Last week AUR and the British School at Rome jointly hosted a major conference on sustainable cultural heritage. More than one hundred delegates from eighteen different countries attended. In total thirty eight papers were presented including three by AUR professors.
Professor David Pollon presented a paper discussing the ‘The Challenges of Valuing Cultural Heritage’. He discussed the unique issues surrounding economic valuation of the intangible elements of cultural and other public goods. His paper reviewed the common methodologies used in analyzing historic sites, as well as his own case study work related to the ancient city of Butrint in Albania. The valuation of cultural heritage is of particular importance today as austerity programs in countries such as Greece and Italy will severely affect all aspects of public spending. Whether supported by government funding, private donors, or admission fees, the benefits generated by cultural goods must be measured to justify financial support and to help in determining sustainability.
Professor James Walston presented a paper in collaboration with Maja Gori on how archaeology, and specifically the Illyrian identity, is used in the Balkans as a foundation for national identity. They argue that the use of cultural heritage creates elastic identities which often go beyond the evidence contained in the archaeological heritage itself.
Professor Simone Quilici gave a paper co-written with Raffaele Sini (also an AUR professor) on the construction of the via Francigena pilgrimage route. This is an ancient route for Christian pilgrims from northern Europe to Rome that has been recently reconstructed as a “Great Cultural Route” by the European Council and provides an alternative to the “Camino di Santiago” which has almost reached its carrying capacity in terms of walkers.
Professor Pier Matteo Barone’s paper covered the use of geophysics in the development of non-invasive techniques to locate excavation sites and to monitor conservation requirements and the state of preservation of monuments. Recently Ground Penetrating Radar has become the most important physical technique in archaeology with very high vertical and horizontal resolution. It has been successfully applied both to archaeological and for diagnostic purposes in historical and monumental buildings.
The conference was unusual in that it brought together many different types of people who normally have little opportunity to interact and exchange ideas. The delegates included academics, heritage managers, digital heritage specialists, army officers, architects, police officers, tour operators, film producers, conservators, museologists, economists, archeologists, art historians and anthropologists. We hope to repeat the conference in the future – when we have recovered from this one!
Prof. Pollon
Prof. Quilici
Prof. Barone
