Cultural Heritage Preservation Projects
Wednesday, 6 October, 10:30 am - 12:00 pm EST / 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm AST
Speaker biographies and abstracts
Moderator: Dr. Mark Altaweel, University College London
Dr. Mark Altaweel is Reader in Near East Archaeology at University College London’s Institute of Archaeology. He is interested in investigating a variety of heritage, landscape, and social-environmental topics in his research approaches. Dr. Altaweel has been involved in numerous projects on the ancient Near East, application of complex system modelling, and use of machine/deep learning methods for insights on heritage and archaeological topics. He has also broad interests in the ancient climate, environment, and land use in the ancient Near East. Additionally, his work has been published in journals in many different fields, with application to modern and ancient studies. Since 2011, Dr. Altaweel has been involved in fieldwork in Iraq; his recent work includes the Peshdar Plain region in Iraqi Kurdistan, regions around Nippur and Uruk, and Shalaii Cave. He has also taught courses on Near Eastern history and archaeology, GIS, remote sensing methods, computational modeling, data science, social-ecological theory, introduction to archaeology, and on land use and environmental change. Dr. Altaweel helped establish the UK's first data science focus in archaeology while his courses in the Near East focus on material culture and its change over time and space. Dr. Altaweel is also UCL’s representative on TARII’s Board of Directors.
The Iraq Heritage Stabilization Program: 2018–2021
Speaker: Dr. Darren Ashby, University of Pennsylvannia
Co-authors: Prof. Richard Zettler, Dr. Michael Danti, Dr. Allison Cuneo, and Dr. William Hafford
abstract
The Iraq Heritage Stabilization Program (IHSP)—based in the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations—works to mitigate the impacts of genocide, cultural cleansing, and conflict in northern Iraq through the preservation and protection of cultural heritage sites. Since 2018, IHSP has partnered with Iraq's State Board of Antiquities and Heritage, the University of Mosul's Engineering Consulting Bureau, CAPNI, and other Iraqi stakeholders to document site conditions and implement stabilization and restoration projects in Mosul and on the Nineveh Plains with a particular focus on sites belonging to Iraq's ethnic and religious minorities. This paper provides an overview of IHSP and discusses ongoing projects funded by the U. S. Department of State, the ALIPH Foundation, and the Gerda Henkel Stiftung.
about the speaker
Dr. Darren P. Ashby is the Senior Research Coordinator at the Iraq Heritage Stabilization Program, where he has worked since 2019. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations in 2017 with a specialization in the archaeology, art, and history of Ancient Mesopotamia. From 2017 to 2019, he worked as a Project Manager for Syrian and Iraqi Cultural Heritage Projects at the American Schools of Oriental Research’s Cultural Heritage Initiatives.
The nimrud rescue project
Speaker: Dr. Katharyn Hanson, Smithsonian Institution
Co-authors: Jessica Johnson and Brian Lione
abstract
The Nimrud Rescue Project is a collaborative project to recover fragments of the Neo-Assyrian sculptures bombed by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in 2015–2016, and to develop a long-term plan for the preservation and use of the site and its architectural remains. The Smithsonian Institution has been working with colleagues from the Nineveh Provincial Office of the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH) since early 2017. Together with the SBAH Nineveh Directorate, the Smithsonian worked to define site needs and develop the skills required by the cadre of local archaeologists (called the ‘Nimrud Rescue Team’) to recover, document, and protect stone sculpture fragments scattered across the site. The Nimrud Rescue Team completed two successful field recovery seasons in 2018-19 and 2019-20, with more in the planning stages.
about the speaker
Dr. Katharyn Hanson is a Smithsonian Secretary's Scholar and a Cultural Heritage Preservation Scholar at the Museum Conservation Institute. She works as an archaeologist specializing in the protection of cultural heritage. Dr. Hanson received her doctorate from the University of Chicago with a dissertation entitled: Considerations of Cultural Heritage: Threats to Mesopotamian Archaeological Sites. Previously she held a visiting research position with the Geospatial Technologies Team at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and post-doctoral fellowships at the University of Pennsylvania Museum and MCI. She directs archaeological site preservation training at the Iraqi Institute for the Conservation of Antiquities and Heritage in Erbil, Iraq and serves on the Board of The Academic Research Institute in Iraq (TARII). She has been involved in various archaeological fieldwork projects for over 25 years and has curated museum exhibits and published on damage to ancient sites in Iraq and Syria. Her research combines field archaeology, remote sensing, and cultural heritage protection methodology and policy with on-the-ground action to protect culture.
