Premodern Digital Cultural Heritage: Networking Open-Access Image Repositories of Ancient and Medieval Content
| Principal Investigators: (opens in a new window)Dr Sean Leatherbury (UCD School of Art History & Cultural Policy) and Professor Bryan Ward-Perkins (Oxford University) Funding: Irish Research Council (IRC) and the Arts and Humanities Research Council, UK (AHRC) Growing numbers of digital archive projects are engaging with cultural heritage issues, from digitising historic photos of archaeological sites in regions in conflict, to recording data on sites under threat from climate change, to connecting objects to the regions and sites from which they came. However, often these projects do not communicate with each other as best they could, leading to a duplication of efforts. Additionally, projects have been focused so far on academic audiences rather than on other groups of users, even though they are useful and important resources for museum and cultural heritage professionals, students, and other groups. |
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The Premodern Digital Cultural Heritage research network aims to address both of these issues by promoting collaboration between open-access (i.e. freely accessible) digital projects based in the UK and in Ireland that focus on ancient and medieval cultural heritage, including art, architecture, and archaeology. The network is run by members of the team behind Manar al-Athar ('Guide to Archaeology') photo-archive of images of archaeological sites, buildings, and objects in the Middle East and North Africa, based at Oxford ((opens in a new window)http://www.manar-al-athar.ox.
In 2020-2021, the network will host three workshops, allowing members of participating digital projects to gather and discuss issues related to project missions, operating processes, sustainability, usability and accessibility for different audiences, and outreach to younger audiences, particularly secondary school students. Through knowledge exchange and collaboration, the projects will aim to coordinate their activities, including linking resources when appropriate. Several research projects will emerge from the workshops, targeted at various groups. First, the network will produce written materials (a report and articles) on collaborative practices between digital heritage projects and on the use of digital projects for research. Second, the network aims to draft a model curriculum for the teaching of cultural heritage issues in secondary schools, with the aim of promoting heritage education in schools through the use of digital projects. By producing opportunities for collaboration, the Premodern Digital Cultural Heritage network will greatly expand the heritage resources freely available for museum and cultural heritage professionals, secondary school students, academic researchers, and other audiences.
This research/project was funded by UKRI-AHRC and the Irish Research Council under the ‘UK-Ireland Collaboration in the Digital Humanities Networking Call’ (grant numbers AH/V002201/1 and IRC/V002201/1).
(Images: T: Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem, Photo Sean Leatherbury/Manar al-Athar / M: St Patrick's Cathedral, Cashel, Ireland, south transept elevation, Photo Roger Stalley/Gothic Past / B: Triumph of Dionysus mosaic, Sétif, Algeria, Photo Marlena Whiting/Manar al-Athar)