Bartolomé Ruiz González (Casabermeja, Málaga, 1954) is a Spanish archaeologist who has been involved in cultural management in Andalucia since the late 1970s. He currently runs the Archaeological Ensemble of the Antequera Dolmens and is the director of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Antequera.
Education and research activity He received his Philosophy and Arts degree in Geography and History from the University of Málaga in 1977. He was unanimously granted the distinction of Cum Laude for his undergraduate Thesis entitled “La Carta Prehistórica de la Provincia de Málaga”, overseen by Professor Antonio Arribas Palau at the University of Granada in 1980. Throughout those years, under the guidance of Professors José Enrique Ferrer Palma and Ignacio Marqués Merelo, Ruiz González carried out archaeological excavation work at different prehistoric necropolises in the provinces of Málaga -Casabermeja, Ronda and Antequera-, Cádiz -El Gastor-, and Granada -Fonelas-, as well as a series of excavation campaigns at the cave of Las Palomas de Teba (Málaga). He later worked at the Cave of Nerja with Prehistory Professors Manuel Pellicer Catalán and Francisco Jordá Cerdán. In 1988 he visited the Royal Academy of Spain in Rome as a Resident in order to gain a better understanding of the Italian management model for the guardianship of cultural and environmental assets. His research activity thus focused on three areas: archaeology, heritage and cultural management.
Nowadays he is a scientific collaborator in the research on the cave of El Toro (El Torcal, Antequera, Málaga), conducted within the framework of the R&D&I Projects: HAR2011-29068 (2012-2015, Lead Investigator Dimas Martín Socas) ‘’Society, Technology and Artisan Specialisation. The first rural societies and social hierarchy in the south of the Iberian Peninsula (5th – 3rd millennium B.C.)’’; and HAR2012-38857 (2013-2016, Lead Investigator María Dolores Camalich Massieu) ‘’Technology and Society: specialisation and artisan diversification in eastern Andalusia between the 6th – 3rd millennium B.C.’’ He is also a Researcher on the project R&D&I HAR2013-45149-P (2014-2017, Lead Investigator Leonardo García Sanjuán) ‘’Nature, Society and Monumentality: High Resolution Archaeological Investigations on the Megalithic Landscape of Antequera".
Career He is a civil servant of the Senior Governmental Body of the Regional Government of Andalusia, serving as a Historical Heritage Curator and Archaeologist and having held various senior positions in the Administration of the Provincial Government of Málaga and the Regional Government of Andalusia with the duties of Expert Technician, Management and Senior Management on issues concerning cultural management and actions for the guardianship of Historical Heritage (administration, research, protection, preservation and dissemination).
Archaeologist for the Architecture, Urban Development and Territorial Planning Service of the Provincial Government of Málaga (1979-1983) He established the Department of Archaeology of the Provincial Government of Málaga, developing Provincial Archaeology Plans, several “archaeological reports” for different planning instruments and the “Catalogue of Archaeological Sites in the Province of Málaga” as an instrument for the protection of Archaeological Heritage. There started to be talk about urban and preventive archaeology, planning and rescue excavations…; in short, new terminology that was quickly incorporated into archaeological language. This “Archaeological Methodology for urban planning”, ground-breaking in Andalusia and Spain, led to the award of the National Urban Planning Prize in 1980.
Director General of Cultural Heritage for the Ministry of Culture of the Regional Government of Andalusia (1983-1984) With Rafael Escudero Rodríguez as president of the Regional Government of Andalusia and Rafael Román Guerrero as the Minister for Culture.Decreto 127/1983, de 22 de junio (BOJA 53, de 5 de julio de 1983), por el que se nombra Director General de Patrimonio Cultural a D. Bartolomé Ruiz González.Decreto 77/1984, de 27 de marzo (BOJA 37, de 10 de abril de 1984), por el que se cesa como Director General de Patrimonio Cultural a D. Bartolomé Ruiz González.
The first regional Governing Council, formed in July 1982, began to negotiate the transfer of functions and services for cultural matters in order to enable the powers conferred by the Spanish Constitution and the Statute of Autonomy of Andalusia, while at the same time preparing a legislative package on heritage institutions with the collaboration of professional Archivists, Librarians and Museum Curators. In June 1983, with the Alhambra and the Generalife on the negotiating table, Bartolomé Ruiz was put in charge of the General Direction of Cultural Heritage following the resignation of the director up until that point, Juan Antonio Lacomba Avellán. He thus participated in the design and creation of the new historical heritage administration of Andalusia. He assisted in the processing and publication, by the Parliament of Andalusia, of Law 8/1983 of November 3 on LibrariesLey 8/1983, de 3 de noviembre, de Bibliotecas (in effect until 2003), Law 2/1984 of January 9 on MuseumsLey 2/1984, de 9 de enero, de Museos (in effect until 2007) and Law 3/1984 of January 9 on ArchivesLey 3/1984, de 9 de enero, de Archivos (in effect until 2011). This was ground-breaking cultural legislation in Spain that even pre-empted Law 16/1985 of June 25 on Spanish Historical Heritage itself.Ley 16/1985, de 25 de junio, del Patrimonio Histórico Español.
Additionally, he promotes the contemporary art magazine FIGURA (spring 1983 - October 1988), which echoed in national and international artistic fields as a result of its prestigious editorial board and top-level artistic collaborations on its covers and in its articles.
Director General of Fine Arts for the Ministry of Culture of the Regional Government of Andalusia (1984-1986) With José Rodríguez de la Borbolla Camoyán as president of the Regional Government of Andalusia and Javier Torres Vela as the Minister for Culture Decreto 83/1984, de 27 de marzo (BOJA 37, de 10 de abril de 1984), por el que se nombra Director General de Bellas Artes a D. Bartolomé Ruiz González.Decreto 214/1986, de 5 de agosto (BOJA 78, de 09 de agosto de 1986), por el que dispone el cese de D. Bartolomé Ruiz González, como Director General de Bellas Artes.
The negotiation with the Government of Spain ended with the unblocking of the Alhambra and the Generalife and Ruiz González was in charge of managing the duties regarding historical heritage as a result of the transfer of functions and services passed on to the Regional Government of Andalusia under Royal Decree 864/1984 of February 29Real Decreto 864/1984 de 29 de febrero (BOE 113, de 11 de mayo de 1984) sobre traspaso de funciones y servicios del Estado a la Comunidad Autónoma de Andalucía en materia de cultura and Decree 180/1984 of June 19,Decreto 180/1984, de 19 de Junio, por el que se asignan a la Consejería de Cultura las funciones y servicios transferidos a la Junta de Andalucía en materia de cultura and thus assigned to the Ministry of Culture. In order to transfer the management of Museums, an Agreement was signed between the Spanish Government and the Regional Government of Andalusia in October 1984; this agreement regulated the rules concerning collections and properties as well as the legal framework for staff and all aspects related to organisation and communication.
Among the responsibilities transferred, special attention must be paid to the functions and services that the Government of Spain had been exercising with regard to the Monumental Ensemble of the Alhambra and Generalife in Granada, either directly or via the regional body that was established for this purpose under the Decree of March 9, 1940. This regional body of the Administration, called the Council of the Alhambra and Generalife, continued to exercise its duties until Royal Decree 565/1985 of April 24 Real Decreto 565/1985, de 24 de abril, por el que se establece la estructura orgánica básica del Ministerio de Cultura y de sus Organismos autónomos expressly prohibited this in its first additional provision. Upon eliminating this legal entity, the aforementioned Royal Decree required that the assigned functions be taken over either by a new entity or directly by the Administration. From this moment onwards, the Ministry of Culture of the Regional Government of Andalusia took on the functions and services of the eliminated Council and began drafting the corresponding Bill, aware of the need to create its own autonomous legal Entity to carry out these functions and, under a system of decentralisation, allocate the unique actions involved in the guardianship, preservation and administration of the Alhambra and Generalife. But this process was slow, thus making it necessary to temporarily establish, while the aforementioned Bill was being drafted, an agile and functional administrative body without legal status that could effectively address all of the services corresponding to the Monumental Ensemble of the Alhambra and Generalife in Granada. Pending the establishment by Law of an autonomous body responsible for the guardianship of the Alhambra and Generalife of Granada, a Commission was created to manage and control its services as well as affiliate all the human and material resources of the eliminated Council's administrative structure with this Commission.Decreto 174/1985, de 31 de julio, por el que se crea la Comisaría para la Alhambra y el Generalife de Granada In late 1985 the Monumental Ensemble of the Alhambra and GeneralifeLey 9/1985, de 28 de diciembre, del Presupuesto de la Comunidad Autónoma de Andalucía. was created as an autonomous organism, and in 1986 the StatutesDecreto 59/1986, de 19 de marzo, por el que se aprueban los Estatutos del Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife. were approved, establishing participation of the different Public Administrations responsible for the protection of this historical heritage site in the governing and executive organisms of the Entity. The Statutes also established the participation on the Entity’s advisory body of experts renowned in the field of Historical Heritage. This was all carried out with the basic purpose of giving effect to the principles of efficiency, decentralisation and coordination included in article 103.1 of the Spanish Constitution.
In 1985 Ruiz González launched the Special Plan of Action for the Fine Arts (PAEMBA) (in Spanish: Plan de Actuación Especial en Materia de Bellas Artes) with a budget that amounted to 3 million euros. The fundamental objective was to analyse what kind of conditions the cultural properties were in. 1,284 people were hired for this purpose, of which 202 were curators, 180 assistants, 205 auxiliary technicians, 66 administrative assistants and 631 subordinate employees. The development and implementation of this employment plan made it possible to make progress on the General Plan for Cultural Properties; the distribution of this document among heritage professionals and social agents gave rise to an intense debate.