Funding Archaeology and Heritage Conservation in Postcommunist Bulgaria and Beyond

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Archaeology Out-of-the-Box: Investigating the Edge of the Discipline" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

On 10 November 1989, Todor Zhivkov, the communist leader of Bulgaria, was ousted, bringing the fall of the one-party regime and Bulgaria’s transition to democracy. With the collapse of the communist regime, funding for archaeological research and conservation was dramatically altered and significantly diminished. In 2007, Bulgaria joined the EU but due the lack of national policies and corruption, the EU funding generally failed to address the real needs for quality research and preservation of Bulgaria’s cultural heritage. In response to these changes, entrepreneurial initiatives sprouted. Among them was the creation of Balkan Heritage Foundation (BHF), an independent non-governmental organization that uses funding from field schools to support archaeological endeavors throughout the Balkans. Over the past decade, the BHF has developed a successful model for symbiosis between educational projects (i.e. field schools) and ongoing heritage projects (research and conservation) through the collaboration of students and universities from all over the world, with local heritage specialists, communities and municipalities in benefit of cultural heritage.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Archaeology Out-of-the-Box: Investigating the Edge of the Discipline   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25695