News

published on
28.10.2025

Call for Participation

Archaeological companies, state monument authorities, research institutions—they all generate research data during their excavations, which is created at various stages of the process and in a wide variety of formats. In order to make this data accessible to a broad public in accordance with the FAIR principles, digital publication is the right way to go—but unfortunately, the legal basis for this is not always clear. For example, different laws apply to archaeological firms and state offices for the preservation of historical monuments in each federal state. The Charter of Valletta, a European agreement on the protection of archaeological heritage, stipulates that each contracting party undertakes to provide for “the complete publication and recording of finds” (Art. 6, ii b, cf. also Art. 7, ii). In reality, however, this is often difficult or impossible to implement. Particularly in the federal system of the Federal Republic of Germany, there are serious differences,

e.g.:

● In Baden-Württemberg, exclusive rights lie with the state; specialist companies can hardly include publications in their workflows as standard.

● In North Rhine-Westphalia, the right of pre-publication is anchored in specialist companies, while at the same time the state heritage authorities are responsible for publication.

● In Bavaria, the Heritage Protection Act is completely silent on the subject of publication.

● In Lower Saxony, on the other hand, there are comparatively few legal hurdles, but other structural problems.

The workshop is a continuation of the workshop “From the Earth to the Internet” in November 2024, where the need to clarify the legal framework became clear. Key open questions that we would like to discuss in an open discussion format are therefore:

● Who is allowed to publish? Excavation management, management, former employees?

● What can be published – and when? Keywords: special finds, sensitive data, or protection aspects.

● Where may publications be made? In specialist journals? On social media? In open access repositories? By publishers?

● How do copyright and heritage protection laws interact?

● How far does the veto or control right of the state offices for monument preservation extend?

This inconsistency not only leads to legal uncertainty, but also has a significant impact on how many and which excavation results are published at all. Even where there is legal clarity, time and resource constraints exacerbate the problem. In addition, we attempt to explore answers to the following aspects:

● Legal foundations in the federal states and their practical consequences for publication strategies

● Copyright and usage rights in archaeological research

● Case studies from specialist companies and state offices

● Interfaces between law, science, and practice

● Proposals for harmonization or reform

The aim is to paint as clear a picture as possible of the current legal situation and its consequences for archaeological research and publication – and to develop perspectives for greater legal certainty and transparency. To this end, we were able to engage the services of lawyer and art historian Grischka Petri (FIZ Karlsruhe / NFDI4Culture), who, after a short introductory presentation, will shed light on legal obstacles, perspectives, and ways forward in a discussion.

The workshop is aimed at interested researchers and practitioners from all fields of archaeology at all career stages and institutions (state monument offices, archaeological companies, university research projects, etc.). Participation in the previous workshop is not a prerequisite.

If you are interested, please contact Stephanie Renger at stephanie.renger@ub.uni-heidelberg.de by November 11 and explain your motivation for participating in 4-5 sentences.

There are no participation fees. The workshop will be held in german.

We look forward to receiving many registrations and to a stimulating, fruitful, and discussion-filled workshop.

The event is organized by Propylaeum (Heidelberg University Library), TA5 of NFDI4Objects (DAI & VZG), PD Dr. Dr. Grischka Petri (FIZ Karlsruhe /NFDI4Culture), and will be moderated by Stephanie Renger (Heidelberg University Library / Propylaeum / NFDI4Objects).