There is never enough money for archaeology.

Yes, I know that this title is sort of a TYCO (Thank you, Captain Obvious) - there is never (or just very rarely) enough money for anything. But in this case, it could turn out to be dire.

Germany has a non-unified approach to cultural heritage management, as well as to handling the finances of archaeological excavations that become necessary due to construction works. Some are better from the archaeologists' point of view, some are not as good. All of them, however, tend to get a budget cut in times when resources are getting fewer.

Now Nordrhein-Westfalen, one of the federal states that make up Germany, is trying to cut funding for archaeology completely. You can read an English article about this here, nicely titled "Neanderthal birthplace kills archaeology funding".

There is a petition running against this, and you can sign the petition for a rollback of the change here (page in German only). Signing is done by stating your full name (Vollständiger Name), zip code and city (PLZ/Ort), street and street number (Straße/Hausnr.), email address and then clicking "Unterschreiben". If you check "Anonym unterschreiben", your name etc will not be shown, and if you need this how-to, you probably want to remove the checkmark at "Informationen ..." or you will receive German-language updates regarding this and similar petitions. Germany's archaeologists thank you for your support!

Edit: The society responsible for the petition has translated it into English - you can read the English version here.