Appeal from the flooded-out Inst. of Archaeology, Prague

Submitted by Andy B on Monday, 16 September 2002 Page Views: 1067

Due to the devastating floods which have affected Bohemia, the operations of the Institute of Archaeology of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague have been paralysed. Any donations of books (professional monographs, proceedings, runs of journals, dictionaries, encyclopediae, textbooks) would be most welcome, in addition to such financial aid as might be offered.

The Institute was established in 1919, was incorporated into the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in 1953 and since 1992 has been part of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. The Institute of Archaeology in Prague is the institution in which is concentrated the greatest number of professional workers in the discipline anywhere in the Czech Republic. Their areas of expertise encompass archaeological resources stretching from the Palaeolithic to the Early Modern periods, which were and are gained primarily, but not exclusively, from the Czech Republic. Both portable and immovable sources are studied (artefacts, features, settlements and their remains of all kinds, funerary relicts, landscapes). A broad range of methodological approaches are applied to both field and theoretical research. Emphasis is laid on inter-disciplinary co-operation (with the natural and historical sciences in particular). The Institute of Archaeology is also the traditional publisher - and largest in the Czech Republic - of professional publications, as well as of the two major Czech archaeological journals, Památky archeologické and Archeologické rozhledy. The Institute possessed a comprehensive library and systematically created archive that formed an information base for both the broader professional and non-expert publics. It has contributed to the conservation of archaeological resources as part of the national cultural heritage organisationally, legislatively, informatically and practically (conducting trial excavations, documenting threatened sites and carrying out minor rescue operations), to the organisation of scientific life (conferences and public competitions) and to the popularisation of archaeology (seminars, exhibitions).

In recent years the Institute of Archaeology in Prague has managed to secure considerable, high quality technical and instrumental equipment. It has at its disposal, for example, the most modern equipment for the creation of digitised documentation, along with the software required for its further processing. To meet requirements for field survey caesium magnetometers and modern total stations are available. One of the professional teams within the Institute has its own aircraft available, with the aid of which a project for the aerial prospection of historic landscapes in Bohemia is being conducted.

All of the Institute's activities were more or less halted on August 14th 2002, when its principal buildings in Letenská ul. were submerged by floodwaters from the Vltava river to a depth of three metres. The library was destroyed virtually in its entirety, and the store of Institute publications from the last 15 years was also devastated. The geodetic archive (some 10,000 maps and plans) and the photographic archive (some 120 000 negatives and diapositives), the natural sciences and conservation laboratories as well as the archaeological finds depositories were all flooded out.

The Institute of Archaeology in Prague will not be able to recover from this colossal damage without the aid of colleagues, the archaeological community as a whole and the broader public, particularly in recreating the library collections.

Financial donations may be sent to the account of the Institute of Archaeology in Prague:

Account name: Archeologický ústav AV ČR v Praze
Account number: 17537031 / 0710
Bank: Czech National Bank Czeská národní banka)
SWIFT code: CEKOCZPP

Contributor Bio for Andy B: Megalithic Portal Founding Editor.

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