Digital Heritage 2018 3rd International Congress & Expo

Roundtable:  REMOTE SENSING FOR ARCHAEOLOGICAL HERITAGE IN DANGER
Sponsored by Space to Place Initiative
Moderator: Daniele Ferdani, CNR

Across time parts of the world’s shared archaeological heritage have been affected by damage, destruction or looting in the face of armed conflicts. In recent decades the threat of unintended or unthinking ‘collateral damage’, as by US-led military camps at Babylon, has been exacerbated by a strategy of deliberate destruction, as in the dynamiting of the Bamyan Buddhas in Afghanistan – a calculated attack on the cultural memory that those figures represented. More recently pictures of the methodical destructions of Palmyra and the old city of Aleppo (Syria) or Nimrud (Iraq) have illustrated the systematic targeting of heritage features from prehistoric to Islamic times without regard to their cultural, historical and socio-economic significance, whether in situ or in the illusory sanctuary of museums and those who care for them.

The aim of this roundtable will be to gather information from around the world about the problems and possibilities (both practical and political) of using remote sensing in the interests of heritage sites and landscapes before, during and after such events. Discussion will focus on methods of documenting, mapping, managing and above all monitoring heritage assets that can help in measuring and evaluating losses and transformations brought about by conflict situations. A key focus for the future will lie in the definition and implementation of strategies for the analysis and sharing of information through open access publications, websites, freely circulated data sets and related means of dissemination and discussion.

Presentations/Discussion :
Brief Introduction
Daniele Ferdani

Revising Archaeological Recording In Conflict Zones in the Light of the Destruction of Cultural Heritage
Ezra Zubrow

Short Remote Presentations
   Aerial Archaeology and Remote Sensing in the Middle East and North Africa: Monitoring Change
   Bob Bewley remotely

   Archaeological Impact Assessment of Daesh-inflicted Damages on Iraqi Heritage
   Stefano Campana remotely

   State of the art of EAMENA PROJECT (University of Oxford)
   Bob Bewley remotely

    Historical Conflict Zones in Europe (Late Antiquity to Present) and the Documentation and Analysis by Geophysics of Archaeological Sites affected by Destruction
    Joachim Henning remotely

Predicting the Destruction of Cultural Heritage
Ezra Zubrow