2013 Edition
Organized by: Roman Museum of Nyon
Manager: Mr Christophe Goumand
Faithful to its biennial tradition, the VIIIth International Archaeology Film Festival in Nyon was expecting a large audience keen to learn more about archaeology. Organized by the Roman Museum of Nyon, the festival's aim was to present the real work of an archaeologist, someone who is anything but a treasure hunter, and who spends a great deal of time gathering clues, sometimes tenuous, to write history. On the other hand, more and more people are taking the liberty of playing the adventurer and collecting objects as trophies, thereby destroying whole swathes of human history forever. The program for the opening evening showed this stark contrast, with a film about the looting of a shipwreck on the reefs of the Indian Ocean, on the one hand, and the excavations carried out by the University of Geneva in a cave in northern Italy, on the other.
The importance of the context in which an archaeological object is found was also discussed. Some museums are not very careful when acquiring archaeological pieces, and may pay large sums for objects that later turn out to be fakes. Other famous objects are claimed by the countries in which they were discovered. More problematic is the case of the famous bust of Nefertiti exhibited in Berlin and claimed by Egypt. After a lengthy investigation, journalist and art historian Henri Stierlin concluded that it was a forgery, but the Berlin museums were unwilling to discuss the sensitive subject, and it was not possible to consult certain documents relating to its discovery.
Although cinema was invented at the end of the 19th century, moving images have existed since the dawn of mankind, over thirty thousand years ago in painted caves. Marc Azéma, filmmaker and prehistorian, presented this new reading of prehistoric cave paintings on Friday.
Throughout the week, the Festival invited the public to travel through time and around the world, from Mongolia to Spain, via Egypt, Gaul and more...
We would like to thank the Swiss Federal Office of Culture for its invaluable support.
Download the press kit, click here.
Jury 2013
Chairman
- ADOLFO CONTIDirector and producer of documentary films, Rome, Italy.
Members
- ERIGE SEHIRIDirector, freelance journalist, Tunisia.
- PHILIPPE CURDYArchaeologist, Curator, Musée d'histoire du Valais, Sion, Switzerland.
- DENIS WEIDMANNArchaeologist, former Vaud cantonal archaeologist, Lausanne, Switzerland.
- MARIA LONGHENAAmerican archaeologist, director of the Bologna festival "Storia del passato".
