Summary of Aims and Objectives

[ Summary | Project Description | Application Form ]

This 3-year project within the European Union's continuing CULTURE 2000 Programme was approved on the basis of the attached application form and has now been in progress since September 2004. The project will be completed by the end of August in 2007. Total expenditure will be almost €900.000, a little under half of this contributed by the Culture 2000 Programme and the remainder by the participants themselves.

An Interim Report on progress so far is available through the links on this page. Reports on activities in the individual participating countries can be found by clicking on the Home Page flags and following the links to Interim Report.

English Heritage is the lead body with co-organisers from institutions in Germany (2), Belgium, Hungary, and Italy (2). Each organisation has agreed to contribute €15,000 per annum for the duration of the project. There are major co-partners in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Italy, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Romania and the Slovak Republic. There will be co-operations of other kinds with institutions in Austria, Bulgaria, Finland, Latvia and probably Portugal.

The programme consists of nine "Actions":

1. Training schools, workshops and seminars in aerial archaeology
2. Landscape surveys across Europe
3. Mapping and documentation
4. Experiments with satellite, multi-spectral and laser imagery
5. Making use of existing archives of air photo material
6. Enhancing professional networks across Europe
7. The initiation of a European Centre for Aerial Survey and Conservation
8. Public presentation: exhibitions, web-sites, and TV/radio programmes
9. Centrally funded activities of a pan-European nature.

Most of the actions, including aerial survey and mapping programmes in many of the participating countries, will be continuous throughout the three years of the project. They will be implemented through individual national programmes which can respond to local needs and conditions but which will draw on the shared expertise of colleagues across Europe.

The timing and location of events throughout the project, and especially in Years 2 and 3, will have to respond to developments that cannot yet be predicted. These will include calls for seminars or workshops in countries which have not yet adopted the techniques of aerial survey in landscape recording. Some events can, however, be picked out for mention at this stage.

Year 1 September 2004 to August 2005

Establishment of project web-site and 'virtual exhibition', for up-dating throughout the project. Workshops in Helsinki (October 2004), Bucharest (spring 2005) and Siena (June 2005) and Romania. Training schools in Foggia, Italy, N Germany (April 2005?) and the UK (Summer 2005).

Year 2 September 2005 to August 2006

Training schools at Siena, Italy (June 2006) and in N Germany (April 2006?). Workshops in S Germany and at two other locations yet to be decided. Publication of related book (this year or next).

Year 3 September 2006 to August 2007

Training school in N Germany, workshop in Romania, Italy (Siena) and at two other locations yet to be decided. Final colloquium in London, Berlin or Rome (late summer 2007). Launch of major exhibition in Prague, and travelling versions elsewhere.