Project presentation
The relation between cultural heritage (and its raw materials) and key periods from the history of Romania is, probably, less evident; the predilection for certain adornment items, of certain raw materials - natural or anthropic - is not only a social indicator, but at the same time an ethnical marker, the changes from the funerary inventory structure being one of the archaeologists' favorite subject. Nevertheless, this project aims to raise the problem of the raw materials from the speculation status to a first level of certitude.
- The purposes of the project may be structured on several levels:
- Basic level: materials and raw materials identification from the archaeological collections, especially non-metallic adornments; the elaboration of an e-manual, with free access on the Internet, indented to organize this materials, to describe and illustrate them; this "taxonomic" collection will be accompanied by archaeological and geological exemplifications, as well as by maps with the raw materials' distribution (accessibility function).
- High competitive level, which will include all the members of the consortium, having as goal to establish the origin of archaeological amber, through a set of physical and chemical cross-analyses compared with similar data obtained from amber samples with a certain geologic origin, as well as with the specialized international bibliography. The answers offered by the project will have a significant national and international interest, this kind of studies having already a background in numerous neighborhood countries (such as Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Hungary, ex-Yugoslavian area, etc.). The fulfillment of such a project represents a task for Romania's enlistment in a much ample international attempt of "tracing" ancient commercial routes, which is equivalent with the re-writing of Europe's history, with the understanding of the ancientness of commercial and political relations at continental level; therefore, new possibilities for joining the European research programmes will be opened.
- the "Formative" level aims to generate professional training instruments, firstly for the existing research and museums' stuff, and also at creating mechanisms for stimulating the interest of the new generation of researchers and students, in the stage of professional training, for a pluridisciplinary approach; the project will stimulate the interdisciplinarity, revealing the answer capacity of the research system at new objectives and priorities, through specialized consortia.
- the "Dissemination" level, through direct actions with the wide public, pupils and students, regarding the latest results of the Romanian research field; the most visible vehicle is represented by two exhibitions, one projected for the beginning of the action ("Amber from Buzau land", organized at the Romanian Institute of Geology, between 22 September-30 October 2007), occasion on which ROMANIT project will be officially opened, through a press-conference, and another one at the end of the action (March-August 2010), organized in co-operation by the Romanian National History Museum and the Romanian Institute of Geology (with a proposed title "Geology and Archaeology - A Reunited Family").
- Finally, an intermediary level between "formation" and "dissemination" will be represented by meetings organized by the Faculty of Geology with the students of the University of Bucharest, having all kind of specializations; these meetings intend to promote the concept of "interdisciplinarity" and the actions it involves.