Kann überhaupt irgendwer graben?

Archäologische Feldforschung im Spannungsfeld zwischen Partizipation und Gefahrenabwehr

Abstract

Archaeological fieldwork permit requirements are usually justified by the need to protect archaeological monuments from destruction by unprofessional excavations. The academic quality of proposed fieldwork is (allegedly) controlled by monuments authorities, whose own fieldwork regularly appears to be exempt from any independent quality control. This contribution demonstrates, based on the specific example of the Austrian Federal Monuments Authority (BDA), that state authorities and their academic expert staff are not better, but rather less suited and qualified than other professional archaeologists to assess the academic quality of proposed field research. Fieldwork competence is not assessed in appointment procedures for archaeological expert positions. Academic assessments grade the quality of fieldwork conducted by archaeological officials of the BDA much worse than that of archaeologists employed by other bodies. That these officials not always perform their duties as expert witnesses adequately is positively proven by devastating court judgements. The BDA has no internal academic quality control unit nor an effective disciplinary complaints procedure, not even for misconduct already proven in court. Also, (often considerably) academically less qualified officials are tasked with assessing the academic competence of more highly (or even supremely) qualified applicants. Control by a state authority thus does not guarantee the academic quality of fieldwork.