Archeologia Preventiva: Esperienze, Metodi, Normative e Tecnologie

In its heyday, Italian archaeology enjoyed a long period of world pre-eminence, including in the field of protection, thanks to a 1939 law on cultural heritage. In the eantime, many things have changed and the spirit of leadership contained in the legislation today brings more disadvantages than advantages. One of these involves an “ethical” dimension of adhering to pedagogical values belonging to Crocean idealism, no longer viable in a postmodern society. In complex societies, combining different ethical values unfortunately often results in self-referential closure -a sort of scholarly tribalism- and the methodological anarchy of Italian archaeology is representative of this. Chaos and anarchy produce vast suffering in the discipline, its “pathos”, a suffering not only of people (professionals, ministry officials, planners, contractors and technical offices), but also of archaeological heritage, the protection of which sees continuous defeat in the theatre of urban/regional planning. Ratification of the Malta Convention by the Italian government and the proposal of legislation in line with European archaeology (which integrates the principle of “the polluter pays” in a vision of a compliance-driven or development-led archaeology) are essential requirements for a field which must recover lost ground by formulating a new and successful approach to the discipline.

2015 8th International Workshop on Advanced Ground Penetrating Radar (IWAGPR), 2015

In this paper the relevance of preventive archaeology is outlined with specific reference to the case history of Ruvo di Puglia, Italy, where the Municipality has put in charge the Institute for Archaeological and Monumental Heritage of a geophysical prospection in four areas where the same municipality had planned the construction of new structures. It will shown how the prospection has identified anomalies of possible relevant archaeological interest.

GROMA: Documenting Archaeology

We are entering a new era when it comes to the trade off between economic development and archaeological heritage. There are now new instruments and methods available from geophysics for recording in non-invasive ways buried archaeological sites and their features. At the same time, following the establishment of the Valletta Convention by the countries in Europe (first put forward in 1992 and then updated in 2007), there has emerged a new approach to public policy when it comes to defending the archaeological patrimony of its landscapes and its cityscapes. Edited by Federica Boschi, the book under review takes up the important task of offering a comprehensive account of where we stand today. Looking to the Future, Caring for the Past is the fruit of two years of the Summer School (2013-2014) organized by the University of Bologna, which brought together scholars from a number of EU countries and students with an interest in learning more about Preventive Archaeology – the name, in ...

Twenty years after the adoption of the European Convention on the protection of the archaeological heritage (Malta Convention), the role of preventive archaeology has been increasing in terms of methodological, scientific, economic and social developments. The volume contains the Proceedings of the Conference on preventive archaeology held in Rome, the 19th of October 2012. The Conference was organized by IBC and INRAP, in the framework of the ACE project – “Archaeology in Contemporary Europe. Professional Practices and Public Outreach” to take stock of the situation twenty years after the Malta Convention in 1992. The Conference represented an important opportunity for comparing the experiences of different European countries in the field of preventive archaeology and for once again raising the issue of Italy’s failure to ratify the Malta Convention. The papers well illustrate the effects of applying the principles of “Malta-archaeology” within the different national contexts, while also highlighting that there is still room for improvement and that the problems which persist have been largely accentuated by the present economic situation. The last section of the volume is dedicated to pictures taken by the photographer Pierre Buch for the ACE exhibit “Working in archaeology”.

Internet Archaeology, 2021

Italy has a long tradition of cultural heritage management, which has been framed in an art historical context. This paper outlines the challenges to public archaeology, as it is often seen as a cost rather than as a benefit. Examples are provided showing how museums and heritage sites can be made more inclusive and welcoming to all members of the public, using a combination of private funding and public regulatory frameworks.

Recent Developments in Preventive Archaeology in Europe: Proceedings of the 22 nd EAA Meeting in Vilnius, 2016, Milan Horňák, Maria Pia Guermandi, Harald Stäuble, Pascal Depaepeand Jean-Paul Demoule (eds.)

The texts collected in the monograph are refined versions of the papers presented at the 22nd Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists in Vilnius, 31st of August – 4th of September, 2016, in three sessions focused on various aspects of preventive archaeology: (TH2-07) 25 years later: Changes and conjunctures in preventive (development-led) archaeology in former ‘Eastern’ Europe; (TH2-10) After 1990: a turning point in the guiding principles of rescue excavations and its impact on scientific research; (TH2-19) Preventive Archaeology, Scientific Research and Economic Development. The very fact that the EAA’s Scientific Committee accepted three sessions focused on preventive archaeology and that 44 papers and 3 posters were presented by authors from 22 countries, clearly speaks for the paramount importance of the preventive archaeology not only in heritage protection sector, but for the archaeological discipline in general.