Internationales Sachsensymposion. Arbeitsgemeinschaft zur Archäologie der Sachsen und ihrer Nachbarvölker in Nordwesteuropa ("International Saxons Symposium. Research network for the archaeological study of the Saxons and their neighbouring peoples in northwestern Europe"), is an international society for "the continuous, joint – international – study of the history and ethnic origins of the Germanic Saxons".[1][2] A secondary stated goal "is to discuss the relevant relationships that existed between all these populations and that can be detected in the countries bordering the North and Baltic Seas."[1] The organisation has been credited with stimulating the publication of material from both the collections of museums, and contemporary excavations,[3] and is considered the authoritative forum for the discussion of the archaeology of northwestern Europe in the first millennium AD.[4] Membership is by election; today the organisation comprises approximately 180 members, from Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Finland, France, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, and the United States.[1]