relevant terms in lithic technology and analyses developed from the Indian Palaeolithic assemblages. The research endeavours to integrate lithics found in non-primary contexts into the database to actively incorporate them into our understanding of the Indian Palaeolithic. Ultimately, this dataset(s) can then be made accessible virtually, resulting in the assimilation of archival collections, knowledge sharing and encouraging studies in prehistory.
Braden Cordivari: “The golden touch beyond Midas: technological innovation and social value of brass alloying in Iron Age central Anatolia, 12th-4th centuries BCE”
Brass alloys (copper-zinc) appear in Anatolia in the early 1st millennium BCE, centuries before their widespread adoption across western Asia and the Mediterranean during the Roman period. High quality copper alloy metalwork is a hallmark of Iron Age Anatolia, remembered later by the Greeks as the ‘golden touch’ of the Phrygian king Midas. My PhD project examines the use of brass alloys in central Anatolia, particularly at the site of Gordion, the Phrygian capital. Preliminary results from pXRF show that brass is more widespread than previously recognized. The support of the SAS Award will enable examination of working practices through metallographic and SEM analysis in order to understand whether brass and non-brass alloys were crafted in similar ways. Braden’s research interests generally include craft production, archaeometallurgy, and pyrotechnology, as well as the between political networks and craft practices.
Amit Ranjan: “Tracing the Development of Indus Ceramic Tradition and Production Technique using ceramic Petrography and ICP-MS Analysis of regional Indus pottery from Rakhigarhi”
The primary objective of this research is to investigate the continuity and changes in regional pottery production technologies and cultural choices. It focuses on the selection of raw material, clay preparation and firing technologies in ceramic traditions from the Hakra Ware Phase to Early Harappan (Sothi-Siswal) and Mature/Urban Phase at Rakhigarhi (RGR-7) in the Ghaggar Basin, using a combination of traditional typological analysis with advanced analytical methods like ICP-MS and Petrology. Amit’s research investigates ancient ceramic production technologies, aiming to reconstruct the development, transmission, and adoption of technological knowledge across generations and cultures. He explores standardization in ceramic production, the selection and provenance of raw materials, tempering practices, firing conditions, and decorative techniques such as painting. Using advanced analytical methods—including XRF, ICP-MS, FTIR, XRD, Raman spectroscopy, microscopy, and 3D geometric morphometrics—Amit analyzes the chemical, mineralogical, and petrographic composition of ceramics to understand their socio-economic and cultural significance.
- Andrew Zipkin
As a member organization of the Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies (FACSS), The Society for Archaeological Sciences (SAS) once again played a central role in shaping the program at this year’s SciX conference in Raleigh, North Carolina in October. SAS members Andrew Zipkin and Mary Kate Donais co-chaired the Art & Archaeology Section together with graduate student Kristen Livingston. Three invited speaker symposia were organized across two conference days: 1) Student Research in Archaeological Chemistry; 2) LA-ICP-MS Applications in Art and Archaeology; and 3) Imaging Technologies for Cultural Heritage.
- Andrew Zipkin
The SAS sponsored two student prizes at the the 𝗟𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻 𝗔𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗴𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗔𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗲𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗿𝘆, 𝗔𝗿𝘁, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗖𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 (CLASMAC) that took place in September 2024 in Mexico City. The Student Oral Presentation Prize has been awarded to Héctor Javier Matzumiya Ballesteros, BA student at Centro de Estudios Antropológicos, Facultad de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales, UNAM, for the presentation titled "Mobility of semisedentary groups in the Sonoran Desert: emphasis in the production and archaeometric determination of prehispanic ceramics". The extended abstract for this project is provided below.
"Mobility of semisedentary groups in the Sonoran Desert: emphasis in the production and archaeometric determination of prehispanic ceramics"
By: Héctor Javier Matzumiya Ballesteros, César Villalobos Acosta, Alejandra Marisela Gómez Valencia
This work is a product of the research conducted for the undergraduate thesis of the same name (Matzumiya Ballesteros 2024). The analyzed materials were collected during the projects Cambio Climático y Diversificación Cultural en el Noroeste de México, Bahía Tepoca, and Manifestaciones en la Proveedora, Sonora, both conducted by Dr. César Villalobos Acosta (2003, 2016, 2018)
The sites studied by these projects are located in the Mexican state of Sonora, along the coastline between the localities of Desemboque and El Desemboque, as well as in La Proveedora and Cerro San José, near the locality of Caborca. The research analyzed 80 ceramic sherds from the Trincheras and Costa Central traditions, as well as 18 sediment samples collected in the study region.
Figure 1: Study region
Read more: Student Presentation Prize Winner at CLASMAC 2024
- Andrew Zipkin
The SAS sponsored two student prizes at the the 𝗟𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻 𝗔𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗴𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗔𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗲𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗿𝘆, 𝗔𝗿𝘁, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗖𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 (CLASMAC) that took place in September 2024 in Mexico City. The Student Poster Prize has been awarded to Andrés Francisco Sánchez Guerrero, MA student at El Colegio de Michoacán, Centro de Estudios Arqueológicos, for the poster with title "Análisis tecnológico sobre metalurgia través de las escorias en un contexto arqueologico en Jicalán Viejo". The extended abstract for this project is provided below. Stay tuned for the extended abstract from the student oral presentation prize winner!
“Technical Analysis about Metallurgy through Slags found in an Archaeological Context in Jicalán Viejo, Michoacán”
By: Andrés Francisco Sánchez Guerrero, David Larreina, Blanca Maldonado, Hans Roskamp, Fernando May, Mario Retiz, Luis Velázquez.
The present research was part of the first stage of the research project called “Preindustrial Mining and Metallurgy in Mexico: Research on Copper Smelting in Michoacán”. This research had for objective the scientific analysis of 18 samples of slags collected from the prehispanic and colonial site of Jicalán Viejo, Michoacán, Mexico. As background, the importance of this place can be highlighted. Jicalan Viejo, is located in a hill and presumably the site was a borderland between the Lowlands and the Tarascan Highlands (Maldonado y Roskamp 2019:6). Furthermore, Jicalán Viejo is the key place of the story described in the Lienzo de Jicalán (Roskamp 2005:6), a pictographic document from the XVI century A.C. (Roskamp 1998:77) which referred the place as Xiuhquilan, inhabited by a nahua speaking society (Roskamp y Retiz 2013:46). This pictographic historic document highlights a lot of information about the xiuhquilteca society, for example: their migration from their place of origin (Roskamp 2010:71), their economic dynamics related to mining, reducing copper and gourds manufacturing (Roskamp 2010:72) also it shows about their integration to the Tarascan State economic dynamics, for which they paid tribute in pottery wares and copper tools in order for maintaining their rights to the exploitation of the mines, which were also recognized by the colonial authorities (Roskamp 2005:4). The Lienzo de Jicalán also is important because it describes the three routes that the xiuhquilteca society developed in order to obtain the minerals for their metallurgical activities (2010:3).
- AJ White
The SAS Student Ambassador Program invites interested attendees to its February Journal Club meeting on February 12, 2015. Further information is provided below:
Passcode: 018206
- AJ White
Introducing the Student Ambassador-sponsored SAS Journal Club!
The Journal Club will form a platform for critical dialogue and networking between student and early career researchers in archaeological science and aims to host discussions on recent research trends, methodologies, and advancements in a friendly, informal environment.
The first meeting of the Journal Club will occur on Tuesday, October 29 at 8am PST / 11am ET / 3pm UTC and will discuss Kappelman, J., Todd, L.C., Davis, C.A. et al. Adaptive foraging behaviors in the Horn of Africa during Toba supereruption. Nature 628, 365–372 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07208-3.
Link to join the session:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84661318157?pwd=oHCIABsaVVzI1XLlK46YCpUniRtAyj.1
Meeting ID: 846 6131 8157
Passcode: 185100
Please contact Ahana Ghosh (