The international and interdisciplinary Middle Bronze Age conference (approx. 20-23 participants from at least seven countries) in January 2001 (24^th-28^th of January) in Vienna will be held within the framework of the SCIEM 2000 research project and will focus on the ceramical material of the early Middle Bronze Age in the Levant. The conference is planned to consist of short lectures given by the participating scholars to introduce the material from the different sites and following discussions and of workshops with samples, again followed by discussions.

The SCIEM 2000 interdisciplinary project is a major research programme of the Austrian Academy, partly funded by the Austrian Science Fund, which was launched in March 1999 for a maximum of ten years. The aim of this project is to create a definite chronological framework for the history of the second Millennium BC in the Eastern Mediterranean. Our knowledge of the historical records of this particular time-span is very fragmented and regional chronologies differ up to 150 years.

Within the project special attention is devoted to the first appearances of certain wide spread artefacts in stratified archaeological contexts in the Eastern Mediterranean as these imports can be directly associated in connection with the finds from those regions. Such studies are valuable not only from a chronological point of view, but are a basic pre-requisite for reconstructing trade and its development in the Eastern Mediterranean.

In order to be able to reconstruct the trade and spread of artefacts and to create a joint dataset it is necessary to bring together scholars who work with ceramical material in different countries in the Mediterranean but on material from a similar period. Another aim is to bring together at this conference especially those colleagues who do not usually meet at other more area focussed conferences.

It is hoped that the conference will help to establish valuable contacts for the scientists involved and that it will be a starting point for future close collaboration and new interregional and interdisciplinary projects.