This book results from the combined effort and collaboration of eight universities in Europe and the United States; the National Danish and Swedish Heritage Boards; the superintendenze in Trapani in Sicily; local museums in the areas of the field projects in Denmark, Sweden, Hungary, and Sicily; and a large number of students who received archaeological training and experience in international cooperation (participating institutions in Appendix 1). The philosophy and history of the projects therefore are told in this Preface, because they represent the conditions facing archaeological research projects now and in the future.

Although research often is considered an individual project, in archaeology it is always based upon the combined efforts of many people. Archaeological excavation projects cannot be carried out by single individuals; whereas in the early days of archaeology the director of excavation was often considered solely responsible for executing and publishing the results, such practice is unwarranted and unrealistic today. Modern field projects are so demanding in their organisation and integration of diverse skills, from documentation to complex scientific analyses, that they demand teamwork, not only among individuals from different fields of knowledge, but also among institutions. Today, very few, if any, departments in the world cover all the skills needed in modern archaeological field projects. This was the archaeological raison d’être behind the joint organisation – the first pillar of the project.