Margareta MUSILOVA
(Municipal Monument Preservation Institute, Bratislava, Slovak Republic)
Outline:
The main objective is to show how big economic and political changes influenced the archaeological research in Bratislava, Slovakia
Abstract:
The Municipal Monument Preservation Institute in Bratislava, founded in 1968, was the only municipal monument preservation institution in Slovakia, with coordination, advisory and scientific supervision purpose. During that time many significant archaeological excavations and discoveries were achieved. Since its beginning the institute was focusing on the research in the historical centre of the city, mainly within the ancient medieval city walls. In the 70-ties and 80ties the archaeologists cooperated closely with art-historians, architects and historians, who were part of the Municipal Monument Preservation Institute, and searched most of the localities of the old town. Thanks to that we got a clear idea of the development of the medieval city, but also of the prehistoric settlement up to the early medieval times.
The big changes brought by the Velvet Revolution after 1989 came with the city developers bringing new projects requesting preliminary archaeological research. It was then when large excavations started, but paradoxically the Velvet Revolution brought also a drastic reduction of our staff. Moreover as of 1995 our institution lost the advisory, coordination and supervisory competencies. The area which was formerly searched by one competent institution only suddenly became a digging field for any archaeological research subject presenting the lowest offer. There became a serious lack of coordination and scientific information sharing, the ethics and transparency in the archaeological research are missing. An information channel on all ongoing excavations, such as on internet, would be more then appreciated in the future.
Keywords:
information sharing, transparency, ethics