Session: #211

Discussion session (with formal abstracts)

This session is jointly organised by the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists (CIfA) and the Institute of Archaeologists of Ireland (IAI), and builds on CIfA 2020 session on professional standards.

In virtual Kiel we explored how professional standards and their supporting guidance, developed in one jurisdiction, can be adapted for use in others. There, we examined a new model for CIfA guidance, presenting
• the standard that must be met
• high-level guidance on the principles to be applied to different types of archaeological work, that should be applicable to all European jurisdictions and beyond (but needs to be tested and modified)
• detailed guidance on required practice in individual jurisdictions (which can only be prepared by archaeologists who work there – a long project!)

This year, in real Budapest, we will look at consultation versions of CIfA’s high-level guidance, and will learn how IAI is reforming its codes and guidance. As an example, we will look at the detailed guidance for Northern Ireland, a product of IAI and CIfA collaboration to support the national heritage body (Historic Environment Division of the Department for Communities), and consider if this way of working translates to other states and regions.

We hope that the national heritage bodies in the UK and Ireland will explain why they are supporting the professional institutes to develop these standards and supporting guidance, what they hope they will achieve, and how – as regulators – they will use them.

But of course we want to hear from beyond that Atlantic archipelago, from those countries where CIfA has a presence and where it doesn’t, about whether this approach could specify better outcomes of archaeological work.

Professional, Standards, Guidance, Collaboration, National Heritage

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yes

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Institute of Archaeologists of Ireland

Peter Hinton (United Kingdom) ¹

James Kyle (Ireland) ²
Clara Drummer (Germany) ³
Wilfried Hessing (Netherlands) ⁴