The Erasmus IP Summer School “Preventive Archaeology. Evaluating sites and landscapes” (2013-2014)

Between 2013 and 2014 the University of Bologna has coordinated a large network of partners to organize two editions of the Erasmus IP Summer School “Preventive Archaeology. Evaluating sites and landscapes” benefiting, for two consecutive years, of an important european funding directed to the higher education. The course was a short-term specialization school aimed at introducing students to the subject of “Preventive Archaeology”, focusing on non-invasive methods and techniques for evaluating archaeological deposits prior to transformations or development, in the direction of a correct project design. The large network of partners coordinated by the University of Bologna was composed in detail by the Universities of Bern, Birmingham, Bradford, Cassino, Ghent, Lecce, Ljubljana, Leiden, Lyon 2, Siena, Vigo, York. The project also benefited the support of some business companies and local institutions. The course was articulated in theoretical lectures and assisted applications on the field and in laboratory, focused on the main themes covered: methods and diagnostics for archaeology, landscape archaeology, aerial photography and remote sensing, geophysics. The school took place in Ravenna for the theoretical lectures and at different archaeological sites for the practical activities. The contribution summarizes the main results of this two-year Erasmus IP experience in terms of benefits and difficulties of the project, which has tried to meet several of the ArcLand key actions: in particular, promoting the pan-European exchange of people, skills and experience (WP3), enhancing teaching in aerial survey, remote sensing and landscape studies (WP4), as well as communicating the importance of this teaching (WP2).