The Scientific secretary of the National Archaeological Institute with Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (NAIM-BAS), Assoc. Prof. Dr. Maria Gurova, was selected for an Executive Board Member of the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA).

The EAA is a Pan-European organisation for all professional archaeologists, founded in 1994. More than 11 000 profesional archaeologists from 60 countries are members of the EAA. In 1999, the EAA was granted consultative status with the Council of Europe. The EAA aims are:

 

• to promote the development of archaeological research and the exchange of archaeological information in Europe;
• to promote the management and interpretation of the European archaeological heritage;
• to promote proper ethical and scientific standards for archaeological work;
• to promote the interests of professional archaeologists in Europe;
• to promote co-operation with other organisations with similar aims.

The membership of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Maria Gurova in the Executive Board of the EAA is recognition for Bulgaria and, in particular, for NAIM-BAS. Assoc. Prof. Gurova has been working in the Department of Prehistory at NAIM-BAS since 1992. She specializes in the study of Pleistocene and Holocene flint assemblages from Bulgaria, Northwest Anatolia and the Levant, including use-wear analysis. Among her research interests are: the appearance of the early Hominidae in the Balkans and Europe; the Neolithization of the Balkans – routes of dispersal, stages, interpretation: theoretical aspects of the debate, origin and dispersal of the Neolithic “Karanovo type” sickle, comparative analysis of prehistoric agricultural tools from the Near East, Anatolia, and the Balkans; flint raw material in Prehistory: identification, procurement and distribution strategies; the symbolic versus the utilitarian: flint tools in the context of settlements, ritual places, necropoleis, etc.; experimental archaeology and others. 
 

Assoc. Prof. Gurova is involved in various archaeological projects in Bulgaria, Turkey, Israel, Serbia, the UK, and Spain. She publishes regularly in several languages in peer-reviewed journals, conference proceedings, and others, which reflect both the theoretical and the empirical aspects of her research. She is a member of several editorial boards – the Journal of Lithic Studies, the e-journal Haemus (Skopje), the “Excavations and Research” and “Studia Praehistorica” series, publications of NAIM-BAS. Assoc. Prof. Gurova is editor-in-chief of the “Archaeological Discoveries and Excavations” at NAIM-BAS and since 2011 she is editor-in-chief of the Bulgarian online journal of archaeology (Be-JA).
 

For further information about Assoc. Prof. Gurova see her profile on the website.