Archaeological Heritage Management in France

Archaeological heritage management in France

I. Organisational framework

In France, the management of archaeology is under the responsibility of the Ministry of Culture.
The first legislation concerning archaeology was taken back in 1941 and validated in 1945. It gave the responsibility of this domain to the Ministry of Education and Research.
Since its creation in 1959 the Ministry of Culture is responsible for archaeology and archaeological heritage on the national territory. Archaeological research abroad is under the responsibility of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The internal organisation of the ministry of culture has changed a few times since then. At present, "Heritage" is one of the 3 general directions of the ministry. It includes Archives, Museums, Architecture, and "Heritage" under which are located Historical Monuments and Archaeology.
For all administrative domains, France is divided in 26 "régions", (22 on the metropolitan territory and 4 overseas).
In each region the ministry of culture is represented by the "Direction régionale des Affaires Culturelles" (Regional direction for cultural matters). In all the DRAC a "Service régional de l'archéologie", (Regional archaeological service) SRA, responds for the archaeology on the territory of the region.
These services are both administrative and scientific and their staff is mainly composed of archaeologists who are able to assess the archaeological impact of a planning development or construction project, to prescribe the adequate archaeological measures and to control the archaeological excavations made by the operators.

The scope of activity of the SRA includes most of the listed items they are in charge of the management of all archaeological matters in their territory which includes inventory of sites, research, protection, prescription of archaeological preventive measures (diagnostic, excavation or modification of the projects...), authorisations and grants for research archaeology, technical and scientific control of the excavations.
Other public bodies work in archaeology on the French territory. The CNRS "Centre national de la recherche scientifique" regroups researchers in archaeology. They work on scientific agendas established within the laboratories and revised every four years and are involved in fieldwork (excavations or surveys) or cabinet archaeology. The University is mainly concerned with academic training although some universities also take part in the fieldwork.
The scientific work in archaeological research is now mainly done by teams grouped in UMR "Unités mixtes de recherche". These UMR are formally constituted and are composed of researchers coming from the University, the CNRS, the Ministry of Culture, INRAP or local authorities archaeological services gathered around common research agendas. UMR also exist in other fields of research, in archaeology 34 UMR work on the national territory, 16 of them are very active in fieldwork both in preventive or fundamental archaeological research.

The quality control system is organised both on a national and regional level.
The CNRA "Conseil national de la recherche archéologique" (National Council for archaeological research) is composed of 31 specialists issued from all the institutional components of French archaeology (Ministry of Culture, CNRS, Universities, Local authorities...). The CNRA gives the major orientations for the archaeological research, gives advices to the Minister on the orientations of the national policy and provides a scientific assessment of the services or companies applying for an accreditation as operators in preventive archaeology.
On a regional level, the CIRA "Commissions interrégionales de la recherche archéologique" (Inter-regional commissions for archaeological research) are in charge of the scientific control of the archaeological operations and their results.
Seven commissions are composed each of 8 specialists issued from all the institutional components of French archaeology (Ministry of Culture, CNRS, Universities, Local authorities...) and covering the entire chronological span from Ancient Prehistory to Modern period. They meet on a monthly basis to assess the results of the archaeological operations (excavations) undertaken in a group of regions.
The interregional commissions also assist the SRA in the control of the ongoing operations. Their remarks and recommendations help assess the quality of the work done by the individual archaeologists in charge of excavations and also of the services or companies accredited for preventive archaeology.

II. Legal framework

All the legal dispositions in French law have been recently collected in the "Code du Patrimoine" (Heritage Act) where "archaeology" is to be found under the section labelled "Livre V". The decrees have been collected in the "Partie réglementaire" of the Heritage Act under "Livre V" for archaeology.

The Heritage Act is organised as such:

- Livre I - General dispositions concerning Heritage
- Livre II - Archives
- Livre III - Public libraries
- Livre IV - Museums
- Livre V - Archaeology
- Livre VI - Historical monuments and protected sites
- Livre VII - Special dispositions for overseas territories

Although there is no legal definition of an archaeological site as such, Article L510-1 of the "Code du Patrimoine" gives a definition of the Archaeological Heritage : "Constituent des éléments du patrimoine archéologique tous les vestiges et autres traces de l'existence de l'humanité, dont la sauvegarde et l'étude, notamment par des fouilles ou des découvertes, permettent de retracer le développement de l'histoire de l'humanité et de sa relation avec l'environnement naturel."
Are considered as elements of the archaeological heritage all the remains and other traces of the existence of Man, which conservation and study, for example by excavations or discovery, enable to retrace the development of the history of mankind and its relation to the natural environment.
It is a fairly large definition which goes beyond the classical definition of an archaeological site and includes all sorts of remains and traces which are now in the field of modern archaeological research.
The protection of these "sites" relies on the obligation for builders and planners to have their projects assessed from the archaeological point of view, provided they are above certain size thresholds or within identified sensitive archaeological areas. When a site needs a stronger or more permanent protection it can become a listed monument (even though it is completely under ground) and is then ruled by the "Livre VI" of the Heritage Act.
France has signed the Valetta Convention on the 16th of January 1992, has ratified it on the 10th of July 1995. The present state of the legal dispositions related to archaeology is largely issued from the law taken in January 2001. In the whole process that lead to the adoption of the law, the Parliament has taken great care to ensure its compatibility with the Valetta Convention.
The Valetta Convention has achieved a major goal which was to help archaeologists to raise the awareness of the French politicians on archaeological heritage and the French system "reconcile(s) and combine(s)" the archaeological requirements and the constraints that society was prepared to accept in order to "ensure well-balanced strategies for the protection, conservation and enhancement of sites of archaeological interest".

III. The archaeological process and developments

Briefly summarised, the French system relies on the SRA who are in charge of the management of archaeology within their territory, under the control of the central office of the ministry of culture.
The SRA receive the planning applications according to certain rules set by the legislation (area, location...) for assessment of their archaeological impact.
If a project is likely to have an archaeological impact, the SRA prescribes a "diagnostic" in order to detect and characterise the elements of archaeological heritage threatened of destruction.
This first phase of the archaeological interventions is financed by a tax paid by all the constructors according to the size of their project, even if they do not threaten any archaeological heritage.
The diagnostics can be made either by INRAP "Institut National de Recherches Archéologiques Préventives", public body created by law to undertake archaeological interventions on the whole French territory, and by the accredited archaeological services of the local authorities.
At the end of the diagnostic, the operator establishes, to the regional archaeological service, a technical and scientific report on the discoveries made. The regional assesses the importance of the site(s) discovered and decides to prescribe an excavation or not. This decision and the nature of the prescribed excavation is examined, on a scientific point of view, by the CIRA. Excavations are submitted to the competition between the various operators, they can be undertaken by INRAP, by accredited archaeological services of the local authorities or by accredited private companies. The cost of the excavations is supported by the builder or developer.
Both during the diagnostic or the excavations, the SRA controls the quality of the work. After the excavations are completed, the operator establishes the scientific and technical report which is evaluated by the CIRA.

Facts and figures

In France, in June 2012, apart from INRAP, 90 operators have been accredited to undertake archaeological operations. The archaeological services depending from local authorities (communes and départements) can be accredited to undertake both archaeological diagnostics and excavations, the private companies can only be accredited to do archaeological excavations. The accreditation has been given to 70 archaeological services of local authorities and to 20 private companies.
The monitoring of the financial aspects of the system is not possible for the archaeological excavations which are completely in the competitive market. The diagnostics are completely financed by a tax for preventive archaeology, this tax raises annually an average amount of 75 to 90 M€.
The excavations made by INRAP reach an annual level of 100M€, the excavations undertaken by private companies or accredited archaeological services is impossible to estimate.
The rate of employment has grown quite rapidly in some of the accredited archaeological services or companies. Some of them have grown from 5 or 6 employees to 70 to 90 employees in the last five years.
For preventive archaeology, the legal dispositions organise the automatic transmission of planning applications to the regional state services of archaeology (SRA) when the projects are above certain thresholds or when they are located in areas of archaeological sensitivity. Under these conditions, the SRA assess around 35 000 planning applications every year. They prescribe between 2500 and 2800 diagnostics which are followed by 500 to 550 excavations.

Practice

The backlog of unprocessed and unpublished material is obviously large but there is no national estimation of its importance, it is mainly known through emblematic sites which are known to have produced large amounts of information and finds. This backlog has mainly been built up in the period at the beginning of rescue and then preventive archaeology, when the finances and the human forces were too few.
The present legislation forces the operators in preventive archaeology to give a thorough technical and scientific report after a set period and legal texts also set the minimum content of this report. One can therefore hope that the material collected on all preventive excavations will at least be processed (phasing, inventories...) and that the backlog will stop growing.
The rate of publication still is not very satisfactory and the publishing practices need to be adapted to the exponential growth of the scientific knowledge.
Archaeological survey is state funded, the local authorities archaeological services also participate to the national archaeological inventory.
Preventive archaeology is paid by the builders or project holders. A general tax applied on all planning or building permission under certain circumstances (area threshold, localisation...), it finances the "diagnostics", and the cost of the excavations is paid by the builders or project holders. The general tax is now rather well accepted and raises very little complaints. In a lot of cases the cost of archaeological excavations is considered too high for the economical viability of the projects. The system provides a way of financially helping some builders or project holders but the income of the tax is not yet sufficient for the system to run smoothly.
Contract archaeology exists in France since 2003, the immediate advantages are a better reactivity of the system, private firms can employ the necessary people more easily than public institutions and are able to give a quicker response to the builders. One predictable long term disadvantage lies in the conservation of the knowledge over a long period. These firms are more flexible than institutions and more sensitive to economical fluctuations. It implies, from the state services, a very eager attention not only in the scientific control but also in the collection and preservation of the material and information issued from the sites.

IV. Present challenges (results, problems)

The major challenge is now to improve the way the system functions and provide an adequate level of income through the tax.
The experience of the last ten years of trials and errors and the various attacks against archaeology shows the importance of communication. It is now essential to explain and demonstrate the role of archaeology in the knowledge of our territories and their evolution for the general public but also or those who are and will be in charge of the development of the nation.

V. References

Web pages of the Ministry of Culture - Archaeology section :

General organisation :
Organisation of French archaeology (French leaflet) :

Report to the Parliament about archaeology -2006 (English)

Legal references :
Code du Patrimoine (Heritage Act in French) :

INRAP yearly activity reports (French)
Activity reports from 2004 to 2010 :