Hungarian projects at the annual archaeological IT international conference
CAA2012 Southampton, 26–30 March
MúzeumCafé 31.
The Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology (CAA) international association holds a conference every year. The presentations are usually accessible in written format the following year. The series of meetings began in 1973 and were initially organised by the University of Birmingham in the UK. In the first two decades the gatherings were hosted by British universities, but during that time an increasing number of bodies from around the world joined the organisation. Thus the first CAA conference organised outside the UK took place in 1992 at the University of Aarhus in Denmark. Then in 2006 the meetings left Europe with a conference held in Fargo, USA. Everyone who participates in a conference automatically becomes a member of the international association for that year, but since 1995 national CAA associations have also existed. These represent specialists working in archaeological IT in the given country. Such a national CAA body has been in existence in Hungary for more than a year and according to its statutes it is open to all interested parties. These days IT already plays a major role in museology, art history, archaeology and monument protection, so it can be very useful for specialists working with cultural heritage to be regularly informed about the rapidly increasing applications and tools, which perhaps open up previously unsuspected opportunities for research institutes, universities, monument protection authorities and museums. In March this year the 40th, jubilee CAA conference took place in Southampton and fortunately it included a fair number of Hungarian participants.