In the week of February 17-21, the Oslo-based AMBER team -- consisting of Alessandro, Laur, Yayi, Leni and Christian -- spent a few days in a hytte in Sjusjøen. The retreat featured long individual writing sessions, some skiing and hiking, and planning sessions in which the team discussed the content, form, and venue of future project milestone events.
Individual work varied: Alessandro kept working on his book manuscript, Laur delved into the ethical debates around the use of Kachin amber in paleontology, Christian explored some of the possibilities for a geological focus in political anthropology, and Leni drafted some ideas on deep time and the study of amber in the 19th Century. Throughout the days, discussions lingered on over lunches and dinners -- and the retreat proved itself to be a wonderful source of new ideas and inspirations.
The AMBER team also began planning for some collaborative fieldwork on the Polish coast: a key site of amber extraction, trade, and science with a long history. More will be shared on those plans in due course.