STEP AHEAD: NEENAWA 2017 International Scientific Conference report

A significant step in establishing a network for the study of the Eastern European Neolithic and at the same time the final event of the project became the NEENAWA International Scientific Conference “Wetland Archaeology and Prehistoric Networks in Europe”, September 15-18, which was held in Kyiv and Kaniv on the basis of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.

Due to the initiative of the Department of Archaeology and Museology, the Centre for Underwater Archaeology of the Faculty of History and the Centre for Paleoethnological Research, the Scientific Committee of the conference was created in which scientists from Switzerland, Macedonia, Russia and Ukraine were included. The conference highlighted the results of archaeological investigations of national and foreign scientists, including the results of international cooperation based on archaeological localities within Ukraine and brings together researchers working in Holocene European prehistoric archaeology. The discussed topics chronologically covered the period from the Mesolithic up to the Bronze Age.

The conference itself became an exceptional opportunity to create a system of information and experience exchange, in research about European prehistoric sites, to introduce up-to-date methodologies of fixation and description of archaeological material and to promote Ukrainian archaeological heritage in the European system of research. An important value is the participation of Macedonian, Russian, Swiss and Ukrainian students in this event that will help to develop their knowledge about current theoretical and practical European scientific research and promote their international mobility during their academic experience. In terms of public benefit, the conference will help to represent the Ukrainian cultural and natural heritage at a European level.