Belgium

For such a small country, Belgium has a complex structure. The fact that Belgium sits across the fault line which separates German and Latin cultures explains why the country has three official languages: Dutch, French and German. Belgium gained its independence from The Netherlands in 1830. Between 1970 and 1993, the country evolved into a federal structure through a number of state reforms. Today Belgium is a federal state made up of communities and regions. The redistribution of power took place along two lines. The first relates to language and cultural matters. As a result, three communities were established: the Flemish Community, the French Community and the German-speaking Community. They are empowered to deal with local matters (cultural affairs, sports, education, health, language, etc.). The second line of state reform was inspired by historical economic interests and resulted in the establishment of three regions: the Flemish Region, the Brussels-Capital Region and the Walloon Region. The regions’ authority is confined to territorial matters (e.g., spatial planning, environment, agriculture, employment, economics and foreign trade). The country is further divided into ten provinces and 589 municipal councils (Figure 6.1). However, the federal state retains important powers, for example in the area of foreign affairs, justice, national defence, finance, social security and domestic affairs. More information about Belgium can be found on its official web portal, www.belgium.be

(accessed 7 July 2010). Archaeological sites are considered to be places which can teach us about past human socie-

ties. Therefore archaeology belongs to the immovable heritage, as do monuments and landscapes. Consequently, this immovable heritage relates to spatial planning and is therefore a regional competence. On the other hand, the movable cultural heritage (such as archaeological artefacts in museums) is governed by the communities’ Ministers of Culture. Following the dissolution of the National Excavation Services (Nationale Dienst voor

Opgravingen; Service National des Fouilles) in 1989, each of the country’s three distinct regions developed its own archaeological legislation and institutions. Legal protection and awareness of the value of the archaeological heritage increased slowly in the different regions. The extent of the legal protection is however complicated by the complexity of federal regulations. At the international level, Belgium is slow at implementing European regulations for the protections of

the archaeological heritage. For physical anthropology, the three regions are equal, with the exception of the remains of First World War soldiers, since none of the regions have specific legislation regarding archaeological human skeletal remains. For the purposes of this article, the term ‘physical anthropology’ is limited to the study of

archaeological human skeletal remains, inhumations as well as cremation burials, in order to obtain information about demographic trends and the health status of past populations. It should also be noted that this article is limited to local/native excavated human skeletal remains and will not cover the issue of non-native human skeletal collections in Belgian museums or other institutions. Belgium has a longstanding tradition regarding the study of fossil hominid remains or

palaeoanthropology (Leguebe and Orban 1984; Toussaint 1992, 2001; Toussaint et al. 2001a, 2001b; Toussaint and Pirson 2007). In the winter of 1829-30, physician P.-C. Schmerling discovered authenticated human fossils in different caves in the province of Liège, mainly in the famous cave of Engis where he unearthed two calottes (the top part of a cranium). These finds allowed Schmerling to understand and demonstrate that man had coexisted with large extinct prehistoric mammals, but without going as far as to claim that fossil men were morphologically different from modern humans. He also realized that the flint artefacts found in association

Figure 6.1 Map of Belgium illustrating the three different regions (the Flemish region in the north, the Brussels-Capital region in the centre, and the Walloon region in the south of the country, and their divisions according to provinces).