What is ethics and why is it relevant to archaeologists?

Ethics applied to archaeology is a way of behaving regarding our objects of study, our peers and the different stakeholders with whom we interact (politicians, journalists, local populations, public). An ethical professional practice requires some distance and reflexive questioning from the set up of the research project and the digging process to the publication and media coverage of results.

Nowadays, archaeologists have to deal with numerous ethical issues in their daily practice: challenging environments (dictatorships, wars, poverty, claimed lands), economic restrictions, (de)regulation of archaeology, graves digging, relationship between archaeologists and local populations and between professional archaeologists and hobbyists, publication practices, media coverage of the results, etc.

We believe it is essential to think about our profession, our status and our position as a scientific profession working on culture in today’s world. Anglo-Saxon archaeologists seem more aware of ethical issues but their approach is related to their history and culture and cannot always be applied to every country. In many European countries, archaeology is embedded in various national traditions. These traditions have an impact on the way archaeologists deal with various issues such as the relationships with communities, deregulation or the status of religions. Because of these differences we think it is legitimate to develop a specific approach to these issues in France and in Europe, in order to bring an alternative perspective on ethics in archaeology. These two days of conference and discussions are a first step. Their aims are to highlight the importance and variety of ethical issues in archaeology and to develop new questions and new answers among students and researchers.

The conference has been published in a thematic issue of the bilingual Canadian Journal of Bioethics.

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Instantaneous translation from French to English and from English to French will be available.