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Every crisis period puts pressure on the individual components of traditionally functioning systems. This effect is well known from archaeological contexts, where external influences are often viewed as factors motivating the development. Currently, archaeology has an opportunity to view this situation from the opposite perspective, itself facing new challenges linked to the reduction of social contacts, forcing us to maximise the search for innovative solutions. We believe that crisis situations may indeed be the motivation for development. However, often it is imaginary fire-fighting that leads only to unsustainable solutions. We verified this case well after the catastrophic flood of Prague in 2002 and in other unforeseeable events in the past. The event forced us to make anticipated but only partially prepared changes that significantly moved the field forward. Yet, as a result of rapid decisions taken under pressure, we are still dealing with some unintended consequences. COVID-19 found us in a different situation. It has demonstrated the importance of conceptually building robust information systems, which are a welcome aid at any time, but are now becoming a necessity. Due to long-term systematic work, the new situation did not result in any fatal disruptions or problems and in turn helped the full establishment of the large research infrastructure Archaeological Information System of the Czech Republic (AIS CR). The paper analyses the situation in which the current crisis has caught Czech archaeology and how much it motivates changes in the disciplinary routine, or whether the causes of the development can be found in other aspects of archaeological data management practice. We conclude that Czech archaeology was mostly well prepared, and the main change is noticeable in the higher demand for accessible digital archaeological information by the general public.

EAA2021: Abstract

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