Private und öffentliche Interessen an Archäologie

Many archaeologists and interested third parties believe - even if falsely - that the preservation, (if necessary) recovery and (after the latter) making publicly accessible all archaeological remains - whatever they might subjectively mean with the latter term - is 'the' one and only, generally accepted, immutable and most importantly all potentially existing ('minor' private and public) prevailing 'highest public interest' in 'the archaeology'. In this contribution, I demonstrate why this belief is wrong and ultimately even dangerous and thus must urgently be changed. Rather, the - actually existing - interest in the preservation, research and use of archaeological remains is - at least at first - a 'purely' private self-interest, primarily that of archaeologists and heritage managers and secondarily of interested third parties, which - at least a priori - is no different from any other potentially existing self-interests of other parties. Which one of the many potentially existing private and public interests in archaeology actually constitutes 'the' public interests is not immutably pre-determined, but has to be determined and judged on a case by case basis; with this process not necessarily always resulting in the self-interests of archaeologists and archaeology-interested third parties prevailing. Rather, (even often) the very opposite of what we want turns out to be 'the' public interest in 'the archaeology'. If we want to live in a constitutional democratic state, we will have to get to terms with this fact.