10th Balkan Symposium on Archaeometry — International conference on the cultural heritage of the Balkans and the wider region from Prehistory to the Early Modern Period
The 10th Balkan Symposium on Archaeometry — Connecting Minds: Unveiling the Past Together international conference, jointly organized by the Institute for Geological and Geochemical Research, HUN-REN Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences, and the Institute of Archaeology, ELTE Research Centre for the Humanities, will be held between October 19 and 22, 2026. The international conference to be held in Budapest provides a unique opportunity for archaeologists, archaeometrists and scientists from the Balkans and beyond to meet and exchange ideas on the latest developments in archaeometry, archaeological science and heritage science. Attendees will also have the chance to present their latest research results spanning the prehistoric to early modern ages.
The Balkan Symposium on Archaeometry (BSA) conference series focuses on the scientific examination of archaeological finds, and more broadly, cultural heritage, in Balkan countries through the lens of archaeometry, archaeological science and heritage science. As part of the conference series launched in 2008, symposia have been held every two years in various Southern European countries, including North Macedonia (Ohrid, 2008), Turkey (Istanbul, 2010), Romania (Bucharest, 2012), Bulgaria (Nessebar, 2014), Romania (Sinaia, 2016), Slovenia (Ljubljana, 2018), Greece (Athens, 2020), Serbia, (Belgrade, 2022) and Croatia (Zadar, 2024).
The overall theme of the conference is ‘Crossroads of Cultures between the Balkans and Central Europe’. The three-day event will include invited lectures, 15-minutes oral and poster presentations related to various aspects of archaeometry, archaeological science and heritage science, including:
https://www.bsa2026budapest.com/themes
1. Probing the Past: Advanced analytical toolkits for heritage science
2. The Artifact’s Anatomy: Deep dives into material characterization
3. Enduring Legacies: Science-led conservation of tangible heritage
4. The Fire of Invention: Ancient metallurgy from ore to artifact
5. Marking Time: Advanced dating methods in archaeological science
6. History in Motion: Reconstructing the past through experimental science
7. Written in Bone: Biological archives of health, diet, and mobility
8. More than Meat: Multidisciplinary approaches to zooarchaeology
9. Food for thought: Tracing ancient consumption through organic residues
10. Mapping the Invisible: Geophysical and remote sensing applications
11. Context is Everything: Geoarchaeological and environmental perspectives
12. Code of the Past: Computational tools for a data-driven archaeology
The conference is organised jointly by the Institute for Geological and Geochemical Research, HUN-REN Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences, and Institute of Archaeology, ELTE Research Centre for the Humanities, in cooperation with MTA–ELTE HTK Lendület “Momentum” BASES Research Group.
Organizing Committee: Bernadett Bajnóczi, Gabriella Kulcsár, Viktória Kiss, Viktória Mozgai, Ágnes Kolláth, Eszter Horváth.
Scientific Committee: Alexandra Anders (H), Roxana Bugoi (RO), Matija Črešnar (SLO), János Dani (H), Dragana Filipović (RO), Zsolt Kasztovszky (H), Attila Kreiter (H), Rovena Kurti (AL), Cătălin Lazăr (RO), Enikő Magyari (H), Ina Miloglav (CRO), Goce Naumov (MK), Mario Novak (CRO), Eleni Papadopoulou (GR), Hristo Popov (BG),Milica Marić Stojanović (SRB), Anna Szécsényi-Nagy (H), Zita Szikszai (H), Veronika Szilágyi (H), Béla Török (H), Manca Vinazza (SLO).
Further information is available on the conference website
https://www.bsa2026budapest.com/
and on the event’s Facebook page
https://fb.me/e/908N7MLJF
Registration and abstract submissions for oral and poster presentations will be available on the website from 16 February, 2026.
We will send a notification about the conference registration fee in June 2026.
