Preventive archaeology in regional newspapers in historical perspective
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 2020-09-20

Full-title: Preventive archaeology in regional newspapers in historical perspective : the case of french-speaking Switzerland

As other country in Europe, Switzerland experienced a very important territorial and urban development since the 1960s. This influence on the territory modified significantly the way of doing archaeology: methods of intervention, framework of work, goals of excavations, data processing, etc. Preventive archaeology also constitutes a change of mission for archaeologists working to collect data on the ground before destruction of remains. In the archives of the regional newspapers of French-speaking Switzerland, we have examined articles about Swiss archaeology thought quantitative and qualitative methods, and analysed the way in which preventive archaeology was presented. We compared our observations with newspaper archives from the previous three decades (since 1930). Our results show that the regional print media often echoes methodological changes and highlights the new scientific and systematic aspects of archaeology. But the cliches related to archaeologists and archaeology (treasure hunt, adventure and exploration, mystery, etc.) are still very present. Above all, the paradigmatic change that the practice of preventive archaeology represents is almost never thematised or explained in regional journals. This lack of preventive archaeology as explicit regional newspapers subject is mainly due to the archaeologists’ unease with their role as a preventive archaeologist. The consequences are often a misunderstanding from the public about the goal of archaeologist as “heritage rescuer”. 

Author(s): Javet, Raphaelle (Universite de Neuchatel)