Yannis Hamilakis 🍉

The second union of archaeologists in Greece taking a stance on the EAA saga. They represent the contract archaeologists, the largest sector; they call for a boycott: the majority of the local archaeological community in Greece does not support the Athens EAA meeting, under the current leadership.

Motion A: 468 members agreed to exclude Israeli institutional affiliations = 67% 237 did not agree; 77 abstained Motion B: 470 members did not approve of the actions of the Exexcutive Board = 79% 124 did approve; 205 abstained Motion C: 564 members supported a firm statement condemning the ongoing genocide in Palestine = 78% 160 did not support; 76 abstained Motion D: 410 supported change in statutes to ptovide mechanism to remove President and Executive Board = 58% 294 did not support; 95 abstained Motion E: 451 supported a vote on the viability of the current Officers (excl. Treasurer) = 67% 223 did not support; 125 abstained

🚨EAA per rollam vote results🚨

For anyone who doesn't want to trawl through a long document to find the results, I've compiled them here. Well done to everyone who voted for demonstrating strongly and clearly that change is needed 👏🏼👏🏼

Ανοιχτή επιστολή σχετικά με τις εξελίξεις στην European Association of Archaeologists - Σύλλογος Ελλήνων Αρχαιολόγων Ανοιχτή επιστολή σχετικά με τις εξελίξεις στην European Association of Archaeologists Κατόπιν της ομόφωνης απόφασης των μελών του…

The Association of Archaeologists in Greece, representing all the archaeologists with permanent contracts in the state sector, is withdrawing its participation in the organizing of the @archaeologyeaa.bsky.social conference in Athens..Open letter, in English, below.

archaeol.gr/anoichti-epi...

🚨2025 and 2026 EAA members🚨
Have you voted yet? You have until January 31st to submit your vote.

Not received a link to vote? If so, please contact: helpdesk@e-a-a.org

EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION OF ARCHAEOLOGISTS EAA – thePipeLine

More on the context, here: thepipeline.info/blog/categor...

I will be boycotting EAA2026.

I have no confidence that this will be a safe and democratic space to discuss archaeology in the current socio-political context, defined by genocides and violence. This is not against the Athens organizers, it's a protest against the leadership and its actions.

Further to the EAA saga and the actions of its leadership...Zena is the editor of the Association's journal, and we now how much hard and unappreciated work that entails. She was attacked in the meeting of 9.1.206, and yet the people in charge seem to want to withhold the evidence. Enough is enough.

2. Archaeology is political. In essence, and clear since the early 1980s (with a similar episode btw). We cannot run a European association, alien to the events of the world. We need to position clearly for basic human rights and against their violation.

So, if you are an @archaeologyeaa.bsky.social (EAA) member from 2025-2026, you received yesterday your email for the per-rollam vote of the past Special Meeting and the documentation attached to it… if you still doubt what to vote, please read all the documents. My short digest:

If you're in any doubt of how much trouble the EAA is in, this should give you pause. Solidarity to Kayt and all those trying to salvage the EAA ✊🏼

I am sorry to hear this, and thank you for your work! Could you share more information? Many of us are waiting to take a more active stance against what appears to be a coordinated campaign of intimidation and harassment…

Solidarity with Zena who is a superb editor and a solidly good person. Personal attacks have been levelled against many EAA members (myself included) by a small group of colleagues. This is unacceptable. The EAA executive must make that clear or resign (or both).

To say this meeting failed to alleviate our concerns is an understatement. If anything, I felt more concerned and disturbed by such behaviour. The EAA needs to take serious and quick action to restore confidence in its members.

Solidarity! And thank you all for standing up to pro-genocide extremists, yesterday!

In spite of the Safe Space Policy being clearly stated at the beginning of the meeting, Prof. XXXXX targeted me by name, calling for my resignation from my position as Editor of the society's journal. Furthermore, his misuse of my title, referring to me as "Miss Kamash", felt deliberately demeaning. This intimidating behaviour explicitly contravenes the EAA Safe Space Policy. Although he was muted, for which I was grateful, I experienced a panic attack following his comments and did not feel safe to speak for the remainder of the meeting. This was further compounded by not only Prof. XXXXX being allowed to remain in the online meeting, but also being invited to take the floor again after the break. This gives me strong concerns about the effectiveness of the Safe Space Policy. On a broader point about the effectiveness of the Safe Space Policy, I also note that members whose position aligned with that of Concerned EAA were repeatedly and persistently accused of anti-Semitism throughout the meeting. This is a serious accusation that should not be levelled without due care and evidentiary support. Its use as a blanket accusation seems to have been designed with the explicit aim of silencing and intimidating members aligned with Concerned EAA, which again contravenes the Safe Space Policy and should have been dealt with more robustly during the meeting.

Following yesterday's EAA Special Meeting, I have submitted a complaint to the EAA Appeal and Anti-Harassment Committee. I post it here, with names redacted, for any members who were not present. Thank you so much to everyone who has reached out with messages of solidarity and support 🙏💓🙏

I am grateful for all feedback, including yours. I am just pointing out that I start from the premise that there is not one archaeology but many...

There is the official, modernist archaeology, part and parcel of coloniality of knowledge and power, and then there are other, alternative, indigenous archaeologies, decolonial archaeologies, counter-modern archaeologies...Some of us have written a lot about them, and some even try to practice them.

Stopping digging altogether and in all cases? Or opting for small-scale archaeological ethnographic projects, in consultation with local communities, and making digging only one, and perhaps not the most important component?

A decolonial archaeology of refusal, care and repair | Antiquity | Cambridge Core A decolonial archaeology of refusal, care and repair

Hi all,

A modest proposal on the contours and future of Decolonial Archaeology (open access). Grateful to all who inspired the ideas! I would welcome all feedback and critique.

A decolonial archaeology of refusal, care and repair | Antiquity | Cambridge Core - www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

journal cover

New issue of Archaeological Dialogues Vol. 31, No. 1 (2025) www.cambridge.org/core/journal... #openaccess @cambup-archaeology.cambridge.org @sveinvn.bsky.social @prehistorian.bsky.social @yannisham.bsky.social

Now published in the latest issue "Archaeological Dialogues", along with many great papers. Many thanks to the journal's team!

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

UPenn professors have responded forcefully to the Trump administration's that colleges sign a "compact" in order to secure funding:

"When an invitation is accompanied by consequences for not accepting it, it is in fact a threat, not an invitation." aaup-penn.org/statement-by...

Call for a Special Meeting of the EAA Recent events during the Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists* have generated profound discontent and distrust toward the current Executive Board among members of the associati...

Members of the European Association of Archaeologists, past and present, please sign!

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

I've just resigned from the EAA. Sad to leave an organisation I have been part of for decades, but collaboration with genocide is unthinkable. #stopthegenocide #stopapartheid @archagainstaparth.bsky.social

Archaeologists Against Apartheid urgent call for action! We are not anonymous. We are members of both the EAA&global archaeological community and more committed than ever to holding our representative organisations to account and anti-democratic influences.

aaaeaastatementseptember3rd.tiiny.site

Hamilakis, Y. 2026. Archaeology as a hauntology of remains. In Shadow Archaeologies In the Shadow of Antiquity or For Other Modes of Archaeological Worldmaking, edited by A. Nativ and G. Lucas. London... In this chapter, I propose a hauntological archaeology, not as a subdiscipline, a subfield, or a method but as an affect, as a way of allowing or rather enabling material remains to haunt us. This is ...

Archaeology defined as a hauntology of remains. A theoretical statement grounded on my work on ruins as well as my recent work on the remnants of contemporary migration. Part of a great volume! Grateful to the editors and to many colleagues who helped out!

www.academia.edu/143309448/Ha...

I chatted with the good colleagues of the @peoplingthepast.bsky.social on decoloniality, the politics of archaeology in the current moment, Palestine of course, and even our fieldwork efforts at Koutroulou Magoula!

The World Archaeological Congress (WAC) Is Normalizing a War Crime The WAC 10 conference program includes a panel chair and presenter from illegal Israeli settlement-based Ariel University who is therefore knowingly participating in a war crime and should therefore b...

Going to #wac10? You'll be sharing the space with a war criminal. Demand the @worldarch.bsky.social exclude archaeologists who knowingly engage in war crimes!

loom.ly/lTKF50o
#wacwithoutapartheid
@pacbi.bsky.social

A victory! WAC has just announced that it decided to exclude from its congress the participant from an institution based in an illegal settlement in the West Bank. Many thanks to the people who raised their voices...