Science Fair 2024

We would like to invite you to the Science Fair – the largest popular science event in the Czech Republic, organized by the Academy of Sciences since 2015. The event takes place from 30 May to 1 June at the PVA Expo Praha in Letňany, admission is free.

Our stand will focus on the theme “The ancient and recent past (in) waste”.

Creating waste is an inseparable part of human existence. Its study is therefore one of the fundamental topics of archaeology. If science understands the processes by which waste was produced in the past, it can then also bring the lives of the people who produced it closer to reality. And the same applies to the present.
Waste can take many forms, but the waste most often studied by archaeologists is that produced by settlement activity. We will focus on the ways in which archaeologists analyse waste, and the meaningful possibilities that are hidden in seemingly banal, ‘discarded’ items. Visitors will be presented with finds from prehistoric and medieval times, but there will also be a demonstration of how archaeologists use waste to study modern phenomena such as forced labour and the Cold War.
The presentation will include an interactive presentation on the archaeological analysis of contemporary rubbish, where we will demonstrate what the contents of the rubbish bin you took out this morning say about your household and yourself!