Europa Nostra Laureates and Heritage in Motion Innovation Prize winners
The Europa Nostra European Heritage Awards are Europe’s top honour for contributions to the field of cultural heritage. Each year, they recognise outstanding conservation projects, innovative research, and exceptional initiatives in awareness-raising, training and education. In 2021 we received the top honour for our COVID-19 'Archaeology at Home' project as well as an international Heritage in Motion prize for innovation, and selection for 'The Best in Heritage' 2022 by the International Council of Museums and Creative Europe.
Why did we win the European Heritage Award?
On the 28th of March 2020, as a direct response to the pandemic, DV launched the ‘Archaeology at Home’ project, comprising three distinct streams: a substantial increase of our daily social media content including online pub quizzes, virtual site tours and workshops; a guided cohort of our digital ‘How to do Archaeology’ Virtual Fieldschool; and the weekend DigNation virtual festival. We provided this content for free amidst the global crisis to ensure that that even when most archaeologists were working alone and in isolation, we could still come together and bring top-quality research to the attention of the world.
A global impact success
In total, the project attracted 11,242 participants from 92 countries. This represented a 3,107% year on year audience increase on DV’s pre-lockdown participation; most importantly, the inclusive design of the project attracted a diverse audience which extended far past the traditional demographics normally associated with community/public archaeology activities. Further ongoing impacts from the project include stimulating volunteerism, increased interest and participation in heritage activities, and fostering dialogue between non-professional archaeology enthusiasts with academic and professional practitioners. As a global public archaeology experiment, it is an unparalleled benchmark for what can be accomplished with a scalable initiative, smart design, and commitment to innovation.
A model for the future
In addition to implementing new, interdisciplinary ideas and methods for heritage via the DigNation festival, generating knowledge through the Virtual Fieldschool, and developing a scalable project model suited to wider adoption, ‘Archaeology at Home’ addressed the internal struggle for European programmes of public engagement in archaeology: can we produce new archaeological knowledge at the highest standard, whilst working hand in hand with the general public? Our project demonstrated that good archaeology and good public engagement can be combined, and furthermore developed into a resilient and sustainable organisational model.
