Rescue archaeology in Russia at the turn of the 20th and 21st century

• Authors: Krenke Nikolay
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

Rescue archaeology in Russia is full of contradictions. The apologetic approach to archaeology focuses solely on vast areas covered by excavations, discoveries and investments of millions. But the reality is more complex than that. This article addresses the transformations that took place in rescue archaeology in the 1980s, during “Perestroika”, and in particular in Moscow. Not everyone can withstand the temptation of money. Commercial interests have supplanted the Science in many cases, including that of Moscow. In the meantime, in many Old Russian cities (Pskov, Tver, Vladimir, etc.), the works were conducted in an exemplary manner, thanks to pre-existing traditions of research. Authorities’ demands to free land from the burden of archaeological heritage have led to shifting the focus of archaeological exploration now, identifying the boundaries of archaeological monuments became the key objective, a task that remains basically impossible, as said boundaries are of a purely formal nature. Excavations of empty spaces within archaeological sites have become typical for rescue archaeology and form modern “informational noise”. At the same time, archaeological research carried out on an unprecedented scale, even including the “empty” trenches, provide unique data on spatial and temporal structure of human activity, as exemplified by exploration of the Angara river banks during the construction of the Boguchany Dam.

Keywords

EN

rescue archaeology; Old Russian cities; archaeological monuments protection laws

• Publisher: Narodowy Instytut Dziedzictwa
• Journal: Raport
• Year: 2017
• Volume: 12
• Pages: 213-220

Contributors

author

Krenke Nikolay

• Institute of Archaeology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russian Federation

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