Editorial, SMEA NS 9, 2023

his is the last issue overseen by me as editor-in-chief of SMEA, and I would like to sum up the main achievements reached in the ten years (2014-2024) during which I have had the honour and privilege of managing the most prestigious Italian journal on archaeology, philology, and history of the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Aegean and Anatolia.

Building up SMEA Nuova Serie, whose first issue was published in 2015, entailed the transition to a new organization of the journals of the Istituto di Studi sul Mediterraneo Antico, now the Istituto di Scienze del Patrimonio Culturale (ISPC), and has involved:

the formation of an editorial board, and of an advisory editorial board that includes some of the most prestigious scholars of the civilizations of the pre-classical Aegean; the introduction of a double-blind reviewing process; a new graphic design (later also adopted by the other journals of the same institute); the creation of a dedicated website; the publication of a series of supplementary volumes (three issues of which have so far been released which have become important points of reference in research on the Aegean world); the creation of the digital archive of SMEA; the inclusion of SMEA in the international ERIH-PLUS platform, and among the class A journals selected by ANVUR (Agenzia Nazionale di Valutazione del Sistema Universitario e della Ricerca). Today – and perhaps this is what gives me the greatest satisfaction – SMEA, like other leading international journals on the ancient world, has been able to sustain itself through the sale of its publications without resorting to other funds of any kind.

I want to use this occasion to thank the colleagues of the editorial board, the ISPC administrative team, and the publisher Edizioni Quasar, who have worked closely with me over these years and who have made a significant contribution to what has been achieved so far. I would also like to express my appreciation to the authors and reviewers who have given their time and worked hard to support the journal. Finally, my gratitude goes to Costanza Miliani, director of ISPC, who has striven to ensure that the work of the journal runs smoothly.

It only remains for me now to convey my very best wishes to Maurizio Del Freo, research director at the ISPC and member of the editorial board of SMEA, who will take up the reins of the journal from next year. I trust that he will do a brilliant job. Ad maiora.