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ARCHAEOLOGY TODAY
Arek Marciniak (University of Poznań): Heritage archaeologies of the united Europe
Thursday May 10, 2012 | 05:00 -07:00 PM | Stanford Archaeology Center

The last decade of the 20th century in Europe has been marked by enthusiastic admittance of archaeological heritage into European and national policies following the adoption of the European Convention for the Protection of the Archaeological Heritage . The Valetta Convention rightly recognized a significance of archaeological heritage for the re-united Europe, especially in the turbulent period of accession of Central-European countries to the European Union, as well as identified efficient means to the threats it faced in the period of unprecedented large scale investments. For almost two decades, the Valetta Convention laid down foundations for management and protection of archaeological heritage across Europe.

The crisis of 2008 and the following years of economic uncertainty shook the relative consensus in this domain. The solutions advocated in the Valetta Convention has increasingly began recognized as infeasible and not in accord with new strategies of sustainable development in the continent, especially in Central-Eastern Europe. The national governments have recently implemented different mitigation measures significantly reducing effectiveness and efficiency of existing solutions. The new situation marks a departure from the hitherto accepted status quo and indicates the beginning of a new era in heritage archaeology and presence of heritage in contemporary European society. In this talk I attempt to diagnose major facets of this new phase and their consequences for archaeological heritage.

Bio:
Arek Marciniak is an Associate Professor in Institute of Prehistory at the University of Poznań in Poland and Visiting Professor at Stanford University. His current research spans a broad range of fields including archaeological theory, history of archaeological thought, theory and practice of heritage archaeology, social and economic foundations of the developed Neolithic in the Near East and Europe, and social and ceremonial significance of animals in the past. His most recent project involves study of the final phase of occupation of the Neolithic settlement at Çatalhöyük, Turkey, a non-Linnaean animality in the Neolithic, and construction of e-learning content depository of didactic materials in the field of archaeological heritage. He was an initiator and co-editor of a monument book The social Past. Conceptualizations (2012). He serves as an expert for the European Commission and numerous research founding bodies, including Australia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, and Poland. He is also a member of the Editorial and Advisory Boards of Archaeological Dialogues, European Journal of Archaeology and Archaeologies and a co-editor of the World Heritage Series at Springer.