Muzeum @ Digit Conference 2016

Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum - Hungarian National Museum

National Centre of Museological Methodology and Information

Budapest, 22-23 November 2016

Muzeum @ Digit Conference 2016

Museums' Role in Fostering and Managing Geographically Related

Cultural Heritage Digital Information Surveys

Based on a Central Asian Case Study

by Alessandro CalifanoOSACA, Kabul

Muzeum @ Digit Conference 2016

Takht-e Rustam (Samangan) – the stupa (L) and the monastery (R)

Muzeum @ Digit Conference 2016

As often is the case, cultural heritage comes to us due to chance, and – sometimes – to misunderstandings.

The beautiful halls and caves of the Buddhist monastery in Samangan survived mainly because they where taken for ancient market stalls.

Their rich decoration (see L) thus went unnoticed.

Muzeum @ Digit Conference 2016

Elsewhere, cultural heritage may be however in danger for otherwise very profitable human activities.

This is for instance the case of Mes Aynak (L), a Buddhist site in Logar Province, “one of the most important points along the Silk Road”, according to French archaeologist Philippe Marquis.

Mes Aynak, Logar Province (Afghanistan) - by Jerome Starkey - Flickr: AINAK-6446.jpg, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17736581

Muzeum @ Digit Conference 2016

There are well over a dozen different sites in the valley, some going back to the Bronze Age, others attesting the exploitation of a copper mine even in ancient times, others documenting the evidence of Alexander the Great's troops, or of a Greek presence in the area.

All are now endangered by a large project of exploiting the copper by a Chinese mining company.

Muzeum @ Digit Conference 2016

“Discoveries at Mes Aynak have the potential to redefine the history of

Afghanistan and the history of Buddhism itself.”

www.savingmesaynak.com

“Saving Mes Aynak examines the conflict between cultural preservation and economic opportunity through the lens of the Afghan archaeologists and local villagers who work and live near Mes Aynak.

Qadir Temori and his fellow Afghan archaeologists face what seems an impossible battle [...] to save their cultural heritage from likely erasure.”

Muzeum @ Digit Conference 2016

Mes Aynak – well documented in the collections of the National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul – is however only one of the many possible cases of opposed interests: exploiting mining resources and preserving historical sites.

A knowledge base to reduce cultural heritage risks is vital, in order to allow mining activities – that are likely to be strongly implemented in the coming years throughout the whole country – to be safely developed.

So is also a digital information survey, both on existing maps, and through new field campaigns.

Muzeum @ Digit Conference 2016

There are presently at least two broader projects aiming at implementing cultural heritage mapping on a national scale.

One focuses on existing printed maps and aims at training in GIS technologies Afghanistan archaeological services.

The second one – promoted by a US university – would rather rely on satellite surveys to map the whole country.

Both do however rely on high investments, proprietary software, and quite refined (and not easily replaceable) technology and tools.

Muzeum @ Digit Conference 2016

OSACA – the Open Source Alliance of Central Asia, founded as an outcome of the Regional Open Source Conference of Central Asia (15-18 October 2011) at the Politechnical University of Kabul – has on this issue an altogether different vision.

Privileging FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) as the main technology, open source cartography as a mapping basis, and the know-how of respected and well known institutions like the National Museum of Afghanistan, it aims at a much less expensive and more flexible solution.

Muzeum @ Digit Conference 2016

The proposed solution is based on a light Android App, proposed on a multilingual platform: Pashto, Dari, English, Russian, and French.

The App – presently code-named Rostam – can connect smartphone users to their phone camera, georeferencing the images they are taking, and allowing to post them to an open source geographic database, together with further notes and metadata.

A similar application has been tested following the 2012 Northern Italy earthquakes (1), though the present one would provide a much wider range of actions.

Muzeum @ Digit Conference 2016

Pictures

All Samangan pictures (slides 3 and 4) by Alessandro Califano (2008), Creative Commons BY-SA 2.0

Mes Aynak picture (slide 5) by Jerome Starkey, CC BY-SA 2.0

Mes Aynak picture (slide 7) by Saving Mes Aynak web site

Portrait of the Author (slide 13) by Sanovbar Murodova (Tajikistan, 2013)

Note (1)

Alessandro Califano, Learning from Mistakes: A Different Strategy for Cultural Heritage Crisis Management in Post-Disaster Areas (Italy 2009-2012), Regional Open Source Conference Central Asia 2013 (Dushanbe 2013)

Muzeum @ Digit Conference 2016

Thank you !

You can find:● further presentations at

www.slideshare.net/califano● A blog at

museumstudies.tumblr.com● You can reach me at

alessandro.califano@laposte.net● Contact OSACA – the Open Source Alliance of Central Asia – at

www.facebook.com/groups/osaca.org