European and world archaeologies

Relations between European archaeologies and those elsewhere in the world are manifold and complex. They involve issues in archaeological research, in dealing with archaeological heritage resources, and in the archaeological profession, that are also influenced by the dominant use of English. This paper explores some of those issues that were also presented at a debate during the World Archaeological Congress in Dublin. Keywords Europe; archaeological heritage resources; language; indigenous issues; stakeholders; pseudoarch-aeology; world heritage. The development of contemporary archaeology is essentially a European phenomenon, even though the concept of archaeology is probably older than the concept of Europe. Professor Alain Schnapp (1993), in his masterful exploration of the history of archaeology, has shown that its roots date as far back as the ancient Assyrians themselves. Although archaeology is not, therefore, an invention of the Renaissance as is often stated, it can nevertheless be said that it was at least reinvented then. Modern archaeology began in the Europe of the antiquarians of the fifteenth century, and even though ‘Europe ’ itself is not a self-evident entity but more of a ‘concept’, a matter of geographical definition, it seems to me that there is indeed something like a ‘European archaeology’. A European archaeology certainly is a reality according to most of the authors involved in a recent discussion on ‘Does the archaeology of Europe exist? ’ in the journal Archaeological Dialogues. If one defines it with Ascherson loosely as ‘the way in which archaeology is done in Europe ’ (2008: 28), there are some interesting issues that can be examined in relation to other archaeologies around the world, which in many cases are the direct offspring of European colonial archaeology. Before delving somewhat deeper into this issue, it may be useful to remind ourselves first that Europe is not the same as the European Union. The EU is a supranational organization of twenty-seven countries, a political and legal entity that has had various powers voluntarily conferred on it by it