Middle Neolithic enclosures at Thieusies and Neufvilles in central Belgium. Middle and Upper Paleolithic collections from cave sites were reanalyzed. New sites were excavated in the Haine basin, which gave Paleolithic research new impetus. At the Late Paleolithic site of Meer, detailed excavation and recording procedures were supplemented by refitting and microwear analyses of stone tools to infer the spatial organization of the site. This study gained international renown.

In retrospect, the 1960s appear to have been a turning point for Belgian archaeology. On its way to becoming a mature research discipline, it would, in the next decades, lose connection to a field rapidly passing through stages of epistemological upheaval. The embodiment of archaeology with theory and the severing of its ties with history was met with resistance in Belgium as in the rest of continental Europe. One unfortunate consequence was that an increasingly important part of the field’s identity was not acknowledged in university programs, which is an important reason for Belgium’s disconnection from the mainstream. A scientific discipline ultimately thrives on education, which involves transmitting the scientific discipline’s state of the art, if only to enable disagreement. The academic establishment of a national archaeology rising from fieldwork on mundane archaeological records might have challenged the traditional structures of education when archaeology was an ill-defined and a subordinate field among classical culture studies, yet that relict of an outdated culture-historic perspective was maintained even after the 1960s.

Unable to take issue with some of the major developments in the field, archaeology did not do well from an organizational point of view either. A 1986 census established the ratio of professional national archaeologists per million inhabitants at three to one, one of the lowest figures in the European Community. As a consequence of institutional reforms in Belgium, the funding of archaeological research gradually became the responsibility of regional governments. In 1989, the National Service of Excavations ceased to exist and was replaced by the Institute for Archaeological Heritage on the Flemish side and the Direction of Excavations in the Walloon (French-speaking) region.

Contacts are maintained across the linguistic border, and joint projects are occasionally carried out, but generally, the archaeology of both regions has taken off in different directions. Wallonia was quick to implement archaeological legislation and to accordingly provide a bureaucratic structure. In 1980, Belgium’s oldest site (recently suggested to be 1 million years old) was discovered at Sprimont, in eastern Belgium, and immediate protective measures ensured its long-term research. Systematic programs, on the early Neolithic occupation of the loess belt and on Iron Age fortifications for instance, were initiated, and increased financial means resulted in a major project of urban archaeology at Place Saint Lambert in Liège, the first of its kind in Belgium.

The Flemish parliament did not pass a law regulating the management and exploitation of the archaeological heritage of the northern part of the country until 1993, and it is still not supported by an effective organizational framework. Although there are major developments in heritage management policies in the rest of Western Europe, Flanders is lagging behind. Often divided by internal struggle, the profession has failed to create an awareness of archaeological heritage among the public and its representatives beyond that of a folklore interest level. Mostly small-scale projects by temporarily employed individuals have maintained fieldwork at the same level since the 1980s.

In 2000, some sound and longer-term projects were established. Using different analytical methods, spatial organization, and dynamic site formation, the Federmesser site of Rekem has been reconstructed in astonishing detail, and at Verrebroek, a large-scale subsurface survey and a subsequent open-area excavation are revealing an early Mesolithic settlement in an alluvial context. With regard to increasing the awareness of archaeology the public, the medieval site of Ename has been made popular by means of on-site virtual computer reconstructions. These are examples of what the future of archaeology in Belgium can be, and in this respect, the recently installed Flemish Archaeological Council, an