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Production of the Bulletin continues
to achieve ‘firsts’. This volume is
the first (and last!) to be produced by
‘remote control’ while I am on sabbatical
leave. This has meant that it was
a little late to the printers, owing to
periodic lack of access to internet connections,
but that it happened at all is a sign of
the great value of the internet in such
circumstances. I am indebted to Sean
Ulm and the research staff and volunteers
in the University of Queensland ATSIS Unit
for doing the work I was unable to do while
on the road.
I typed this editorial in beautiful rural
Burgundy, sitting by the fire in the study
of my friend and colleage Jean-Christophe
Galipaud, President of France’s Société
des Océanistes. Although now as firmly
planted here in Epineuil as the pinot noir
on the surrounding slopes, until recently
he was a long-term resident of the South
Pacific, where he continues to undertake
archaeological research for the Institut
de Recherche pour le Dévelopement (IRD,
perhaps still better known as ORSTOM, Office
de la Recherche Scientifique et Technique
Outre Mer). Jean-Christophe is one
of a small number of Francophone archaeologists
who work in Oceania and he kindly provided
a field report for publication in the present
issue. Two other such scholars, Christophe
Sand and Frédérique Valentin, published
a field report with Fijian colleague Tarisi
Sorovi-Vunidilo in WAB 11, while
a third, Jean-Michel Chazine, whose research
focus includes island Southeast Asia as
well as Oceania, published on Borneo in
an earlier volume and will do so again in
a later one.
While of course I welcome contributions
from and about Europe, in any language,
I will continue to include studies by Francophone
researchers working in the Pacific and other
non-European regions as they are made available
to me, just as I will continue to publish
material from or about the non-European
Hispanophone world of the sort that I have
included in this and earlier issues of the
new Bulletin. I hope I will
occasionally be able to persuade contributors
from such regions to give me material in
French, Portuguese or Spanish as well as
(or instead of) English. Pier Paolo
Frassinelli and Maggie Roynane’s piece in
this issue is a great start in this regard.
Material from other places and/or in other
languages is of course also very welcome,
and I look forward to more contributions
from Asia and Africa. If you have
something you think would be suitable, please
send it to me at any time, by mail, fax
or email. I am happy to receive
field reports such as the one in this issue
by Jean-Christophe Galipaud as well as research
papers, notes, commentary, reviews and announcements.
Reviews of internet resources would be particularly
useful. I also emphasize that the
membership needs to receive regular news
from regional representatves if WAC is to
function in the way it is intended to do.
This issue is the second of the ‘new-look’
Bulletin to appear with a flat spine
which allows the title and volume number
to be printed on it. I was only able
to achieve the minimum 100-page thickness
required to make the flat spine possible
by adding a paper of my own to the material
I received from other contributors.
This is something I am not keen on doing
regularly. The shortfall occurred
because several people were unable to submit
papers they had promised. I know now
that I should have held some material over
from WAB 11, which was much thicker
than required – one lives and learns!
It would be easier, though, if people provided
the copy they undertake to submit.
One member has told me that their WAB
11 fell apart when they opened it wide.
This may be a result of excessive thickness
in relation to the height of the volume.
If anyone else had the same problem they
should contact me.
Readers will find in the next section the
news that WAC5 will be in Washington D.C..
I have included U.S. news in different parts
of this issue to help familiarize readers
with important U.S. efforts in the management
of American and world archaeological heritage.
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World
Archaeological Bulletin