Christiane Meckseper, Helen Evans, Tim Allen

Welcome to assemblage 6!

We hope you like the new look. We wanted to make the journal more searchable and also give easier access to the notes for contributors and information on what we are all about. We also wanted to make navigation around the site easier. Feedback would be very welcome!

As you may notice, this issue of assemblage is more of a 'no-frills' version than its predecessors. We have concentrated on research papers and reviews rather than the interviews, games and links included in previous issues.

Most of the contributions we receive consist of research papers. The 'fun stuff' has traditionally been put together by the editors and a willing team of Sheffield postgraduates and research students. Unfortunately the changing research environment has allowed less time to be spent on extracurricular activities. This has meant that the number of people willing to become involved in assemblage has been greatly reduced. As a result we have concentrated purely on technical and editorial activities. However we will still be very happy to include any frivolous contributions in issue 7 of assemblage (so send them in!).

In order to insure the long-term survival of the papers in assemblage, we are at the moment looking into the issues of archiving our journal with the Archaeological Data Service (ADS) in York (http://ads.ahds.ac.uk). The ADS have agreed in principle to archive all past issues of assemblage provided we can sort out copyright. What this will mean in practice is that assemblage will hopefully be hosted in parallel by both The University of Sheffield and the ADS. Users who view assemblage via the ADS would have to agree to the ADS common access policy (http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/).

A circular e-mail will shortly go out to all past and present contributors to notify them of our intentions and to ask for their permission to archive their papers with the ADS. However, past contributors to assemblage, who may have moved or have a new e-mail address, are also welcome to contact us (please mark your message "archiving").

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our authors and peer reviewers for their contributions to the wide and diverse range of papers that make up this issue of assemblage! We hope you enjoy reading them.

Christiane, Helen and Tim

Editorial team:

Christiane Meckseper studied archaeology at the University of York and then worked as a field archaeologist in places as diverse as Jordan, Algeria, Germany, Bedfordshire and Norfolk. She is currently a postgraduate at the University of Sheffield, completing an MSc in Information Systems. She is researching the application of XML for archeological publication.
Christiane can be contacted at christiane@clara.co.uk

Helen Evans studied archaeology at the University of Sheffield before working as a field archaeologist in Norfolk. She is currently a graduate student at the University of Sheffield, researching the lithic technology and prehistoric landscapes of south Cumbria.
Helen can be contacted at helen@bean.abelgratis.co.uk

Tim Allen studied archaeology at Bournemouth and Sheffield and has worked as a field archaeologist in places as diverse as Coventry and Doncaster. He is currently a graduate student at the University of Sheffield, researching the medieval to post medieval transition in the parish of Bradbourne, Derbyshire.
Tim can be contacted at prp98tja@sheffield.ac.uk