Archaeology and crisis

The current global economic crisis has had tremendous economical, cultural and social consequences on various domains and disciplines, including archaeology. Its multiply effects on archaeology and archaeological heritage management are the subject of Archaeology and the Global Economic Crisis. Multiple Impacts, Possible Solutions (2010) edited by Nathan Schlanger and Kenneth Aitchison.

The book is a collection of essays in which the contributors discuss the variety of ways that the crisis has affected archaeological practice in countries like the Netherlands, Spain, France, Ireland, Poland, among others. Accordingly, the authors aim to contextualize the crisis with regard to archaeology apropos of:

• research funding and priorities,
• professional employment,
• conservation and public outreach,
• heritage management, policies and legislation.

The crisis affects archaeology in a number of ways across Europe. The situation of Polish archaeology is a telltale example. Whereas in case of most European countries, the crisis caused the decline in number of archaeological projects, research funding and professional employment, to mention but a few, the case of Polish archaeology clearly shows that the crisis has to be contextualized with regard to each country.   

During the last decade most archaeological excavations in Poland has been conducted in relation to construction of new motorways, expressways, airports, stadiums, etc. Many of rescue excavations were done before 2012, the year that Poland and Ukraine jointly organized the European Football Championship. The peak of the crisis overlapped with the Championship. This is the very reason why the crisis does not resulted in a dramatic decrease in financial support of rescue excavations. On the contrary, in 2007, Poland spent a sum of PLN 7 billion on the construction of roads and highways. In 2010, the sum was approximately fourth time higher. Very small part of the sum went to archaeologists in order to conduct rescue excavations.

It can be said that the crisis touched rather the quality of archaeological work than the number of archaeological projects and fieldwork. Archaeological private companies, which were mostly responsible for the archaeological works done before the Euro,  to maintain the same level of income as times before the global crisis, dramatically lowered the standards of research and quality of fieldwork.