Swiss Association on Experimental Archaeology signs cooperation with Basel University. EAS / AES – experimental archaeology in Switzerland (both in French & German) is an association with about 100 members in Switzerland. In 2013, they defined the need to professionalize experimental archaeology in Switzerland, and to make sure it will have a sustainable future. 2015 this resulted in a new name, charter and website: www.eas-aes.ch.
On 2 December 2017, they reached a new milestone. The Institute for “Integrative, Prehistoric and Scientific Archaeology” (IPNA) of the University of Basel and EAS plan a cooperation on experimental archaeology and therefore signed an agreement.

On the one hand, plan is that members of the EAS will be able to include their knowledge and experience on archaeotechnique and scientific experiments into the archaeology department at the University of Basel. This means also a great access for members to specialists, options for analysis, a professional library and the option to take part in larger interdisciplinary experiments.
On the other hand, this cooperation should form the base for financing and expanding of the next milestone of the EAS: a non-commercial office responsible for providing advice and services on experimental archaeology for the whole country. Only when this is in operation EAS can continue with their other strategic priorities like for example bringing archaeology to a broad public or the central archiving of documents.

A first result of the cooperation between IPNA and EAS will be a course in autumn 2018 on raw materials for archaeology students. EAS members will bring in their expert knowledge about certain raw materials, a certain technique or a certain hypothesis, each in one or two lectures.

An exciting development!