Preserving Cultural Heritage in the Digital Age - Sending Out an S.O.S. - Nicola Lercari

Preserving Cultural Heritage in the Digital Age - Sending Out an S.O.S. - Nicola Lercari

At-Risk Cultural Heritage, Open Communication and Stealth Archaeology

Preserving Cultural Heritage in the Digital Age - Sending Out an S.O.S. - Nicola Lercari

Willeke Wendrich [+-]
University of California, Los Angeles
Willeke Wendrich holds the Joan Silsbee Chair in African Cultural Archaeology and is a professor of Egyptian Archaeology and Digital Humanities in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at UCLA. She has worked for 30 years in Egypt and currently directs an archaeological project in Ethiopia, with a strong focus on ethnoarchaeology and community archaeology. From 2012 to 2016, she was the Director of the Center for Digital Humanities, and presently she directs the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA. She is also the Editor-in-Chief of the online UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, a Board member of the Institute for Field Research, and an Academic Board member of the famous Museo Egizio in Turin. She published widely on the social context of craft production and especially on basketry and basket makers. Some of her publications: Egyptian Archaeology (Wiley Blackwell 2010), Archaeology and Apprenticeship(University of Arizona Press, 2012), and The Desert Fayum Reinvestigated (CIoA Press, 2017). She was a Co-Principal Investigator for the UC Office of the President's Research Catalyst Award that funded the research discussed in this volume.

Description

This chapter is a meditation on the intersection between at-risk cultural heritage and digital data projects focusing on Egypt's cultural landscapes. It takes a broader perspective than other chapters and is related to the book's theme of community archaeology and critical approaches to heritage preservation. By discussing the loss of lives, built heritage, and cultural landscapes in Egypt both in historic times and after the Arab Spring, this chapter further frames the sense of urgency in preserving sites and archaeological data in the Near East and the importance of digital/cyber archaeology methods and workflows presented in other chapters. It vividly brings home the need to document and protect at-risk cultural heritage and the challenges this presents for archaeologists and other stakeholders. It also makes an important connection between the main theme of at-risk cultural heritage and sharing archaeological data with worldwide and non‐academic stakeholders, collaborators, and audiences as both an ethical and professional responsibility for contemporary archaeology.

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Citation

Wendrich, Willeke. At-Risk Cultural Heritage, Open Communication and Stealth Archaeology. Preserving Cultural Heritage in the Digital Age - Sending Out an S.O.S.. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. 13-25 Feb 2022. ISBN 9781800501263. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=42592. Date accessed: 25 Apr 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.42592. Feb 2022

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