Non-destructive Approaches to
complex Archaeological sites in Europe: a round-up
Radio-Past Colloquium, Ghent, 15-17 January 2013
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From 15 to 17 January 2013 some 125 researchers and policy makers joined in the congress centre “Het Pand” at Ghent University to discuss current possibilities and pitfalls in the use of non-invasive survey methods to study complex archaeological sites in Europe. The colloquium was organized within the framework of the European Marie Curie project “Radiography of the Past” in collaboration with Ghent University, one of the project partners.
This successful international scientific meeting had sequential sessions about such topics as: Geoarchaeological Survey, Remote Sensing and Aerial Photography, Geophysical Survey, Digital Technologies and Visualisation, and Site Management and Valorisation.
It concluded with an animated round table discussion by a group of survey project directors, rounding up possibilities and future directions of non-invasive survey on large and complex archaeological sites in Europe.
The main target of the colloquium was to join a series of European academic research leaders in the fields summed up above, to exchange opinions, discuss and develop some common goals and approaches for future research. At the same time promising young researchers would be able to participate actively in this process, as well as to present some of their own research and innovative methods. Finally, also commercial archaeological teams and stakeholders in the wide domains of archaeological landscape survey,
visualisation and archaeological resource management were able to participate and profit from this international meeting.
The presentations and posters at the colloquium represent the work done in over 30 countries in Europe and beyond, by researchers from some 20 European countries. The quality of the research presented here and the wide diversity of approaches, strategies and often innovative technologies confronted at the Ghent meeting have demonstrated that non-invasive archaeology and the need to develop it for research, presentation and site management is very much at the forefront of archaeological research policy in Europe today.
