Dig question

[Tyra]

Well, I am going to avoid offending anyone with my NHL Swedish and use the English forum this time...
A while ago, I submitted a question as to the availability of a map over Birka and was told that not enough of Birka had been excavated to make such a map, and no more digs were planned. This now leads me to the next question:
In Sweden, what constitutes a go-ahead for a dig? I mean who decides what and why. Is it, for example, the government that decides it has better things to spend money one than a dig of Birka, and does it have to do with the current owners of the property, who may not want their grazing pasture dug up? Are there ever, in Sweden, I mean, private companies that sponsor digs so that the government doesn't have to foot the bill, or is that a no-no due to that company's then vested interests in the possible finds etc.? I know this is a rather large question, but I would really like to know, so that I can better understand. It seems to me that digging in Birka would be a given, as there must be more finds from what for all intents and purposes seems to be a main hub for trade, and so there must be a logical reason why it's not been and will not be excavated. For example, Sweden is more in tune with environmental problems and such than a lot of other countries and where the US government, say (no slight intended, just an example), would put a dig, they might not just on account of the environmental impact or some reason like that. Maybe there isn't enough finds in Birka to make it a viable dig? Anyhow...so, what , who, and under what circumstance can one do a dig in Sweden? CR

[Månia]

Hello Tyra!
I´m not really the one to answer your questions, but i know one thing. Most of the time when its decided that a place should be digged at, it´s because there´s gonna be a road built or something like that.

--Ameli--

[Arnaud Guillaume]

I am not an archaeologist, but what I've heard is that there is such an abundance of potential sites that there simply isn't money for much more than handling the places that are threatened by construction work. An additional fact against excavating a site is that techniques in examining a site improve steadily, so by excavating a site today, you make it impossible to study it tomorrow with the better tools that will be available then. There is some work done at particularly interesting sites, but I think they usually pick a portion of the site, and leave the rest for future researchers.

There has to be some archaeologists on this board who can answer in greater detail, though... [:D]

[viking0523]

Here is an attempt to explain how archaeology works in Sweden.

The top-dogs on the scene are “The National Heritage Board”, a government agency.
http://www.raa.se/nhb/index.asp
and the “Museum of National Antiquities”, another government agency linked to NHA.
http://www.historiska.se/myndigheten/ (website only in Swedish)

They work on the local context in conjunction with “Sweden’s County Administrations”
http://www.lst.se/english/index.htm
and the “County Museums” which are like regional branches of the MNA.
http://www.nrm.se/re/remus.html.en

The law governing among other things ancient remains, archaeological digs and such is the “Act concerning Ancient Monuments and Finds” (SFS 1988:950). According to that, no one may do anything that affects any ancient remains without the consent of the authorities.

It is the landowner and/or builder who will have to pay for any excavation/dig necessary to explore and document ancient remains before they are removed in preparation to building something. They will have to use experienced and “certified” personnel at least to oversee the dig and do the important work, but some work on the site can be done by amateurs or students. The NHB can do such digs on a contract basis. Digs that are not called for by road- or housebuilding have to be paid for by the government, which is perpetually short of cash, or by other means.

In the case of Birka, the latest dig was actually largely paid for by private donations, but consent from the authorities still had to be obtained. Birka is a really huge area and it would cost enormous sums to excavate it all.

Both points raised by “Arnaud Guillaume” in this thread are valid, money is an important issue and sites not threatened by exploitation are rarely completely excavated in order to leave things for later generations of archaeologists and their newer (and hopefully better) analysis techniques.

If I have made some errors in this text, feel free to correct me.

[Tyra]

Yeah, I gather that schools, such as my own (HGO) participate in parts of digs (in my case, it would be Ajvide on Gotland). I am going to look closer at those links, for sure. I have been to the Birka site, and it is large, I was just surprised that more of it had not been excavated since I was there on a field trip as a kid, but then again, not really, if the government has to foot the bill without sponsors for such a dig. Healthcare and schools tend to take precedense over old bones in this country as well as in my old one when it comes to government spending! And I think it is kind of silly to expect the WHOLE site to be excavated, but I thought maybe at least a portion....I guess I can dream about it, huh? LOL

[Fredrik S]

I have been working with contract archaeology for the most part of a decade. As stated by Viking 0523 the basis of the Swedish system is "The act concerning ancient monuments and finds". Most important, it states that anyone who wants to exploit a piece of ground have to pay for archaeological excavations. Since the costs for proffesional excavations have become really heavy nearly all the big digs of today are made in the context of major government projects such as highways and new railway lines. Relatively speaking, Birka is one of the most extensively investigated late Iron Age complex in Scandinavia. The maps produced after the latest digging campaign are actually rather detailed and well founded. So I do not really understand what you mean when you are surprised about "how little have been done". The extent and quality of research on Birka would probably match just about any major archaeological complex in Europe (except Pompeji).

Fredrik/ Museum of National Antiquities

[Tyra]

Well, at one point, I had posted a question under "Forskning" in the Swedish side of this same site asking if and where I could find a map of Birka. From the replies I received from that posting, I somehow got the (wrong) impression that not very much had been excavated (as far as percentage of what's available to excavate, however, I know full well that the QUALITY of the research is top notch and will never, ever argue otherwise!!)and that that was the resaon there were no maps available. At that point I was after something that shows the layout of the town itself as we know it today. Did I misinterpret the situation, then? In any case, that was sort of a sidebar to the original question, which you have now answered for me, but I am still equally interested in the reply! And what I meant was that I had been there as a kid, and from what I see on websites etc. today, it doesn't look like more has been excavated since then, but that, again, can be a false impression because it's really difficult to sit on the "wrong" side of the world and try to judge these things. It was, in any case, not meant as an offence to any good job that someone has done since then (more to the point that I have been unable to find the info from over here, which is why I posted the question in the first place).