"Archaeology in the Mediterranean: international situation, "" Archaeology developments in the Mediterranean: international situation, developments ": Mission report for the directorates of the French School in Rome and the CNRS Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences ; " L'archéologie en Méditerranée : situation internationale, évolutions " " L'archéologie en Méditerranée : situation internationale, évolutions ": Rapport de mission à l'attention des directions de l'Ecole française de Rome et de l'Institut des sciences humaines et sociales du CNRS

Abstract

Dix-eight months of discussions and exchanges of information with almost 130 colleagues and analysis of documents make it possible to draw up for the first time a general picture of the situation of archaeology in the twenty countries around the Mediterranean. The aim was to characterise the various scientific and heritage strategies currently being carried out in this geographical area of archaeological research, which is certainly one of the most active and internationalised in the world, with almost 14 000 local actors and 800 annual field operations carried out by at least 1500 to 2000 researchers outside their country of origin. Three major developments over the last 20 years have an impact on research today: * the development of preventive archaeology, which makes it possible to renew and enrich most of the corpus of data, and often to form the long series allowing quantitative analyses; * the extension of the concept of cultural heritage, in which the institutions of guardianship are reorganised, and in which the social and economic valorisation of archaeology takes on new meanings; * the system of research competition and collaboration which now goes beyond the framework of nations to that of Europe. The diversity of strategies in the various countries shows, first and foremost, an increased inequality of resources between the countries of Europe in the Community and the others. This serious inequality will certainly reinforce the predominance of international research in the latter countries over national research, but it could also create new tensions. Another line of tension could also emerge between strategies putting knowledge (and thus the scientific treatment of any archaeological data) at the forefront of assessing the value of archaeological operations, and strategies giving priority to the economy and social valorisation. After a comparative description of the situation in each country, we have further developed the analysis of the international research system by looking successively at its ...