Are we doing it right? The problematics of public outreach in the field of classical archaeology: A Case Study from the International Archaeology Day
Abstract
Every third Saturday in October an International Archaeology day is celebrated all over the world. For six years now, the Institute of Classical Archaeology in Prague has been participating and preparing activities for public, ranging from fun and interactive tasks as composing mosaics, mainly for the youngest visitors, to displaying an archaeological laboratory to attract and entertain the adults or potential future students.
Generally, Public Archaeology is recognized as an important part of archaeological science and it is commonly known that archaeology is a science about humans, their culture and history, therefor results of researches should be presented to wide public in a suitable way. However, do we even know what is the wider public interested in? What do they want to know about the ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome? Is there a gap in common knowledge we should focus on filling? What kinds of details about the archaeological work would they like to get to know better? Do they consider Classical Archaeology important for the modern society? Are we doing the Public Archaeology right and fulfilling this role and obligation of archaeology towards human society? This poster summarizes the results of a public survey from the International Archaeology Day 2019, which was organized on 19th of October.
It in particular analyses answers of visitors of the activities and program arranged by the Institute of Classical archaeology and the questionnaire is overall focused on the relationship between public and Classical Archaeology.