From Punch Cards to Virtual Space: Changing the Concept of Archaeological Heritage Management in the Digital Age

Abstract

Exploration of the Neolithic site of Bylany started in 1953. It is not a coincidence that in the same year, the until-then independent State Institute of Archaeology was incorporated into the newly established Czechoslovakian Academy of Sciences (created along Soviet lines). At the same time Czech archaeology had to deal with certain political pressures that impacted on archaeological research and heritage management strategies. Large fieldwork excavations were given priority because the communist regime used them to demonstrate achievements and endorse further political aims. In particular, excavations of early medieval Slavic settlement sites received significant support because they were used to prove the advanced cultural level of the antecedents of the socialist populations in Central Europe (Jiráň and Kuna 2010:5–6). In the 1950s, Bohumil Soudský made use of this trend to initiate a large-scale excavation project focusing on the Neolithic settlement of the first farmers at the site of Bylany in Central Bohemia. The aims, methods, and theories of Central European Neolithic studies developed rapidly during the subsequent 50 years of the project (Soudský 1973). The development followed three main avenues: landscape activity, methods of excavation and processing of material, and interpretation of evidence and data (Pavlů 1998:1; Květina 2010).KeywordsArchaeological ResearchPortable Document FormatNeolithic SiteHeritage ManagementLandscape ActivityThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.