Presently most developed rescue excavations take place in Britain. In the UK, some 100 organizations employ ca. 2000 people, and their total annual expenditure is around 100 million euros. Most of these organizations count somewhat less than 50 staff people. It is estimated that around 5000 excavations are carried out every year for the needs of development-led archaeology (for more data, see Hunter and Ralson, 2006). In France, rescue archaeology plays similar role, constituting about 90% of entire French archaeological activity. For three quarters of the year, archaeologists involved in preventive archaeology undertake nearly 2000 interventions, requiring a budged of over 100 million euros. According to Jean-Paul DeMoule (2010), some 500.000 archaeological sites are listed in national records, but five times more are estimated to be still unrecorded. Every year, 70.000 hectares (700 km2) are subjected to the development activities. But only about 15% of them undergo the regular archaeological investigation.
Out of Europe, rescue archaeology is being developed recently in the United States and has interesting results on large investments. The example could be a rescue excavation in a two hectares site in Middleton, Wisconsin, connected with the expansion of U.S. Highway 12. Wisconsin is known as America’s Dairyland but as well as the home of over 15.000 of so called “effigy mounds”, shaped in the form of animals, of which roughly 4000 survived agriculture and construction. They are the evidence of highly developed Indian Mississippi civilization, the most northern influence of the Aztecs cultural tradition. Middletown is only 30 miles east of the Aztalan, famous for its pyramidal mound of the same cultural tradition (Birmingham and Eisenberg, 2000).
A much different and frustrating situation occurs in China, connected with the construction of the huge Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River. The dam will raise the level of water to 175 meters, creating the largest lake in the world, 675 kilometers long. The artificial lake will submerge a immense amount of archaeological sites from more than 100.000 years of human’s history. To save the archaeological sites for research should be spent about 500 million dollars. In reality, the budget of 37,5 million was allotted, which includes also the money to relocate people away from the valley (Frameaux, 2000).
Wherever rescue archaeology is applied, it depends on national, state or departmental legislation. In most cases, rescue archaeology may generate conflicts between investors damaging archaeological sites, and the archaeologists protecting them. Investors, especially those who construct highways, dams, railways or transcontinental pipelines, would prefer not to pay any attention to the old sherds, scattered human or animal bones, as well to any traces of ancient constructions. In most cases, developers are too busy to stop the works and to call for archaeologists to save the unexpected findings. It happens so unless they are obliged by law to inform the nearest archaeological conservator (or Museum/University) about the findings and stop in the meantime the earthwork.
In the countries that respect the Valetta Convention, there exist specialized services to react and to undertake immediately the salvage excavation for saving and protecting the findings. Local archaeological conservators are authorized to stop the investment for the length of time needed for archaeological excavation. It is the ideal model of the relations between investors and archaeologists. Unfortunately, there are numerous examples of breaking the law by investors, for whom “time is money”, and slowing the investment for the needs of “romantic” protection of ancient monuments seems to them just a lost of money.
There is a natural conflict of interests between investors and archaeologists. Workers employed by the highway construction in East Anglia told me in secrecy that they were paid by the boss not to inform anybody about the artifacts found during the construction. Such cases appear in many countries, where investors experiment the “shorter way” to avoid legal regulations.
Not less important is another natural conflict between the requirements of the habits of traditional archaeology and the new challenges. Salvage archaeology faces the controversy of the short and often strictly limited time in which the excavation must be accomplished, and the scientific accuracy of the study. More then that, everything is complicated by the size of the excavated field. In numerous cases, they count several acres. The procedure needs to operate with tons of soil, which must be taken away from the dig, transported with the help of heavy machinery (bulldozers, lories), and usually brought back to cover the dig when the excavation is finished.
At the same time, nothing can replace the shovel and the spatula in exploring archaeological features – it cannot be fastened. The only solution for speeding up the time of research is to modernize and make more precise the classical methods of documentation. The use of electronic devices, like computerized theodolites, 3D photography, the use of laser “photography” for very precise measurements and other similar advances. The results of such modern documentations can be sent via the internet with the help of wireless communications to the laboratories or the research centers at the universities/museums.
In the USA, several excavations that precede the road, railway or canal constructions are accompanied by traveling laboratories, which follow on wheels the archaeological team and analyze the finds and samples as they appear during the excavations.
Some other factors, which don’t cause problems to a traditional archaeological research, become serious in salvage archaeology: storage of finds, their conservation and reconstruction, specialized analyzes are an expensive and complicated matter. In many known cases, it requires the construction of new special buildings and employment of new specialists, not only archaeologists.
Before starting a salvage excavation it is important to have enough knowledge about the possibility of finding archaeological sites on the territory of the coming up investment. The best-known example of such activity occurs in my own country: it is the so-called Archaeological Picture of Poland. It started late in 1978 and is the long-term surface survey covering all accessible parts of the country.
The map of Poland has been divided into rectangular sections (approximately 7 by 5 km) according to the military map in the scale 1:25.000. Main archaeological institutions that are involved (university departments, museums, and offices of conservators) take the responsibility to carry out the task of realizing a surface research. Twice a year – in early spring and late autumn –, groups of archaeology students and volunteers spend one week walking on fresh ploughed fields, searching for pottery sherds, flint tools and any other evidences of past human activity. The project develops itself in a regular basis, map sheet by map sheet, and is precisely recorded. In recent times, GPS contributes to the exact location of traced settlements or cemeteries. From 1978 on, ca. 84% of the whole Poland has been surveyed and most archaeological sites were localized. Recently, the program is supported by aerial photography. There are attempts to use satellite photography too for the same purpose.
The knowledge of potential places where the archaeological sites are expected to exist, permits archaeologists to start the research on the territory of future development long before the construction initiates. It gives the researchers enough time to complete their work before the investor enters on the explored territory. It is evident that out of this case previous recognition via surface observation of the ploughed fields may not be sufficient. The additional help in such case is surveying via aerial photography, and recently, as well, through the use of satellite pictures, especially when they are taken in different times of the day and of the year.
Given all those difficulties, the archaeological sites in the countries which have not been in the past the areas of classic civilizations (eg. Greek or Roman) are easier to excavate. The lack of stony or brick constructions up to medieval epoch is here a handicap. In the countries like Greece, archaeologists involved in development-lead investigation face often dramatic decisions, for instance whether or not to preserve discovered Roman age constructions to reach to underlying Mycenaean buildings. Any decision of such kind is a dramatic choice. Sometimes with linear excavation is possible to press the investors to correct the plans. Even after that it can occur again a similar difficulty.
“ The preservation of the ancient ruins which were uncovered was not always possible. This was the case, for example, for the prehistoric settlement of Zagani at the New Airport of Athens, for the part of the ancient city of Herakleion and farm houses in the area, on the Thessaloniki- Athens railway line, as well as parts of the prehistoric and ancient settlements on the Egnatia Road on Mount Vermion, or another complex at the ancient Lete, and the Roman inn in the Redina-Asprovalta section.
“ In these cases the ancient remains were excavated completely and were recorded with aerial and video photography and sometimes with the construction of models. Their eventual destruction was a bitter experience for the archaeologists who had spent so many months uncovering them.” (Koukouli-Chrysantaki, 2007, p. 93).
To avoid some misfortune destruction, should be taken attempts of persuading the investors to correct the plans of the construction, when very important archaeological sites could be annihilated. Especially when it should be protected and untouched. Such successful negotiations were undertaken in Poland with the road constructors. In other cases – when changing investment plans is not possible – the archaeological excavations must be conducted before the investment would start. Thanks to such solutions, there is a considerable number of large settlements or cemeteries that were excavated and even published (!) long before any bulldozers moved the soil. It is one of most important way to avoid conflicts between archaeologists and constructors – in the optimal situation, they don’t see each other on the site. Stopping the investment in progress is disastrous both for the researchers and the constructors.
One of the eternal shortcomings of archaeology as such, is the insufficient number of full publications of completed excavations. The museums are overfilled with enormous amounts of artifacts, especially pottery sherds, excavated long time ago and never published. It is evident, that final, scientific analysis of excavated sites and all artifacts takes more time than the excavation itself. Very often, it happens that excavation costs less than the preparation of the final publication.
Development-led excavations need new modern legislation to cope with this matter. The overall budget of the work should be calculated by the means covering all post-excavation costs of scientific elaboration and publication. The investor of Yamal-West Europe gas pipeline, EurRoPol Gaz, went so far that not only the costs of rescue excavations were fairly covered, but as well their sixteen-volume publication of the finds and the foundation of the “Archeological Museum of Pipeline”, which was built and arranged by them. The high quality of the discoveries and their significance not only to Polish culture is reflected in the fact that they have met with great interest on the part of the Council of Europe. In September 1998, an exhibition titled “Pipeline of Archeological Treasures” presented at the Hall of the Palace of Europe, in Strasbourg, turned into a great event. It signaled the start of the European Heritage Days, under the patronage of the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe and the Minister of Arts and Culture of Poland. Eminent politicians, representatives of the business world, European parliamentarians and scholars, all participated in the gala opening. As the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe said during the opening: “the exhibition is symbolized by an ideal symbiosis of a great investment created for the future with the world of learning, thanks to which humanity does not forget its history and cultural identity”. In December 1998, at the international archaeological conference at the City University of New York titled “Landscapes in Transition: Recent Approaches to Cultural Heritage Research and Preservation”, such kind of co-operation between archaeologists and investors was recognized as unique on a global scale and worthy of emulation (Clodnicki and Krzyzaniak, 2000, p. 4-6).
Bibliografia
CHLODNICKI, M.; KRZYZANIAK, L,. eds. (2000) – The Pipeline of Archaeological Treasures. Poznan.
DEMOULE, J-P. (2010) – Preventive archaeology in France: Saving the Past for the Future.
FRAMEAUX, I. (2000) – China: Valley of the Damned. The Independent. London, June 24.
KOUKOULI-CHRYSANTHAKI, H. (2007) – Preventive archaeology and major public works in Greece. In BAZÓKI-ERNYEY, H.. ed. – European Preventive Archaeology. Budapest: National Office of Cultural Heritage, Hungary/Council of Europe, p 93.
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HTML | PDF - Legislação de Avaliação de Impacte Ambiental: um estudo comparativo...
L. Rocha
HTML | PDF - Critérios para quantificar o valor do Património Arqueológico
F. Real e G. Branco
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S. B. Caldarelli
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M. J. Almeida et al.
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