Session title: ARCHAEOLOGIES OF CRUSADING, CONVERSION AND COLONISATION IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE III

The previous sessions on the Archaeology of Crusading, Conversion and Colonisation at the annual meetings of the EAA in 2006 and 2007 were very successful. The organisers intend to maintain and strengthen this forum for a growing branch of archaeological research with a third session for 2008. The setting of the 14 annual meeting of the EAA is particularly appropriate for this session, since the Knights Hospitaller – a military order engaged in crusading – took possession of Malta from the 16 century. The crusading movement was accompanied by processes of variable religious conversion and colonisation at the frontiers of Europe. This prompted multiple and dynamic interactions between incoming groups and indigenous populations which have left significant material traces. Papers are warmly invited on any aspect of this process, or on comparable contexts associated with religious transformation, colonisation and inter-cultural exchange within and beyond medieval Europe. The aim of the session is to draw together common themes and methodologies in approaching an incredibly varied topic, to explore reasons for diversity and to seek new avenues for future research. Papers are particularly welcome on the impact of crusading, religious conversion and/or colonisation on settlement, resource exploitation, religion, trade, social identity, ethnicity, power relations, conflict as well as interand multi-disciplinary methodologies.