Asked by: Miss Joanne Homenick DDS
Score: 4.1/5
(41 votes)
The best way to preserve your cultural heritage, whatever it may be, is to share it with others. Cultural heritage and natural history of a nation has a very high value and is unique. It is an identity that can be introduced to the world.
How can we preserve our cultural heritage?
Spend time with other members of the community. The best way to preserve your culture is to keep it alive. Gather as a group not just for holidays, but for ordinary meals, events, or just conversation. Many aspects of culture are difficult to learn in books and museums, including etiquette, body language, and humor.
How can we preserve Philippine cultural heritage?
The UNESCO declares that there are two approaches to preserve cultural heritage: one is to record it in tangible form and conserve it in an archive; the other is to preserve it in a living form by ensuring its transmission to the next generations. The establishment of SLT is in response to the second approach.
Why is it important to preserve our cultural heritage?
Cultural heritage is central to protecting our sense of who we are. It gives us an irrefutable connection to the past – to certain social values, beliefs, customs and traditions, that allows us to identify ourselves with others and deepen our sense of unity, belonging and national pride.
How can we conserve and preserve our heritage?
How to preserve monuments:
- Awareness campaign to educate community.
- Adopt monuments.
- Strict Government action & plan to save monuments, setting up of Archaeological departments.
- Collecting, generation of funds & donation for their renovation.
- Chemical treatments of monuments & restoration.
28 related questions found
Why is it important to save cultural heritage through digital preservation?
The greater the importance of digital materials, the greater the need for their preservation: digital preservation protects investment, captures potential and transmits opportunities to future generations and our own.
What should the government do to preserve our culture and heritage?
Rescue protection for cultural relics with major dangers and promote the protection and restoration of precious cultural relics. 5. Strengthen management and law enforcement, establish a database of national cultural relic resources, and establish a lifelong accountability system for the protection of cultural relics.
Why is it important to preserve our Filipino cultural heritage?
Culture and its heritage reflect and shape values, beliefs, and aspirations, thereby defining a people’s national identity. … It is important to preserve our cultural heritage, because it keeps our integrity as a people.
How do you preserve art and culture?
“Art saves culture through passing on tradition; art saves language, music, and craft; art saves families and communities through economic and social development,” said Claire Stasiewicz, WFAM project manager. “Also, art saves lives by providing employment and safe spaces for individuals around the world.”
Why is it important to preserve history?
Preserving the history of a place through its significant historic resources gives a community its unique character. Historic preservation provides a link to the roots of the community and its people. Overall, historic preservation adds to the quality of life making for a more livable community.
What organizations are working to preserve our cultural heritage?
Organizations and agencies that work to protect cultural heritage and advocate on behalf of cultural heritage issues:
- U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield. …
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre. …
- ASOR Cultural Heritage Initiatives. …
- Archaeological Institute of America. …
- Society for American Archaeology.
How do you preserve our art and culture Why do we need to preserve it?
It is important to preserve our cultural heritage, because it keeps our integrity as a people. The importance of intangible cultural heritage is not the cultural manifestation itself but rather the wealth of knowledge and skills that is transmitted through it from one generation to the next.
Why do we need to preserve our arts and culture in the modern world?
Art documents events and experiences and allows us a richer understanding of history. Art reflects cultural values, beliefs and identity and helps to preserve the many different communities that make up our world.
How do Japanese preserve their culture and tradition?
While Japanese lifestyle has been Westernized recently, Japanese people still do everything possible to preserve their rich cultural heritage by practicing tea ceremony, wearing kimono and studying traditional arts and crafts from early childhood.
Why do we need to preserve traditional games?
When we talked about culture, it is something that we need to preserved in order to maintain the harmonize between people. … It is a need for them to learn to know about the traditional games so that they could learn the history and at the same time learn to appreciate culture and arts of the traditional games.
Why is it important to maintain traditions?
Traditions are important in our lives and provide many benefits. We intentionally create and continue traditions because they provide a sense of belonging and meaning to our lives. Family rituals nurture connection and give us comfort. … Traditions also provide a constant for us in an ever-changing and fast-paced life.
What are the challenges of digital preservation?
The challenges of digital preservation
- Integrity and validation. It’s easier to make unnoticed changes to digital content than to traditional objects. …
- Fragility of storage media. The integrity of storage media for digital materials diminishes at a more rapid pace than analogue archival storage. …
- New formats. …
- Scale.
What are the benefits of digital objects?
Advantages of Digital Objects
-The in-dependence on physical access and storage, have simplified stringent and complex procedures. They are easy to maintain and take less storage space,unlike their physical twins. -One of the main advantages of digital objects is their round the clock availability.
How do we benefit from digital preservation?
Digital archiving advantages
- Get rid of legacy applications.
- Easily search information and access it faster.
- Ensure integrity for legal value preservation.
- Better manage retention periods and storage.
- Enable paperless offices and processes.
- Easily manage privacy data.
Why culture and tradition is important?
Traditions represent a critical piece of our culture. They help form the structure and foundation of our families and our society. … Tradition reinforces values such as freedom, faith, integrity, a good education, personal responsibility, a strong work ethic, and the value of being selfless.
Why do we need to preserve painting?
You can preserve paintings by keeping them in your house and dusting them off every once in awhile to keep them clean! … Issues they have to fix include: suffered paint loss, weakened canvas, tears, water damage, fire damage, and insect damage.
Why is it important to protect World Heritage sites?
Because it adds character and distinctiveness to an area, heritage is a fundamental in creating a ‘sense of place’ for a community. Adaptive reuse of heritage buildings is an important factor in creating sustainable communities. … The heritage places are an excellent local educational resource for people of all ages.
Why are World Heritage sites special?
About world heritage
World Heritage sites are places that are important to and belong to everyone, irrespective of where they are located. They have universal value that transcends the value they hold for a particular nation.
How does Unesco help preserve cultural sites?
UNESCO administers a World Heritage Program, which maintains a list of sites worldwide with cultural or natural significance. Countries can submit their own sites to the program which are then added to a tentative list for review and approval. … Represents a masterpiece of human creative genius and cultural significance.
Why do we preserve things?
The primary objective of food preservation is to prevent food spoilage until it can be consumed. Gardens often produce too much food at one time—more than can be eaten before spoilage sets in. … There are many variables, however, that affect the cost of home-preserved foods.
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Essay 3 – Model question
TASK
Your class has attended a lecture on the action governments can take to make sure cultural heritage is preserved for future generations. You have made the notes below.
Priorities for governments aiming to preserve cultural heritage
• increase funding for museums.
• protect old buildings.
• teach the importance of cultural heritage in schools.
Some opinions expressed in the discussion
‘Cultural heritage isn’t just about buildings – it’s about a way of life.’
‘It’s the responsibility of the older generation to pass on a cultural heritage to the next generation.’
‘Museums are the best places to keep shared memories of a community.’
Write an essay for your tutor, discussing two of the priorities in your notes. You should explain which priority you think is more important, giving reasons to support your opinion.
You may, if you wish, make use of the opinions expressed in the discussion but you should use your own words as far as possible.
Write your essay in 220-260 words in an appropriate style.
Essay 3 – Model answer
Cultural heritage is an invaluable asset for all generations to enjoy. It is about knowing where we have come from and having pride in the place we live. In this essay I will discuss two priorities for the government’s support of the cultural heritage in our community.
The first idea is to increase funding to museums. People say that museums are the heart of cultural heritage preservation. Not only do they display objects, they also teach and provide information about them. Increased funding could attract better care of objects, more specialised staff and more fun displays, in turn attracting more people to visit and learn. On the other hand, I would argue that it is unreasonable to expect governments to give more money to museums when they have got more important things to spend people’s taxes on.
The second idea is to protect old buildings. It has become clear in recent years that governments can no longer afford to provide generous grants to help people maintain their historically significant houses. I am sure there are many voluntary organisations which would be prepared to work on conservation projects. Nevertheless, the government could provide protection to ensure that old buildings are not demolished or transformed out of character.
In my view, the most pressing priority is to provide protective legislation for old homes and buildings. I am not alone in my concern about the loss of historical features which take such pride of place in and give character to our communities.
[+/- 240 words]
by Dr. Stephennie Mulder
The current “crisis” in cultural heritage is not a sudden development but an ongoing, complex, global problem with many causes. While it may seem simple to catch and punish perpetrators for crimes related to antiquities trafficking and destruction, in fact a lack of public understanding of the problems associated with these crimes and limited heritage-related law enforcement capacity in many countries has meant that antiquities destruction and trafficking is less likely to be prosecuted than other criminal activities (despite clear links to terrorism, international crime, money laundering, and trafficking). But there are many things that can be done on the local level to support heritage workers and caretakers and protect heritage, and there are a number of organizations that are working hard to ensure that this occurs. There are many ways that you can help.
Demand is the driver for looting and destruction
Many people are surprised to learn that legislation to protect antiquities is relatively weak or, in some cases, non-existent. Working to support and strengthen heritage protection legislation both locally and nationally, particularly when heritage is threatened by urban development or resource extraction, is one key way that ordinary citizens can contribute. There are some signs that wartime destruction is now coming under closer legal scrutiny, but most trafficked objects don’t come from wartime contexts.
One of the best ways for people to help save heritage is to remember that demand is the driver for looting and destruction. Governments can work to craft better legislation, prioritize better enforcement, greater funding, and vigorous prosecution for violators, but as long as there is a viable market for recently-looted antiquities, they will appear on the market.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of objects sold online are looted or fake. It’s important to remember that smaller items like coins, pots, beads, or small statuary are often easiest to traffic and easiest to sell without a record of provenance (or origin), or with a faked record of provenance. For an object to be legally sold, it cannot have been recently looted and must have been in a private collection for a certain amount of time. You can find a helpful checklist here.
Incorporate the consequences of the global antiquities trade into curriculum
Education is another key way to fight destruction and looting. Many ordinary people are unaware of the threat to cultural heritage and thus, are not aware that there is a problem at all. One of the most important ways to address the problem of the ongoing loss of global heritage is to incorporate education about the costs and consequences of global antiquities trade into school curricula and university syllabi or through local outreach in community organizations, libraries, churches, or other public settings. At the secondary school or university level, cultural heritage awareness can be integrated into existing curricula in fields like Anthropology, Archaeology, Art History, Ethics, History, International Affairs, Law, and Political Science. Journalists also play a key role in spreading knowledge and awareness of what we all lose when heritage is destroyed or trafficked. If you are not sure where to begin, SAFE (Saving Antiquities for Everyone) has a wealth of resources available on their website to get you started.
When thinking about education, one problem is that the framing of heritage as a “global” or “universal” concern, while useful in many contexts, also has a significant drawback in that it can be invoked to insulate owners from the claims of source cultures. Nevertheless, the idea of “universal” heritage is commonly used by groups like UNESCO and others, and it has played a key role in the crafting of important international heritage protection legislation. Indeed, the creation of what we might call “heritage consciousness” in the global community is without question an important achievement.
Universal and local value
Some observers have pointed out that the heritage often designated as “universal” in the popular consciousness—and thus to receive the most attention when destroyed—tends to be the heritage of the ancient Classical Mediterranean or heritage associated with curated museum contexts. Meanwhile, other forms of heritage—for example currently inhabited sites of local significance or actively venerated religious locales—remain forgotten and unprotected.
The different responses to the destruction of the statues in the Mosul museum by ISIS or the Temple of Bel in Palmyra in 2014 and 2015, where both events gained worldwide headlines, versus the destruction of dozens of local mosques, churches, synagogues and other holy sites in Iraq and Syria, which received only minimal media coverage, brings this comparison into stark relief. Another recent example of this unequal extension of the notion of “universal” heritage is the nearly non-existent media coverage of the destruction of heritage-rich Yemen by a U.S. and British-backed Saudi campaign. Most outsiders are unaware of the war in Yemen at all, let alone its devastating consequences for antiquities.
Some observers have pointed out that ISIS specifically made the analogy between their destruction of sites of “idol worshiping” (in the form of tombs and shrines), and museums and ancient sites—which it specifically called the heritage “idols” of the West. A similar argument was made by the Taliban in 2001, when they destroyed the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan, and by Islamist rebels in Mali, who, after destroying the tombs of Islamic Sufi saints in 2012, declared “There is no world heritage, it does not exist!” Such statements show that there are real limits to the notion of universal heritage and demonstrate that the idea of “universal heritage” can itself can be turned into a weapon.
Focus on the local
Furthermore, most looting and destruction occurs outside of wartime contexts and is focused on material that often has greater local significance than “universal” significance. It’s important to recognize that if the goal of cultural heritage protection is to preserve the objects and places that give peoples’ lives meaning and which connect them to their histories and heritage, protecting sites that are meaningful for local people is as critical as protecting famous, museum-worthy ancient sites.
While we should not abandon the idea of universal heritage altogether, a deeper emphasis on ongoing looting and destruction that occurs outside of wartime contexts would be a step in the right direction (for example, during natural disasters or as a result of resource extraction, urban development, or simple poverty). An emphasis on the value of local heritage—supported and maintained by local people with international assistance—would be similarly beneficial. Fortunately there are organizations working to do just that.
There are a number of organizations that work to raise awareness and gather information to support cultural heritage protection on the local and the international level. Some, like Eamena and the ASOR Cultural Heritage Initiatives, work to track looting and gather information via satellite and other forms of reporting with an eye toward future prosecution. Others, such as Heritage for Peace, the U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield, or the World Monuments Fund, work with governments or other entities to alert them to dangers and to craft heritage protection legislation. And several organizations, including the Penn Cultural Heritage Center and the Follow the Pots Project work to support local people and educate locally and internationally to help support and preserve culture.
In the previous installment of this series, we wrote about UNESCO‘s New World Heritage Sites in Danger. Part of UNESCO’s charter is to preserve natural, cultural, and historic sites around the world in order for citizens of all countries to be able to visit, enjoy, and learn from them. Individually, many of these sites combine several elements of cultural heritage criteria, ranging from majestic natural beauty to important architectural and artistic history. These irreplaceable sites represent multi-dimensional and direct links to our past and should be preserved at all costs.
Even though the preservation of important natural, cultural and historic sites seems challenging, there are plenty of things that private citizens and organizations can do to help.
1. Partner
You or your organization can become a UNESCO partner and get involved in conservation activities, world heritage promotion, mobilization of resources, and financial support. The World Heritage Center has partnered with various international organizations, national institutions, privacy corporations, and non-profits over the years.
2. Volunteer
Join the UNESCO interning or volunteering programs. UNESCO accepts students from a wide range of disciplines for strategic activities or to perform administrative or technical functions. No experience is necessary for most volunteer projects, which can range from patrolling the shores of the Galapagos and excavating dinosaurs in Argentina to studying lake ecosystems in Siberia and restoring archaeological sites in Zimbabwe and Tanzania.
3. Travel
Even if you choose not to join UNESCO, you can practice sustainable tourism by respecting local culture and customs and not damaging sites or littering when visiting. It is important to continue to visit sites, even endangered ones (assuming that there is no immediate physical threat to visitors, such as warfare or violent crime), so as to contribute to the local economy and to draw attention to the constant need for repair and renovation.
4. Spread Awareness
You can help by creating an awareness of the importance of preserving these invaluable sites by sharing news and links through social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
5. Donate
Lastly, monetary donations are the most direct way to support UNESCO and its projects.
As quoted on UNESCO’s World Heritage site, we can work together to “encourage international cooperation in the conservation of our world’s cultural and natural heritage” to preserve our world for ourselves and future generations.
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Written by Yuhan Yan
In 2019, Microsoft announced its AI for Cultural Heritage program, aiming to preserve and treasure people, places, and historical artifacts through AI technology and collaboration with cultural nonprofit organizations.
““Preserving cultural heritage isn’t something that is solely nice to have or nice to do, it’s sometimes imperative to the well-being of the world’s societies.””
According to Poonam Gandhi, a professor at Flame University, culture and heritages shape human society and provide a sense of identity. Specifically, cultural heritage can stimulate tourism, which benefits local economies, educates people with culture and history, and enhances social inclusiveness.
While the importance of preserving cultural heritage is obvious, people are facing difficulties in the preservation process. So, what can AI and other modern technologies actually do in the process of preserving cultural heritages that makes Microsoft and other organizations invest in them?
Antiques Restoration
Due to natural disasters or man-made damages during the war, a great deal of precious historical sites and artifacts have been damaged beyond repair. It is difficult to repair damaged sites, as it may take several generations of individuals working on these projects due to time, cost, and the lack of information on how the original work actually looked. Rebuilding cultural heritage sites and artifacts is similar to solving a big jigsaw puzzle without knowing what it should look like – everything starts from scratch and guesses.
RePAIR
The ancient Roman city of Pompeii, which was destroyed and buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79, is now only left with the incomplete architecture and thousands of irregular fragments of ancient artifacts, such as vases and frescoes.
Figure 1: The Pompeii Archaeological site at sunset. Source: Buena Vista Images/Getty Images.
The RePAIR (Reconstructing the Past: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics meet Cultural Heritage) project is run by a group of scientists at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) to help with the time-consuming and labor-intensive physical reconstruction process of Pompeii’s restoration. The technologies involved in the project are robotics, 3-D scanning, machine learning algorithms, and artificial intelligence.
Figure 2: A video showing a robot working with broken fragments found at Pompeii. Source: YouTube.
These artifact fragments are scanned using high-tech computers, which use machine learning algorithms to predict their original configuration. Throughout the process, the AI is guided by humans to ensure that the pieces are being accurately reconstructed.
A team of archeologists from the University of Lausanne, along with other professional art historians and scholars, input their current knowledge about Pompeii into the AI algorithm, then let it evolve and study the information by itself based on those examples, and apply it to a larger scale. The computer software compares all fragments in pairs and evaluates their degree of similarity based on the shapes, the fitness, and how the illustrations on the pieces match up, which helps draw a picture of what the original complete artifact looked like.
The second component brings robots into the workplace. The robot should be able to scan those pieces on its own, and move the fragments together as a complete one based on the paired results generated by AI. In the end, it will reassemble the pieces together into a finished “puzzle.” Designed by Nikolaos Tsagarakis and his colleagues at the Humanoid & Human Centered Mechatronics Lab at IIT in Genoa, the robot looks like an arm that has a similar size as the average person, weighing 25 to 30 kilograms and lengthening 80 to 100 centimeters. A prosthetic hand with a glove is attached to the arm to grab and move the fragments with extreme care, and gather information about them while holding them. The robot saves a large amount of time and human resources. Antonio Bicchi, a senior scientist at IIT in Genoa and the chair of robotics at the University of Pisa, is in charge of the design of the robot’s hand, and says the ideal version of it in the future will also be able to allow humans to wear the glove and gather data during the handling process.
Figure 3: An illustration of the robot’s working process. Source: Courtesy IIT.
This project and its techniques are still at the experimental stage. The two experimental subjects are the frescoes from the ceiling of the House of the Painters at Work in the Insula of the Chaste Lovers, and the frescoes from the Schola Armaturarum. At the end of the project, the finished frescoes will be exhibited to the public for visitors to experience ancient Pompeii and so that researchers can conduct further studies. This is the first time in the archeological field that AI will be used at such a large scale, and that robotic hands will be responsible for such a large amount of pieces.
Figure 4: Pieces of a Pompeii pottery artifact mid-assembly. Source: Courtesy IIT.
Therefore, the progress it can contribute to cultural heritage restoration and human history is significant and meaningful. “If the project succeeds, the technology can be used to reconstruct a variety of fragmented cultural artifacts whose restoration has remained ‘out of human reach’, ” says project coordinator Marcello Pelillo, a professor of computer science and artificial intelligence at the University of Venice.
The RePAIR scientists aim to install the robot in Pompeii by the spring or summer of 2022. And hopefully, this project will succeed and benefit other cultural sites in the world that require similar attention.
Scan4Reco
Another EU-funded project called Scan4Reco is also a great example of using artificial intelligence-assisted technologies for cultural heritages’ preservations.
Figure 5: Image of a robot detecting the deep damage of an artifact. Source: Scan4Reco.
This project uses in-depth scanning cameras to create a high-resolution 3D replica of an artifact to transfer it into digital files. Then, more information about the object’s underlying layers which cannot be witnessed directly by the human eye is added to the research by collected sensor data.
“Very specialized sensors used in the conservation domain carry out non-destructive diagnostic analysis of the different layers that is equivalent to the more destructive chemical ones,” explains Dr. Anastasios Drosou, deputy project coordinator.
The sensor data is combined with predictive modeling technologies using AI, whose deep learning algorithms simulate the artifact’s appearance as it ages. Therefore, it can suggest conservators with appropriate treatments to protect the artifacts before their conditions worsen, or to minimize the existing damages and keep their current state. According to Dr. Drosou, when the system detects a scratch or some color fading in a painting, the system would advise conservators to apply a particular chemical on the scratch, or paint or cleaner in the faded area.
Digitization
Laser scanning and photogrammetry are additional technologies that play a key role in the increased progress of digitizing cultural heritage. Having digital cultural heritage will help record history, establish a digital library for researchers and public education, as well as enrich cultural vibrancy.
The Mogao Caves, located in Gansu province in northwestern China, contains over 2,000 sculptures and 45,000 square meters of unique and fragile painted murals, all of which are between 600 and 1,600 years old. Currently, archeologists are facing the challenge of preserving these ancient works of art in their current condition.
Figure 6: A Buddha statue from the Tang period in Cave 148 of the Mogao Caves. Source: Krister Blomberg/Wikimedia Commons.
These caves house a great deal of history regarding the Silk Road, as well as related commercial trades and cultural exchanges across countries. However, due to thousands of years of natural disasters and damages, as well as the overloaded tourists after its development and reopening as a historical visiting site, the damage to the painted statues and the fresco degradation of Mogao Cave has dramatically accelerated.
To better preserve this UNESCO World Heritage Site, researchers and scientists in China used Laser Scanning and Multi-baseline Rotating Photogrammetry to turn the statues and frescos into digital formats, and store them in a safe data library for future studies and possible virtual exhibitions. This would allow people appreciate the caves on their mobile devices with the similar experience as if they were visiting the site in person, but ensure that the caves were not being damaged further.
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Photogrammetry: “a sophisticated process by which information is extracted from photographs to create accurate three-dimensional maps and models. Using ultra-high-resolution aerial photographs, this practice combines UAV-mounted overhead sensors with powerful GIS mapping systems to create dynamic, measurable documents for a number of real-world situations and uses.” (Source: Science Direct)
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Laser Scanning: “an automatic, direct measurement of 3D points that can accurately measure and collect data from objects, surfaces, buildings, and landscapes. Laser scanners collect information in the form of point cloud data, which consists of millions of 3D coordinates (XYZ coordinates).” (Source: Science Direct)
Another historical site that has been damaged and needed further protection and repair is the Notre-Dame Cathedral which caught on fire in 2019. The government is planning for its reconstruction, with a hope to finish by 2024.
Figure 7: A video showing how laser scanning revealed Notre Dame’s building structure. Source: YouTube.
Thanks to the digital scanning that was conducted prior to the fire, the team was able to create a 3D BIM model of the Notre-Dame Cathedral as it existed before. Then, by using recent reality capture scans to create the post-fire 3D model using a 3D design software called Autodesk, and comparing it to the pre-damaged 3D model, the Cathedral’s rebuilding plans were more accurately solidified.
Since the majority of the damage on the Notre Dame Cathedral was its roof, which is made of wood, its cultural tragedy rang the alarm for other historical buildings with wood structures, as their fragility was exposed. Performing 3D scanning and modeling to have digital forms of the heritage sites on file would provide a strong risk management preparation plan for future possible accidents.
Figure 8: The wood frame of Notre Dame’s Cathedral’s roof. Source: Notre Dame De Paris/Maurice de Sully association.
Conclusion
AI and other advanced technologies can help with the restoration and digitalization of tangible cultural heritage. They work as assistants to archaeologists and historians in preserving work that cannot be achieved by humans alone, or projects that are overwhelmingly time-consuming. Additionally, they work as tools for people to utilize and advance their working process to a higher level.
This article presented projects and examples that have exemplified great progress in cultural heritage preservation. As these technologies continue to develop and experts in the field become more knowledgable and adept at using these technologies, there is a positive prospect that continually enhancing technologies will deliver further achievement in cultural heritage preservation and digitalization by human inventions and under human supervision.
+ Resources
“AI for Cultural heritage.” Microsoft. Accessed February 25, 2022. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/ai/ai-for-cultural-heritage.
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Brandon, Elissaveta M. “How AI and Robotics are Reconstructing A 2,000-year-old Fresco in Pompeii.” Fast Company. December 23, 2021.
https://www.fastcompany.com/90708962/how-ai-and-robotics-are-reconstructing-a-2000-year-old-fresco-in-pompeii.
“Cutting Edge | Protecting and Preserving Cultural Diversity in the Digital Era.” UNESCO. October 28, 2020. https://en.unesco.org/news/cutting-edge-protecting-and-preserving-cultural-diversity-digital-era.
Denbo, Seth. “Digitalizing Cultural Heritage: Historic Preservation and The Mogao Caves in China.” Perspectives on History. December 1, 2016. https://www.historians.org/publications-anddirectories/perspectives-on-history/december-2016/digitizing-cultural-heritage-historic-preservation-and-the-mogao-caves-in-china.
“‘Digital Surrogates’ Assist in the Preservation of Cultural Artefacts.” CORDIS. February 19, 2019. https://cordis.europa.eu/article/id/248968-digital-surrogates-assist-in-the-preservation-of-cultural-artefacts.
Gandhi, Poonam. “World Heritage – Why Preserve, Conserve and Protect?” TravelWorld.com. April 20, 2021. https://travel.economictimes.indiatimes.com/speakeasy/world-heritage-day/4891.
“How Technology Is Preserving Our Cultural Heritage.” Reader’s Digest. Accessed February 25, 2022. https://www.readersdigest.co.uk/inspire/life/how-technology-is-preserving-our-cultural-heritage.
Horgan, Rob. “How Digital Technology is Aiding Notre Dame Rebuild, Two Years since Tragic Blaze.” New Civil Engineer. April 15, 2021. https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/how-digital-technology-is-aiding-notre-dame-rebuild-two-years-since-tragic-blaze-15-04-2021/#:~:text=In%20a%20bid%20to%20aid,existed%20before%20the%20catastrophic%20event.
Ibaraki, Stephen. “Artificial Intelligence For Good: Preserving Our Cultural Heritage.” Forbes. March 28, 2019. https://www.forbes.com/sites/cognitiveworld/2019/03/28/artificial-intelligence-for-good-preserving-our-cultural-heritage/?sh=bf2912f4e960.
“Laser Scanning Reveals Cathedral’s Mysteries | National Geographic.” National Geographic. June 23, 2015. Video, 4:10. https://youtu.be/jAi29udFMKw.
“Laser Scanning.” ScienceDirect. Accessed March 4, 2022. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/laser-scanning.
Pinkowski, Jen. “Pompeii’s Ruins to Be Reconstructed by Robot.” Scientific American.December 6, 2021. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/pompeiis-ruins-to-be-reconstructed-by-robot/.
“RePAIR Project.” Pompeii Sites. September 2, 2021. Video, 4:49. https://youtu.be/v9rpoLL5eLM.
“Reconstructing the Past: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Meet Cultural Heritage.” CORDIS. Accessed February 25, 2022. https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/964854.
“The RePAIR Project Begins – Robotics and Digitisation at the Service of Archaeology.” Pompeii. Accessed February 25, 2022. http://pompeiisites.org/en/comunicati/the-repair-project-begins-robotics-and-digitisation-at-the-service-of-archaeology/.
Werkheiser, Greg. “Artificial Intelligence: Cultural Heritage Required.” Cultural Heritage Partners. Accessed February 25, 2022. http://www.culturalheritagepartners.com/artificial-intelligence-cultural-heritage-required/.
“What Is Laser Scanning and How Can It Be Used?” TopoDot. June 11, 2020. https://blog.topodot.com/what-is-laser-scanning-and-how-can-it-be-used/.
Wiggers, Kyle. “Microsoft Launches AI for Cultural Heritage Program.” Venture Beat. July 11, 2019. https://venturebeat.com/2019/07/11/microsoft-launches-ai-for-cultural-heritage-program/.
Deputy Director Abdoulaye Cisse shows a burnt manuscript at the Institut des Hautes Etudes et de Recherche Islamiques Ahmed Baba in Timbuktu, North of Mali. Thousands of manuscripts were destroyed by jihadists during the occupation, and many were hidden and saved at the Institute or by owners. Timbuktu, December 05, 2013 (photo: MINUSMA/Marco Dormino, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0). The Hill Museum and Manuscript Library is working to digitally preserve the manuscripts that were not destroyed.
The current “crisis” in cultural heritage is not a sudden development but an ongoing, complex, global problem with many causes. While it may seem simple to catch and punish perpetrators for crimes related to antiquities trafficking and destruction, in fact a lack of public understanding of the problems associated with these crimes and limited heritage-related law enforcement capacity in many countries has meant that antiquities destruction and trafficking is less likely to be prosecuted than other criminal activities (despite clear links to terrorism, international crime, money laundering, and trafficking). But there are many things that can be done on the local level to support heritage workers and caretakers and protect heritage, and there are a number of organizations that are working hard to ensure that this occurs. There are many ways that you can help.
Demand is the driver for looting and destruction
Many people are surprised to learn that legislation to protect antiquities is relatively weak or, in some cases, non-existent. Working to support and strengthen heritage protection legislation both locally and nationally, particularly when heritage is threatened by urban development or resource extraction, is one key way that ordinary citizens can contribute. There are some signs that wartime destruction is now coming under closer legal scrutiny, but most trafficked objects don’t come from wartime contexts.
One of the best ways for people to help save heritage is to remember that demand is the driver for looting and destruction. Governments can work to craft better legislation, prioritize better enforcement, greater funding, and vigorous prosecution for violators, but as long as there is a viable market for recently-looted antiquities, they will appear on the market. Unfortunately, the vast majority of objects sold online are looted or fake. It’s important to remember that smaller items like coins, pots, beads, or small statuary are often easiest to traffic and easiest to sell without a record of provenance (or origin), or with a faked record of provenance. For an object to be legally sold, it cannot have been recently looted and must have been in a private collection for a certain amount of time. You can find a helpful checklist here.
Incorporate the consequences of the global antiquities trade into curriculum
Education is another key way to fight destruction and looting. Many ordinary people are unaware of the threat to cultural heritage and thus, are not aware that there is a problem at all. One of the most important ways to address the problem of the ongoing loss of global heritage is to incorporate education about the costs and consequences of global antiquities trade into school curricula and university syllabi or through local outreach in community organizations, libraries, churches, or other public settings. At the secondary school or university level, cultural heritage awareness can be integrated into existing curricula in fields like Anthropology, Archaeology, Art History, Ethics, History, International Affairs, Law, and Political Science. Journalists also play a key role in spreading knowledge and awareness of what we all lose when heritage is destroyed or trafficked. If you are not sure where to begin, SAFE (Saving Antiquities for Everyone) has a wealth of resources available on their website to get you started.
When thinking about education, one problem is that the framing of heritage as a “global” or “universal” concern, while useful in many contexts, also has a significant drawback in that it can be invoked to insulate owners from the claims of source cultures. Nevertheless, the idea of “universal” heritage is commonly used by groups like UNESCO and others, and it has played a key role in the crafting of important international heritage protection legislation. Indeed, the creation of what we might call “heritage consciousness” in the global community is without question an important achievement.
Universal and local value
Some observers have pointed out that the heritage often designated as “universal” in the popular consciousness—and thus to receive the most attention when destroyed—tends to be the heritage of the ancient Classical Mediterranean or heritage associated with curated museum contexts. Meanwhile, other forms of heritage—for example currently inhabited sites of local significance or actively venerated religious locales—remain forgotten and unprotected.
The different responses to the destruction of the statues in the Mosul museum by ISIS or the Temple of Bel in Palmyra in 2014 and 2015, where both events gained worldwide headlines, versus the destruction of dozens of local mosques, churches, synagogues and other holy sites in Iraq and Syria, which received only minimal media coverage, brings this comparison into stark relief. Another recent example of this unequal extension of the notion of “universal” heritage is the nearly non-existent media coverage of the destruction of heritage-rich Yemen by a U.S. and British-backed Saudi campaign. Most outsiders are unaware of the war in Yemen at all, let alone its devastating consequences for antiquities.
Ancestral Puebloan remains and grave goods were recently reburied at Mesa Verde National Park, a result of NAGPRA, The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. Cliff Palace, Ancestral Puebloan, 450–1300 C.E., sandstone, Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado (photo: yashima, CC: BY-SA 2.0)
Some observers have pointed out that ISIS specifically made the analogy between their destruction of sites of “idol worshiping” (in the form of tombs and shrines), and museums and ancient sites—which it specifically called the heritage “idols” of the West. A similar argument was made by the Taliban in 2001, when they destroyed the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan, and by Islamist rebels in Mali, who, after destroying the tombs of Islamic Sufi saints in 2012, declared “There is no world heritage, it does not exist!” Such statements show that there are real limits to the notion of universal heritage and demonstrate that the idea of “universal heritage” can itself can be turned into a weapon.
Focus on the local
Furthermore, most looting and destruction occurs outside of wartime contexts and is focused on material that often has greater local significance than “universal” significance. It’s important to recognize that if the goal of cultural heritage protection is to preserve the objects and places that give peoples’ lives meaning and which connect them to their histories and heritage, protecting sites that are meaningful for local people is as critical as protecting famous, museum-worthy ancient sites.
While we should not abandon the idea of universal heritage altogether, a deeper emphasis on ongoing looting and destruction that occurs outside of wartime contexts would be a step in the right direction (for example, during natural disasters or as a result of resource extraction, urban development, or simple poverty). An emphasis on the value of local heritage—supported and maintained by local people with international assistance—would be similarly beneficial. Fortunately there are organizations working to do just that.
There are a number of organizations that work to raise awareness and gather information to support cultural heritage protection on the local and the international level. Some, like Eamena and the ASOR Cultural Heritage Initiatives, work to track looting and gather information via satellite and other forms of reporting with an eye toward future prosecution. Others, such as Heritage for Peace, the U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield, or the World Monuments Fund, work with governments or other entities to alert them to dangers and to craft heritage protection legislation. And several organizations, including the Penn Cultural Heritage Center and the Follow the Pots Project work to support local people and educate locally and internationally to help support and preserve culture.
Additional Resources:
Neil Brodie, “It is no surprise that the looting continues,” Saving Antiquities for Everyone, August 6, 2013.
Sarah Zhang, What It’s Like to Evacuate a Museum in a Natural Disaster, The Atlantic, December 14, 2017.
You are here: Home / Arts-Culture / How Do We Preserve Our Cultural Heritage and Why Is It Important?
The culture of an area is loosely defined by the arts, music, language, and dance found in that region. It takes many different shapes and styles across the globe and is often influenced by the past. You come to know of your culture by learning the stories of your people and taking it as your own, letting it resonate within your own heart. You save it as your own song to sing and to share with your children and grandchildren.
It is becoming terribly common to see indigenous cultures songs go unsung as its people are relocated, adapt to modern technology, and, in the case of new generations, fail to take interest in their culture’s history. It is estimated that one language dies every 14 days, dissolving as communities adopt English, Spanish or Mandarin.
Nana Oforiatta-Ayim
Nana Oforiatta-Ayim is taking the initiative to record the cultural history and art of Africa — something that no one has thought to do before. She is compiling the evolution of art, as well as that of contemporary art, of the 54 different African countries to create the first “cultural encyclopedia.” She believes her passion for initiating this project comes from her time spent studying as a PhD student.
“I would go to the underground library vaults, and I would find theses that were so brilliant and interesting, and yet no one was looking at it, and it is so valuable,” she tells The New York Times. “I would get completely sidetracked reading about things like the technology of kente cloth. And at the same time, I was also thinking that the narrative that is told about Africa is still the backward narrative: no innovation, it’s ahistorical and stuck. Yet with everything I was reading, it was stories of innovation, of knowledge, of technology.”
The Ghanaian writer and art historian received a $40,000 grant in 2015 from the Los Angeles County Museum to fund the project. The museum recognized the need to preserve the artistic expressions of the African people and help to spread the knowledge of the continent’s rich history with the rest of the world.
Villagers from Kontali, Djibouti, perform a traditional African wedding dance during a cultural festival put on for Seabees from Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 5 at the Kontali schoolhouse.
The Cultural Encyclopaedia is encouraging Africans to contribute old photographs, pieces of intricately designed fabric and original works in the form of books and articles. She has been working to create a collection of filmed oral histories from the elders of communities and others that are willing to contribute.
Obviously, she couldn’t do it all herself and had to reach out to interested people in other countries that were willing to take on the challenge of collecting data. For cataloging information, she created a system that anyone could follow that would ensure consistency in the collection.
Just like in areas of health and science, human culture has a story to read throughout the evolution of time. Developing new data systems, as this resource from Ohio University shows, collecting data tells the story of the health of entire populations. Ice core samples, as the British Antarctic Survey shows, allow us to see the story of the past and currently rising CO2 levels in our atmosphere. Oforiatta-Ayim’s work will help to see a clear history of how cultures developed.
The pottery and remains found in the American Southwest tell archaeologists which era of Anasazi people inhabited different ruins were from by analyzing the decorative patterns on pot shards or the style of weaving of basket remains. There are discernible differences in the remaining pictographs and petroglyphs that remain intact from these ancestral people that tell their stories of hunting, where to find water, and how to locate food caches — if you know how to read them.
Historical Relics and Artwork Pottery of the Anasazi people.
The Cultural Encyclopaedia will work to preserve the arts of the people of Africa so that historians will not have to work to decipher their meaning. It will also be useful in the passing of information to younger generations that may not necessarily be invested in learning until they become young adults and become curious about their ancestors.
This ambitious act initiated by Oforiatta-Ayim should be considered worth using around the world to preserve the history of the expansive amount of different remaining cultures that our earth offers. As we progress into the future, it is important and enriching to stop and listen to the songs of the past.
Photo Credits
Nana Oforiatta-Ayim – Wikimedia Creative Commons
Villagers – Wikimedia Creative Commons
Historical Relics – Wikimedia Creative Commons
Guest Author Bio
W.M. Chandler
W.M. Chandler is a Colorado native and works best with her head in the clouds. She is an avid researcher and enjoys writing about unfamiliar subjects. She writes passionately about nature and the outdoors, human connections and relationships, nutrition and politics.
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