As a co-organising partner of the European ACE project which aims to promote archaeology in
contemporary Europe, the Flemish Heritage Institute (VIOE, Scientific Institute of the Flemish
Government, Brussels, Belgium) organize an international colloquium on the Early Middle
Ages within the ACE-theme ‘Significance of the past’. The focus will be on the issues of social and
identity construction, and phenomena such as migration, settlement, ethnicity, acculturation,
land use and landscape, as well as the formation of cultural and political identities in the past.
This colloquium is the result of research and exchange carried out within the framework of the
ACE project - ‘Archaeology in contemporary Europe’,

Here is the first call for papers and here is the participation form.

"The archaeology of Judaism in France and in Europe" an international colloquium, 14-15 January 2010, Paris

The Jewish presence in Europe, from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, remains poorly known. The development of archaeology in the past decades - and notably the development of preventive archaeology, in both urban and rural contexts - has contributed to uncover a great number of sites. These archaeolgoical remains provide invaluable information for renewing our understanding of european jewish history and for preserving its heritage.

Here you can find the program of the event

Here

Thursday 5th November 2009

Musées royaux d’Art et d’Histoire de Bruxelles (Belgium)

Organised by Kinéon asbl and Archaeology in Contemporary Europe (ACE)

HOW DO THE MEDIA REPRESENT ARCHAEOLOGY, WHAT IS AT STAKE?

Here you can find the program

This Conference will provide the opportunity to establish a progress report on how the media represent the archaeologist and archaeology. The analysis of the written and audio-visual press (radio, cinema, documentary) and of literature (novels, cartoons, etc) will help us understand how the archaeologist is perceived by our society, in the media itself or by the public that receives these messages. There are two perspectives to be considered: fiction and the “popularisation” media, even if links can obviously be established between the two.

The archaeologist in films: fiction and representation

With the recent release of the fourth opus of the adventures of Indiana Jones, several discussion fora show that many archaeologists do not recognise themselves in the portrayal of their work. Adventurer without law, robber, after valuables, with little respect for indigenous populations, it is true that this Hollywood hero is very far from the job of archaeologist.

a/ Nevertheless, do these representations not fuel (consciously or unconsciously) our imagination? Is it not possible to use this icon to obtain funds for excavations and archaeological research? Do these caricatural representations crop up in all fiction or series or do these representations of archaeology evolve with time?
b/ How, on the other hand, does the public understand these films and various messages? Does the public manage to distinguish between “fiction” and “reality”? Does this re-enactment contribute in particular to the general public acknowledging this science?

The archaeologist and popularisation

The devices of popularisation specifically intending to widespread knowledge or to emphasize sites (like the written press, the documentaries, etc) are also influenced by spectacular representations. Archaeologists often consider that this re-enactment or the fictionalisation of scientific messages do not help to make them better understood. It is the case, for example, of recent docu-fictions evoking the birth of mankind or the eruption of the Vesuvius at Pompeii with virtual images.

a/ But in fact, which representations do we observe in documentaries or articles? Do we find them only in “general public” documents or is a generalisation of these representations becoming noticeable? What is their purpose? Is it possible to preserve a scientific message while also fulfilling the requirements of the general public?
b/ How, finally, does the public understand popularisation messages? What are their favourite means of communication: reconstitutions, plays, texts, pictures, virtual pictures?

Other topics and questions could be considered.

Here you can find the program

Practical details:

contact: info@kineon.be

Contemporary faces of the past

An interdisciplinary conference

Institute of Prehistory

Adam Mickiewicz University

Poznań, October 21-22, 2009

Here you can find the program of the conference

Here you can find the abstracts

The past, that constitutes a research subject of many disciplines, including archaeology, exists only in a dialectic relationship with the present. The past and the memory of the past play a vital role in lives of individuals and societies, being an active element in the construction of identities at different levels. The past, even the most remote one, provides reservoir of meanings, values, symbols and myths for different cultures, societies or individuals. Thus, the past shapes the present while simultaneously contemporary forms of the past are being mediated by the present.

The aim of this conference is to discuss the very dialectic relationship between the (remote) past and the present. Having the specificity of archaeology in mind, it is our intention to research the subject matter on a broad theoretical and practical levels. Moreover, an interdisciplinary approach secured by professionals from different disciplines will enable us to broaden and rethink the contexts of archaeological research and help to highlight the unique role of archaeology in the contemporary world and its self-creative role in the present.

In the face of rapid changes that are taking place in contemporary world, the questions that will be addressed at the conference seem to be not only important, but also urgent. The fast-changing world, globalization, the heritage tourism, visualization of the contemporary culture, consumerism, ludic tendencies and changes in the social perception of the role and obligation of the science cause that not only the functions of the past are changing. What is also evolving are people's expectations and demands about the ways of presenting the past to the general public as well as the role of professional institutions established for protection of heritage and conveying the knowledge about the past.

Undoubtedly, contemporary people needs the past, but what kind of the past is actually required? How the past is constructed, experienced and embodied by contemporary people? How the postmodern condition and dominant trends of the consumer society and/or popular culture determine and shape a very form of the transmission of the knowledge about the past? How is changing the role of institutions and agencies dealing professionally with the past? What is the function of museums, including archaeological ones, in a contemporary world? What is the role of the new media in the face of a present day challenges in the process of the transmission and acquisition of the knowledge about the past?

This and other questions will be addressed in some initially proposed panels: 1/ The role and the meaning of the past/memories about the past in a contemporary world and/for present-day people; 2/ Archaeology, the social contexts of its operating, social obligations of archaeology and its impact on a contemporary world; the protection of cultural/ archaeological heritage; a rescue archaeology as a part of a self-creative role of archaeology; 3/ The presented/the exhibited pasts. Archaeological open-air museums, archaeological festivals, historical reenactment and different ways of presenting the past to the public; the changing role of museums in a postmodern world; the role of the media in a process of creation/popularization of the knowledge about the past.

Here you can find the program of the conference

Here you can find the abstracts

Contemporary faces of the pasts
The interdisciplinary conference
Institute of Prehistory
Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań
Poznań, October 21-22 2009
Organised AMU and Archaeology in Contemporary Europe (ACE)

The ACE network at the European City of Science

(14-16 November 2008)

The ACE network has participated in the European City of Science, a major public outreach event organised as part of the French presidency of the European Union at the Grand Palais in Paris, on 14-16 November.

What is the European City of Science?

For a number of years, the public outreach branch ('Science et société') of the French ministry of education and research has been organising an annual 'Village of science', to coincide with the 'Fête de la science' (an event that has since been adopted through several European countries). During the French presidency of the European Union (July-December 2008) it has been decided to both Europeanise and magnify this event manifold by holding it in the Grand Palais in Paris (http://www.grandpalais.fr). The ministry of research launched a call among public and private research bodies for selecting 'European' projects that will be attributed space (in units of 50m²) for stands in this 'City of science' (http://www.villeeuropeennedessciences.fr/uk/index.htm).

Three days in November:

Over three days, from the 14th to the 16th November 2008, the Grand Palais in Paris has welcomed no less than 42600 visitors. Youngsters, school groups, families, amateurs of sciences and innovation, all were invited to compose their own path through the various districts of the City of Science. Some of the stands installed reproduced the working and living conditions of researchers in various disciplines (meteorological station, biomedical laboratory...), others recreated some exotic environments (field of tropical plantations, polar station...) as well as more familiar spaces: botanical garden, airport, building site...and an archaeological excavation!

The European dimensions of archaeology:

The Institut national de recherches archéologiques préventives - Inrap and ACE have quickly responded, by proposing to reconstruct the archaeological excavation of an urban site in the middle of the Grand Palais, over a surface of 160 m². The proposed reconstruction and related activities (see photos and description below) provided us an opportunity for discussing and highlighting the European dimensions of archaeology. On the one hand, we could show that the archaeological past did not unfold according to our current national and linguistic borders, and that people, materials and ideas have been circulating across the continent throughout historic and prehistoric times. On the other hand, we wanted also to demonstrate that the past needed nowadays to be studied at a European scale, implicating exchanges and collaboration between European archaeologists so as to confront and enrich different traditions, trainings, methodologies, perspectives in our attempts to understand the past and to make it relevant.

The exhibition:

Our presence at the 'European city of science' was structured around the theme of 'archaeology in the city' ('l'archéologie dans la cité'), and included several features/spaces:

1 - Reconstruction of an urban excavation / stratigraphy. With remains of layers, finds and features, included a Neolithic burial, and mainly a Roman layer and a Medieval layer. Modern 19^th and 20^th century buildings represented as an urban benchmark.

2 - A projection space for a 12 minutes video on archaeology, its challenges, its practices...

3 - A space dedicated to 4 workstands on issues of archaeological sciences, with archaeologists present to explain what they are doing and why, what is their profession and how they carry it out. The workstands included :

a) Ceramics and their study (forms, styles, uses, composition, provenance etc);

This stand was conceived and staffed by archaeologists from Inrap (Rhône-Alpes - Auvergne).

b) Archaeozoology; faunal remains, interactions with natural environment, hunting and husbandry)

This stand was conceived and staffed by our VIOE colleagues.

c) The city in history. An interactive puzzle in three dimensions for children explorating the different layers and remains of the past city.

This stand was conceived and staffed by archaeologists from the Musée des Beaux-Arts et d'Archéologie, Besançon

4 - A dedicated space to welcome visitors and present the ACE network. Children, students and parents were interested in how to become an archaeologist and in the variety of the archaeological practices accross Europe.

This stand was conceived and staffed by our RGK colleagues and Inrap.

DARIAH - ACE - ARENA2 Workshop 1 Report,

Dr Stuart Jeffrey, Archaeology Data Service, University of York.

Original project website: http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/arena/
DARIAH website: http://www.dariah.eu/
Here you can find the  program
Here you can find the list of participants

The first meeting of the ARENA2 (Archaeological Records of Europe Networked Access) project, coordinated by the Archaeology Data Service (ADS) took place on the 6^th and 7^th of February at the University of York in the UK. The ARENA2 project builds on an original interoperability project funded under the EU Culture2000 programme which was completed in 2004. This project was a technical demonstration of the possibility of making archaeological datasets cross-searchable, in this instance monument inventories from a number of European partner countries. Such international cross-searching is universally considered highly desirable as a means of unlocking research potential in the cultural heritage sector. Partners for this project were drawn from the cultural heritage sector in Poland, Romania, Denmark, Iceland, Norway and the United Kingdom. The underlying technological approaches were a combination of the Z39.50 protocol and the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI PMH). Whilst these technologies were considered close to the cutting edge of interoperability approaches at the inception of the ARENA project, advances in the last 5-10 years, particularly in Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), have meant that while the strategic objectives of the ARENA project remain sound, the technology could be updated to a more flexible, scalable and extensible model.

It is with this in mind that the ADS is creating a new technical demonstrator, called ARENA2, as a key component of the Preparing a Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities project (DARIAH, WP7), an EU ESFRI funded programme to support a digital infrastructure for the arts and humanities data across Europe. DARIAH brings together researchers, information managers and information providers and gives them a technical framework that enables enhanced data-sharing among research communities. ARENA 2 will upgrade the ARENA portal using SOA, demonstrating the enhanced functionality this offers whilst showing that existing systems based on legacy protocols (such as Z39.50) can be integrated into this new approach. Intrinsic to ARENA2 as a demonstrator is the geographical expansion of the project via collaboration with DARIAH's partner network.

Simultaneous to the production of this demonstrator for DARIAH, the ADS is also a partner in the Archaeology of Contemporary Europe (ACE) project. This project funded under the EU culture programme and led by INRAP in France aims to promote contemporary archaeology at a European wide level, by emphasising its cultural, scientific, and economic dimensions, including its manifold interest for the wider public. As part of the ADS's participation in this project a web services registry for the UK and European cultural heritage sector is being constructed using Java and Universal Description Discovery and Integration technologies (JUDDI). Clearly these two strands, the recasting of ARENA as a web services based cross-search platform and the creation of a functional registry and service specification for those services are complementary. February's workshop therefore was an opportunity to bring together partners in the ARENA project, both those who are participants DARIAH, such as DANS in the Netherlands, and those out with the project, such as representatives from Scotland, Iceland, Romania, and Norway, with those partners from the ACE project who had expressed an interest in participating either in ARENA2 or in the ACE - JUDDI registry project, such as LaPa in Spain, The University of Thessaloniki in Greece and the Flemish Heritage Institute. The objectives of the workshop were twofold, firstly to inform all participants of the strategic objectives of the project and its technical underpinnings and secondly to get feedback from all partners on current initiatives in the field of interoperability, their current technical standings and their availability to participate in ARENA2 in practical terms (for example timescales and access to technical support).

After a round of introductions, the first sessions of Friday the 6th were given by Prof. Julian Richards and Dr Stuart Jeffrey of the ADS and provided the essential contextual information on the two projects DARIAH and ACE and also on the fundamentals for web services and SOA. This was followed after lunch with a demonstration of a working national web services aggregator, English Heritage's 'Heritage Gateway' project and the web services registry created by the ADS. Also demonstrated was the original ARENA project as it currently stands. The penultimate session on Friday was dedicated to confirming the level of participation that each partner present was hoping to offer, including what specific data sets would be offered as targets to the cross-search mechanism and what technologies would be utilised. The final session of the day was an opportunity for each partner to report to the group on recent developments in their organisations on interoperability. The assembled participants represent a significant cross-section of European archaeological and cultural heritage organisations and it was an extremely valuable opportunity to report, at a senior level, on developments within individual countries as well as future plans for international cooperation. Where PowerPoint slides were used in these presentations they are available for download at the ARENA website. After the close of this session informal discussions continued over the workshop dinner in one of York's famous 'haunted' medieval buildings, St Williams College close to York Minster itself.

Sessions on Saturday the 7^th of February followed on from the previous day, by confirming partners and data sets for participation and engaging in a more detailed discussion of each partner's technical standing and an in-depth look at the challenges we face with regard to data thesaurus and mapping issues. Importantly the timescales for each partner's participation was collated into an agreed project calendar. The session concluded with an open discussion and a final round-up before partners dispersed to head back to their respective countries.

It was clear at the time, and has been reinforced by participant feedback since, that the workshop was highly successful in its objectives of providing a point of intersection between the DARIAH and ACE projects, in confirming partner participation in the ARENA2 project and clearly delineating the next steps towards its objectives. The implementation stage will start with the integration of the RCAHMS (Scotland) monument inventory data set in early summer and conclude with maximum partner participation by the end of 2009. Although not all partners will be able to participate immediately the longer terms objectives of cross-border data access were agreed and each participating organisation garnered the necessary context and made the necessary network contacts to drive towards this shared objective. It looks like the ARENA2 partnership will continue to thrive beyond the lifespan of the technical demonstrator alone.

Original project website: http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/arena/
DARIAH website: http://www.dariah.eu/

The ACE network is announcing the publication of 'L'Archéologie préventive en Afrique. Enjeux et perspectives' (Editions Sépia, 2008), in relation with the theme II D on European archaeology and international development.

Here the table of contents (pdf)

International Workshop Digital Data Management

Brussels, 09/11/2009

How are digital data managed and used? What are the best practices abroad? Which tools are available today? The Flemish Heritage Institute wants to open a dialogue on these subjects with a one day workshop in Brussels, the 9th of November 2009: digital data management in archaeology. During the workshop people active in the archaeological field will be introduced to international examples and best practices in (digital) data management. The scope of the day includes 3 main themes which will be addressed by two speakers each: digital data registration in the field, depositing and storing data, making the data accessible and data dissemination. In the afternoon there will be a choice of two sessions of expert classes. This workshop is part of the Archaeology in Contemporary Europe-project, an initiative of the EC funded Cultural Programme, to which the Flemish Heritage Institute contributes.

Programme, practical information and registration:  http://upcoming.vioe.be