Ann Degraeve
I studied Archaeology and Art history of the Ancient Near East at the University of Ghent, Belgium with a PhD on “Rocks and Minerals in Ancient Mesopotamia – an archaeological-philological research”. I participated in the Belgian excavations in Iraq (Tell ed-Der), Armenia (Akhtamir) and Jordan (Lehun). I also had the opportunity to lead an excavation on a pottery kiln in Vietnam together with the Royal Museums for Art and History and the Institute of Archaeology in Hanoi. In the year 2000, I switched to urban archaeology in Brussels, Belgium – from the old tell cities to the new and living cities – leading rescue excavations in Europe’s capital.
Currently I am the Head of the Department of Archaeological Heritage at the Heritage Direction of the Brussels Capital Region, managing all aspects of archaeology in the Brussels Region. Contacts with developers, administrations and archaeologists, public procurements, following up of archaeological research, developing archaeological research in its broadest sense possible, and management of storage rooms and laboratories is my daily business today. Being the chair of the Archaeological Archving Working Party of the European Archaeological Council, obtaining the accessibility of the archaeological data and collections and research results is one of my main points of interest.