urban renewal, pipeline projects, open-cast mineral working, deep plowing, illegal excavations, drainage of wetlands, military training, and uncontrolled tree growth. This was the period, beginning in the late 1950s, of “rescue archaeology,” with its dramatic overtones.

The conventional professional services were overwhelmed by the tasks that confronted them, and different strategies emerged. In some cases, the professional bodies were considerably enlarged, as in Japan and Sweden, so as to be able to undertake the work demanded of them from their own resources. In others, more modest enlargement was accompanied by the extensive use of archaeological contractors (universities, museums, private professional groups), as in the United Kingdom and Germany and, more recently, in Italy and Sweden. It is noteworthy that systems of this kind are becoming increasingly common, not only for rescue excavations but also for inventory and physical conservation. In the United States, where there has never been a centralized monuments service, this work has been undertaken almost entirely by private agencies following the passage of the 1974 Archaeological and Historic Preservation Act, which required funds to be allocated for archaeological mitigation in all projects on federally owned land or projects financed by the federal government.

Solutions to the problems of archaeological heritage management vary according to the constitutional structures of different countries. In federal states, such as Australia, canada, and Germany, responsibility for heritage management is largely devolved down to the state or province level. In a sense, the same is also the case in the United Kingdom, where there are separate services for England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. In certain countries with centralized governments, such as the People’s Republic of China, Italy, and spain, there is a central supervisory body responsible for overall policymaking and the disbursement of central government funds, but executive control rests with provincial administrations or, in the case of Italy, regional superintendents. Finally, there are those countries, which make up the majority, in which heritage management is the responsibility of a centralized agency. However, a movement toward decentralization is becoming increasingly apparent, and in the United Kingdom, the management of protected monuments is now being transferred to local authorities; currently, there are proposals to introduce a similar system in Mexico.

Henry Cleere

See also

Individual countries

References

Cleere, H., ed. 1984. Approaches to the Archaeological Heritage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

———. 1996. Archaeological Heritage Management in the Modern World. London: Routledge.

d’Agostino, B. 1984. “Italy.” In Approaches to the Archaeological Heritage, 73–81. Ed. H. Cleere. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Daniel, G. 1981. A Short History of Archaeology. London: Thames and Hudson.

Jokilehto, J. 1999. A History of Architectural Conservation. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.

Klindt-Jensen, O. 1975. A History of Scandinavian Archaeology. London: Thames and Hudson.

Kristiansen, K. 1984. “Denmark.” In Approaches to the Archaeological Heritage, 21–36. Ed. H. Cleere. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Reichstein, J. 1984. “Federal Republic of Germany.” In Approaches to the Archaeological Heritage, 37–47. Ed. H. Cleere. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Schnapp, A. 1993. La conquête du passé. Paris: Carré. English translation, The Conquest of the Past. London: BM Publications, 1996.

Archaeological Institute of America

The Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) is the oldest and largest archaeological organization in North America. Founded in 1879 in Boston, Massachusetts, by Charles Eliot Norton and eleven other Bostonians, the AIA quickly formed additional chapters in New York, Baltimore, and Philadelphia and, by the end of the century, in the Midwest as well. A chapter opened in Los Angeles, California, in 1903. Today, the AIA has more than 100 local societies throughout the United States and Canada and more than 11,000 members on several continents. In 1994, the Archaeological Institute of