Lessons learned through archaeology. Prague hosts an international congress
After 55 years, archaeologists from all over the world visited Prague for an international congress. Until Friday, they solve questions related to the latest discoveries, but also to the challenges of the current world population.
“Climate change, the threat of global pandemics, the threat of water and food shortages in some parts of the world, but also the protection of monuments in times of war conflicts are the hottest challenges of world archaeological research,” introduced Proglas to the topics of the scientific secretary of the congress Jan Turk from the Center for Theoretical Studies of Charles University.
Hundreds of delegates from more than 70 countries of the world focused primarily on the situation in Ukraine. They debated how war conflicts or social injustice are reflected not only in the protection of monuments and making them available to the public, but also in the questions of ownership of cultural heritage, who has the right to present their past and in what way, etc. They discussed how many churches, museums, theaters and other cultural institutions were destroyed by the Russian occupiers. “The losses are in many ways completely irreplaceable, however, thanks to the presence of Yevhen Perebyjnis, the Ukrainian ambassador in the Czech Republic, we tried to make our Ukrainian colleagues feel that they have support in world archeology, that we perceive them as our partners and are ready to help them not only morally, but really, factually. There was talk, for example, of collections for the restoration of monuments and cooperation in post-war reconstruction,” appointed by Jan Turek.
According to him, archeology can also help in solving other key questions that contemporary science deals with, for example the issue of warming: “It would seem that archaeologists have little to say about the issues of warming and climate change, but the opposite is true. Climate changes have also occurred in the past, people and human populations and communities had to adapt to the changes, leave the areas from which they became deserts. There were various migrations and population movements, and archaeologists are able to investigate all of this. Information about how climate changes affected our ancestors can be very useful for us in how to deal with a changing climate today.”
The scientists will discuss in Prague’s Cubex center until Friday. The last time the best of world archeology came to our metropolis was in 1966. The current congress was postponed twice due to the covid-19 epidemic.