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                                          The exhibition has been conceived and produced by archaeological institutions from twelve countries cooperating as the EC funded research network AREA. Archives of European Archaeology (www.area-archives.org).

       Archaeology, the science of the past, seeks systematic knowledge about ancient societies, their history, evolution and interactions with each other and with their environments.

       But archaeology is also a scientific discipline that has its own history.

       This history includes famous discoveries and renowned archaeologists, institutions like museums, preservation of national heritage and universities, but also the development of ideas and theories, as well as the various techniques used to explore and explain the past.

       This history matters. It helps us better understand how our knowledge about the past has actually come about. It confirms that archaeology has always been undertaken in relation to broader cultural, intellectual and ideological considerations. Studies of the past have long been invoked to legitimise political entities and boundaries, but also to challenge them: alongside extreme forms of abuse, archaeology also brings a welcome contribution to our sense of identity, at regional, national and international levels.

       Spanning from the Renaissance to the 21 st century, this exhibition illustrates changing views and uses of the past, in Europe and beyond. It has been conceived and produced by AREA, an EC funded network on the archives and history of European archaeology.

       (from the Introduction )

       The AREA research network was established in 1999 in the frames of the EU RAPHAEL programme as a laboratory of the European heritage, devoted to valorization of historical and archaeological archives as well as to the research on their contents. Our museum joined these activities at their IIIrd stage (2001-2004), co-funded by EU within CULTURE 2000 programme, with the National Institute of History of Arts and Archaeology as a leader and two members of its staff: Prof. Alain Schnapp and Dr. Nathan Schlanger as coordinators.

                                                        Former results of this transeuropean collaboration were, among others: scientific publications, organization of an international conference, creating WWW pages and Internet databases as well as establishing solid research structures devoted to the study on the history o archaeology and its connections with politics. The present exhibition is one of the results of the IVth stage of the AREA project (2005-2008).