Archaeology and the global economic crisis. Multiple impacts, possible solutions. Edited by Nathan Schlanger and Kenneth Aitchison. Published by Tervuren, Belgium. Produced on behalf of Archaeology in Contemporary Europe: Professional Practices and Public Outreach. Designed by Pascale Coulon. ISBN 978-2-9600527-7-0. Download PDF file at: http://ace-archaeology.eu/fichiers/25Archaeology-and-the-crisis.pdf
Nowadays the contemporary archaeological work requires much more financial support than in past. It can be presumed that the best way to respond to the present global economic crisis is to search for such innovations that would increase the quality of archaeological work by stronger integration with the contemporary technology and using all aspects of media for making all archaeological discoveries promptly available online. Most probably the 21st century will grow as a century of community archaeology, then, the social engagement of archaeologists from fields of research – universities, museums, non-for-profit organizations and private companies – should be a global target including stronger bridging of the academic, public and field archaeology with the electronic media.
“Archaeology and the global economic crisis” is a call for an active discussion about not only how the global economic crisis has been impacting archaeology but also how archaeology can promptly change its nature, structure and face to respond to the altering character of the 21st century civilization. In this just published book, available for free as a .pdf file, leading archaeologists with excavation and/or university experience share peculiarities of the impact of the global crisis on archaeology at national level. The chosen research design focuses on the national archaeologies in Europe and in the USA, while at the end of the book Nathan Schlanger (pp. 107- 114) compares the regional conclusions and makes some essential generalizations.
One of the basic statements is that the economic crises effects archaeology by decreasing of the quality of the archaeological work – as a fieldwork, documentation, and publication. It also has affected the employment of archaeologists, in particular the private companies and contract-archaeologists, while some countries like France have been searching for new forms of employment (‘activity’ contracts).
Analyses of the impact of the economic crisis on archaeology encompass many specifics of the organization of the archaeology in different countries (Ireland, Malta, Hungary, Russia, France, USA, etc.).
Author: Lolita Nikolova | Source: Examiner [September 13, 2010]