Ethical Issues In Archaeology

Archaeology in the last 25 years has had a diverse change in the way the processes of archaeology have to take place. In the last two decades there has been new rules and legislations brought forward leading to new archaeology jobs such as stewardship. This is one of the paying jobs that were introduced with many other jobs as well. As ethical issues have to be addressed more in recent years there has been a need for these jobs to efficiently get the information out that is needed. The archaeological record now has to produce and preserve all of the artefacts that are found and make the information accessible to the public. The jobs that were produced where not just in the private sector of archaeology but also in federal, legal and local levels.

There is not one theory of ethics that is right in this field as in different countries around the world have different ethical codes of practice when it comes to excavations sites and preserving the artefacts. It all is based on the culture of certain countries and in all countries ethics vary. There are various codes of ethics that have been produced over the years. It is all for the promotion of archaeology but also making sure the right ethical choices are made at the same time. Just like many other working fields archaeology is another that has gone through theoretical and philosophical changes over the years. There are many ethics that need to be taken into account for archaeologists. They have to be responsible for their own choices. Although there have been professional organizations set up for example World Archaeological Congress (WAC), First Code of Ethics, the Register of Professional Archaeologists, the society for American Archaeology (SAA), Code of ethics, Code of Professional standards, Code of conduct and standards of research performance, Principles of Archaeological Ethics and European Association of Archaeology. There is also the institute of field archaeologists in Britain that have also put forward a code of ethics. So why is I so important for archaeologists to have a code of ethics, it could be because it is a better way of solving conflicts of cultural values. There are many codes of ethics because it is hard for one code of ethics to take into account the feelings of a certain culture. Not one code of ethics in archaeology has the ability to include every political and social problem encountered in very day working field in archaeology. This is why it is hard to put one code of ethics into play in archaeology or any other Working field. These codes are created by professional people involved in archaeology and there are various reasons why they are made up in the first place, firstly to