The next conference, at Rome in 2008, will be organized strictly around a single theme, but a broad one, of the meetings and interactions of cultures across the Mediterranean world in antiquity. The material cultures of the ancient Mediterranean, its artefacts, structures, settlements and landscapes, whatever the region and whatever the period, show the impact of the dense networks of exchange enabled by the Mediterranean sea, and spreading to the surrounding areas. ‘Connectivity’ takes multiple forms: the exchange of artefacts, materials, ideas, beliefs, technologies, and styles; the movement of populations through migration, colonisation, and slavery; the extension and contestation of zones of power within and between which exchange could be enabled or restricted. Through such contacts, identities might be defined, redefined, imposed, or contested. This set of archaeological themes touches on numerous issues of importance in the contemporary Mediterranean and the modern world. It coincides with the declaration by the European Union of 2008 as the ‘European Year of Intercultural Dialogue’.

The conference will seek to approach this theme from the widest possible range of angles, embracing all
archaeological disciplines, from landscape archaeology to urbanism to art history to study of ceramics and
material culture; and covering all areas of the Mediterranean, extending to the areas under the control of or in closest contact with Mediterranean powers (including all provinces of the Roman Empire).

The intention of the AIAC XVII Congress Committee is to offer the delegates a broad range of field-trips and site visits, before, during and after the conference, some of which will include monuments not usually accessible. Poster sessions will take place in the evenings of the conference itself, hosted by the city’s foreign Academies. As in previous years bursaries will be offered to students, both Italian and foreign, to help with accommodation and registration fees.