Category: Topic of the Year
Exploring the interface between landscape archaeology and contemporary society. Back to community(-ies)
ABSTRACT – This paper intends to explore issues related to rural landscapes as a common good and the significance of the micro-regional or community scale in terms of their great potential to…
“Museums without walls” and sustainable development in Jordan. Some thoughts from the Madaba Regional Archaeological Museum Project
This article reviews current strategies for the protection of cultural heritage in Jordan and reports on a new Italian American-Jordanian project, which aims at developing a new regional archaeological museum for the Governorate of Madaba, central Jordan, which may serve as an educational tool and a springboard for local development and sustainable tourism.
Memory and Earthquake: the Pilastri Excavation Project (Emilia Romagna, Italy) toward a shared community archaeology approach
This is the case of the Pilastri excavation project which started without a clear public engagement strategy but is now pointing toward a more participative and structured one.
Digital connections with museums in times of COVID-19
ABSTRACT – This paper aims to explore the so-called digital transformation of museums in 2020, reflecting on the long-term changes it might imply for digital strategies, skills, and engagement practices. It considers…
University of Cagliari as a heritage community. A case of “multivocal nudge” for sharing heritage in times of social distancing
After a long period of limitations caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, in the framework of Monumenti
Aperti (an Italian large-scale cultural event of local engagement), organizers from the University of Cagliari
(UniCa) were faced with a choice: interrupt a decade of active involvement in the program, or reimagine
‘digitally’ their projects to overcome the public sanitary situation. During the 2020 digital edition, Vestigia
UniCa – Lab of Cultural Heritage Didactics and Communication, carried on the academic institutional
missions (education, research, social impact) under the university Heritage Community brand UniCa C’è,
identifying the Loquis geo-podcasting application as a ‘suitable nudge’ to enhance community relationship
beyond simple connections. The analysis of the context, the projects evaluated, the methodology adopted, the
specific targets and the results obtained, allowed to collect useful data to accomplish research on topics such as
cultural heritage planning and the study of linked digital experiences.
Aperti (an Italian large-scale cultural event of local engagement), organizers from the University of Cagliari
(UniCa) were faced with a choice: interrupt a decade of active involvement in the program, or reimagine
‘digitally’ their projects to overcome the public sanitary situation. During the 2020 digital edition, Vestigia
UniCa – Lab of Cultural Heritage Didactics and Communication, carried on the academic institutional
missions (education, research, social impact) under the university Heritage Community brand UniCa C’è,
identifying the Loquis geo-podcasting application as a ‘suitable nudge’ to enhance community relationship
beyond simple connections. The analysis of the context, the projects evaluated, the methodology adopted, the
specific targets and the results obtained, allowed to collect useful data to accomplish research on topics such as
cultural heritage planning and the study of linked digital experiences.
Collecting memories, mapping places in the Covid era: a digital community map for Trinitapoli (Foggia, Apulia)
This paper aims to discuss the activities carried out in the frame of the public archaeology project Open Salapia after the COVID-19 pandemic hit Europe. After many years of fieldwork and activities with the public, the relationship between the archaeologists and the local community had to find new ways to keep going and respect the state of emergency limitations. We asked ourselves if a social network like Facebook could be a valuable tool for a community mapping experience engaging the citizens of Trinitapoli (Foggia, Italy). The Facebook page community was asked to take part in a participatory process for co-creation of a community map by sharing memories and audio-visual materials on the urban and rural landscape forms, uses, and traditions in the distant or recent past. The result is a digital community map that can be used both by the local community and visitors and constantly enriched in compliance with the ever-changing collective perception of cultural heritage.
Community archaeology 2021: building community engagement at the time of social distancing
This paper focuses on the challenges of adapting – and changing – a community archaeology project as a direct consequence of the global pandemic. COVID-19 has affected our interactions with local communities, driving home the need to create forms of socializing that can withstand physical distance. We will present here the associated challenges and problems, but also the opportunities, that emerged from starting a community archaeology project in Jordan at the time of social distancing and travel limitations. Our case study outlines the difficulties of initiating a community engagement program with the communities living around the site of Tell Ya’moun, the area of the Centre of Excellence in Ancient Near Eastern Empire survey project, during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hard times to plan: Challenges to restructure a working plan during the pandemic, and other stories of #pubarchMED
Ethnographic fieldwork requires careful planning, even being with professionals as #pubarchMED project is. With a schedule of trips, visits and interviews six months ahead, the irruption of travel restrictions with the Covid-19 pandemic has been disruptive in the project to a high level. First cancelling and postponing, then struggling with the uncertainty of the recent future and finally assuming the new reality, adapting to a virtual solution has not been easy. This paper will delve into the specifics of the experience, the solutions taken and further reflection on the reach of virtual (public) archaeology from other experiences of the project.
