Archaeology for the present and the future: a view from France

Archaeology has never been independent of the society where it is practiced. In France, for example, as the archaeology of the national territory never played any role in the construction of national identity, preventive archaeology only really started in the 1980s, long after other European countries. In any case, since 1992, all European countries (and not just the European Union) fall within the Malta Convention (also called the Valetta Convention), even though not all have ratified it entirely, even after a quarter of a century. Nevertheless, the Convention says nothing about the actual organisation of preventive archaeology. In reality, in Europe today there are two opposing conceptions: one where the State should be responsible for all the organisation of preventive archaeology, the other where, in the context of economic liberalism, this should be left to private initiative and commercial competition. Between these two extremes, there is a whole range of intermediary situations, often in constant transformation, although not always in a positive manner (as the recent case of Hungary has shown). It is not enough to say that it is just the quality of research that counts, since these legislations have a direct effect on the organisation of work and on the scientific results. Hence this paper will try to make a provisional assessment of the various archaeological policies implemented in Europe and draw some conclusions, also in the perspective of a possible modification of the Malta convention.