FOR HELP TO THE INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY IN PRAGUE PLEASE SEE BELOW.
Cheers,
Umberto
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. 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.
The well-equipped profilographic laboratory had recently become a
fully
operative centre, the only one of its kind in the former Communist
bloc,
achieving noteworthy results in particular in the area of classic
artefactual archaeology. Thanks to a concerted effort over the last
few
years it was possible to gradually outfit the conservation laboratory
with
modern equipment, too. In connection with the ever-increasing
interpenetration of traditional archaeological and natural scientific
methods in the formulation of theoretical approaches within the
discipline
attention was also devoted to obtaining the modern instruments
required for
the work of those colleagues working in the Natural Science Department
- a
workplace for the processing of samples for pollen analysis, a
molecular
genetics centre for the isolation of DNA from osseous material etc. A
central archive of sources for the discipline was also created, and it
was
in this year, even, that a general reconstruction and modernisation of
the
library was undertaken.
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. 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.
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 (Česká národní banka)
SWIFT code: CEKOCZPP
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