Dear readers,

We are happy to present the Proceedings of the 10th Radiocarbon & Archaeology International Symposium and the 24th Radiocarbon Conference. This issue is Part 1 of 2. The 10th Radiocarbon & Archaeology Conference followed the 9th symposium, organized in Athens, Georgia, USA, in 2019, and the 24th Radiocarbon Conference followed the 23rd, organized in Trondheim, Norway, in 2018. The planned conference organization in Israel had to be modified due to the pandemic’s travel restrictions; thus, the joined conferences were held at ETH Zürich from September 11 to 16, 2022.

The pre-conference workshops took place at the Science City Campus of ETH Hönggerberg. These workshops have been the meeting point of sharing in great details data, problems, questions and suggestion to explore future directions to improve the application of radiocarbon method, to overcome problems in sample pretreatment and the integration of analysis like Raman and infrared spectroscopy.

The location of the workshops was excellent as it allowed visits to the ETH AMS facilities and to be updated with the last development of the AMS method. The conference venue was the historic building of the ETH located in the center of Zürich, with a view of the historic town, lake Zürich, and the Alps. The combined conference hosted 360 onsite and 38 online participants.

The scientific program of the ¹⁴C and Archaeology conference (12–14 September) included 59 oral and 52 poster presentations (www.radiocarbon24.ethz.ch). The seven sessions addressed agriculture, migration, aDNA, stable isotopes and diet, geoarchaeology, art and cultural heritage (see Part 2). The methodological aspects and calibration issues were addressed in technical and calibration sessions of the Radiocarbon Conference, which took place during the first part of the week.

The merged conferences in Zürich have shown that the research based on Radiocarbon is flourishing and the different scientific fields are vibrant of ideas and applications. The number and diversity of papers presented in the sessions (3 parallel sessions) show that Radiocarbon is still an essential part of research in many fields, both science and humanities disciplines.

On Tuesday afternoon, ten local tours started from the Polyterrasse, ETH Zürich (https://www.zuerich.com/en/visit/attractions/polyterrasse). Participants could visit the National Museum and Zürich Art Gallery, walk around Zürich to see the town’s architecture, geology, and archaeology, or visit the botanical garden.

On Wednesday, the Conference Dinner was held in a historic restaurant at the foot of the Üetliberg mountain in Zürich. The restaurant’s garden offered a panoramic view of the lake and the town below. In the evening, a concert of alphorn music opened, and live music and dancing closed the joyful event.

The 11th Radiocarbon & Archaeology International Symposium will be organized in 2026 by LAC-UFF, Brazil, and the 25th Radiocarbon Conference will take place in 2025, hosted by AGH, Krakow, Poland.

Yours sincerely,

Elisabetta Boaretto, Irka Hajdas and Hans-Arno Synal

Conference chairs

A J Timothy Jull

Radiocarbon editor

Sponsors

Participants

Photos

Figure 1.

Conference participants in front of the Polyterrasse.

Figure 2.

Participants on the Polyterrasse roof.

Figure 3.

Registration desk on Sunday morning, before workshops (ETH Hönggerberg).

Figure 4.

Visit to the AMS facilities (ETH Hönggerberg).

Figure 5.

Poster sessions and coffee break in the historic building of ETH.

Figure 6.

Keynote lecture by Prof. Nick Conard.

Figure 7.

Oral and poster sessions.

Figure 8.

Local tours: (a) walk in Zürich (b) geology of Uetliberg.

Figure 9.

Conference dinner: (a) Hans-Arno Synal opening the evening of (b) music and dancing.