More than 3,000 delegates are visiting Queen’s and a variety of venues across Belfast for the conference, which began on Monday 30 August and runs until Saturday 2 September.

A major economic and educational coup for the city, the four-day, four-night event will generate around £3.4 million in a significant boost for the local economy, benefiting tourism, hospitality and transport sector and supporting thousands of jobs.

Belfast won the bid to host the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) annual conference in 2019 and it joins a stellar line-up of international cities who welcomed the group in recent years including Lisbon, Helsinki, Istanbul, Barcelona, Bern, and Budapest – the torch will be passed to Rome in 2024.

Delegates are attending a series of pre-conference excursions north and south of the border. Members of the public also had a chance to attend a ‘Festival of Archaeology’, which was organised by Queen’s University in collaboration with the Department of Communities’ Historic Environment Division and the Ulster Museum. The conference organisation has been supported by Conference Partners International.

Professor Eileen Murphy from Queen’s University Belfast, who is leading on the conference at Queen’s, said: “With an increasing focus on archaeology and heritage and how we can learn from the past to help us both now and in our preparations for the future, I’m delighted that Belfast’s position as a leading, international academic centre of excellence in this field is at the centre of Europe’s largest annual gathering of almost 3,000 specialists in archaeology."

She adds: "There is a busy academic programme for delegates and exceptional debate as well as enjoying the city’s wide range of unbeatable venues, attractions and warm, welcoming hospitality.

“As a university firmly within this year’s Top 100 of the world’s most authoritative rankings for archaeology and palaeoecology, as ranked by global higher education analyst QS, this year’s EAA conference is a major coup for Queen’s University Belfast, for the city, and for Northern Ireland.”

The EAA was founded after the fall of the Berlin Wall with the goal to dismantle a similar wall that divided Western and Eastern archaeological strands, isolated research and heritage management. 

Based in Prague, the EAA represents members from nearly 70 countries of all continents, making it the second largest and one of the most important archaeological associations in the world. Addressing a wide range of cross-cutting themes involving response to the climate change endangering heritage, resilience or sustainability, the annual EAA conference is the organisation’s main annual event.

Through its Northern Ireland Ambassador Programme, Visit Belfast worked with Eileen Murphy, Professor of Archaeology, School of Natural and Built Environment at Queen’s University Belfast, to successfully bid for the conference which received funding from Belfast City Council and Tourism Northern Ireland through its Belfast and Northern Ireland conference subvention scheme.

Gerry Lennon, Chief Executive of Visit Belfast, the destination marketing management organisation (DMMO) for the Belfast City Region, said: “Belfast’s tourism recovery continues apace and the arrival of the European Association of Archaeologists conference to the city underlines the city’s award-winning ability to attract high calibre, internationally renowned organisations that delivers not only positive economic impacts but an unrivalled platform for local and global delegates to exchange expertise, drive innovation and champion best practice.

“I congratulate everyone involved in helping to secure the opportunity to host this prestigious event.”

Tourism NI, Invest NI and Belfast City Council are key supporters and funders of business tourism into the city.

President of the EEA, Professor Eszter Bánffy, said: “Despite any changes in political systems, EAA is based on an inclusive solidarity of common values that do not change with political decisions. This offers a firm background for bringing our Annual Meeting to Belfast, a modern city with a rich past.

“The conference is yet another signal to hour our UK and Irish membership that has been an invaluably strong and entangled part of our association over the past three decades. We gratefully thank our hosts for giving us the chance to honour their entanglement in the community, across Europe and the globe.”

Professor Felipe Criado-Boado, EAA president (2015-2021), who oversaw Belfast’s winning bid for the conference in 2019, said: “EAA is a civilian organization that brings together the many faces of archaeology in Eastern and Western Europe. EAA transcends any modern political formation. EAA has grown rapidly over the last 30 years from annual meetings and publications towards becoming a powerful body to support sustainability in heritage, equality in education and democracy in research, in Europe and beyond, with a vision for the future that always stems in understanding the past.”

Media

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