Jan Rulf Award

The Institute of Archaeology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, would like to announce the 12th year of the Jan Rulf Award for the best scientific publication in the field of archaeology and related fields.

The competition is open to young researchers. Authors or an institution may submit articles, monographs or theses. One institution may submit a maximum of five publications in each category (up to five publications or PhD theses and five Master’s and/or Bachelor’s theses).

Each submitted article/publication/thesis must meet the following criteria:
• The publication must represent an original theoretical work in the field of archaeology and related fields.
• The work was either published or completed between March 1st, 2021, and February 28th, 2023.
• To enter the competition, the article/publication or thesis must be delivered to the Institute of Archaeology in Prague electronically (preferably in PDF to arupraha@arup.cas.cz) or in one hard copy (publication, offprint, manuscript) no later than February 28th, 2023, together with a cover letter confirming that the author(s) has/have agreed to enter the competition.
• The author cannot be more than 36 years old by February 28th, 2023, and must be an EU citizen. If more than one author cooperated in writing the article/publication, all authors must meet this condition.
• The submitted publications must be written in Czech or English.

The Director of the Institute of Archaeology of the CAS, Prague, v. v. i., appoints an evaluation committee to appraise the publications that comply with the conditions mentioned above. Above all, the committee shall consider the genuineness and significance of the individual publications for archaeology (and related fields), the originality of the concept or solution applied and the methodological aspect of the adopted approach.

The committee shall rank the publications submitted, and the first three will be awarded. In addition, the committee selects and awards the three best Bachelor’s and Master’s theses. The best publication in the competition will receive 17,000 CZK, the second 12,000 CZK and the third 8,000 CZK. The three best Bachelor’s and Master’s theses will also be awarded 7,000, 5,000 and 3,000 CZK. The evaluation committee may opt to grant more prizes or leave a particular prize vacant.

The results will be published on the website of the Institute of Archaeology by June 1st, 2023. The evaluation committee may also recommend selected works for publication in the Institute’s journals. After the competition, the submitted publications and manuscripts will be returned to the authors.

Applications, together with a PDF copy or a hard copy of the publication (offprint or manuscript), should be sent by the deadline to the following address or e-mail address:

Mgr. Jan Mařík, PhD.
Director
Institute of Archaeology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, v. v. i.
Letenská 4, CZ-118 01 Prague 1
E-mail address: arupraha@arup.cas.cz

PhDr. Jan Rulf, CSc. (March 3rd, 1952 – April 2nd, 1997)
Jan Rulf belonged among prominent scientists of the IAP, specialising in the New Stone Age (Neolithic). However, above all, his scientific interests and expertise were extensive. He participated in the fieldwork and management of the field base in Bylany u Kutná Hora (a well-known field base established by Bohumil Soudský focusing on research of the Neolithic). In his dissertation, published in 1983, he established himself as one of the founders of environmental archaeology in Czechoslovakia and later on, he influenced generations of researchers. He was a keen advocate of the application of computers in archaeological research. He was appointed Deputy Director of the Institute of Archaeology in Prague in 1993. Unfortunately, J. Rulf died in his prime when he could have capitalised on all the experience he had gained as a teacher and an internationally recognised expert. To honour his memory, a competition open to junior archaeologists has been established and dedicated to him.