New digital tools could help speed up cultural heritage work

The EU-funded PRESIOUS project has developed software tools that could help improve the efficiency of the work of European archaeologists at a time when funding is tight , and shown that computer simulation can play a key role in assisting researchers across a range of disciplines, including the preservation of cultural heritage artefacts. Once the project is completed, these tools will be made freely available for archaeologists to download, while the consortium's industry partner has used some of the advances made.

'We set out to address some of the challenges that archaeologists face in their everyday work,' explains project coordinator Professor Theoharis Theoharis from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

'In order to better understand what monuments will look like under certain erosive conditions for example, we built simulation software – within the timescale and resources available – that enables an archaeologist to scan a stone object and estimate erosion patterns under different conditions.'

A second aim was to develop simulation software to help archaeologists piece together fragmented findings, like solving a 3D puzzle. 'During a dig, archaeologists will often come across thousands of fragments,' says Theoharis. 'Piecing these together involves quadratic complexity, which we computing scientists fully understand.' The second tool developed by the project team automatically proposes possible fits based on the digitised fragments.

The third solution involved developing software capable of filling in gaps in archaeological objects with symmetry. Once fragments have been painstakingly reconstructed, final artefacts are often still missing pieces. The new software tool works by recognising symmetries and geometric patterns in the artefact, and from this information, offers logical suggestions to fill in the gaps, to aid restoration.

'But in order to develop these technologies, we had to address a key bottleneck – the expense and labour intensive nature of digitisation,' says Theoharis. 'We found that it took a trained operator two and a half hours to scan just one fragment. So the fourth thing we did was speed up the digitisation process with our industrial partner.'

This was achieved through the development of predictive scanning, which uses predictions based on 3D object retrieval from repositories of previously digitised objects in order to speed up the scanning process. This technique is useful for applications where cost reductions are imperative and precision scanning is not necessarily the end goal, as is the case for some archaeological applications.

'We did discuss the possibility of commercialising our software, but the academic project partners understood that our end users – archaeologists – work under harsh funding constraints,' says Theoharis. 'So these tools will go live free once the project ends (in January 2016). In addition, we have a great deal of data and research results that we intend to make available online. There were many related cultural heritage issues that we would have liked to tackle, so we hope that by making this information available, the research work will continue.'

Feedback from the archaeological community at various conferences, seminars and demonstrations has been very positive, and Theoharis is confident that the PRESIOUS tools will directly contribute to the preservation of European cultural heritage.
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Reference:

Phys.org. 2016. "New digital tools could help speed up cultural heritage work”. Phys.org. Posted: January 11, 2016. Available online: http://phys.org/news/2016-01-digital-tools-cultural-heritage.html

How "Operation Mummy’s Curse" is Helping Fight Terrorism

How "Operation Mummy’s Curse" is Helping Fight Terrorism

After six years, an Egyptian sarcophagus is finally making it’s way home after federal agents found it stashed in a Brooklyn garage.

The coffin, which was inscribed with the name “Shesepamutayesher,” is just one of several artifacts recovered in a 2009 raid that are now being returned to their rightful owners, writes Kathleen Caulderwood for the International Business Times. In recent years, federal investigators have seized $2.5 million in stolen antiquities as part of an investigation called Operation Mummy’s Curse.

The global trade in stolen artifacts isn’t fueled by an Indiana Jones like quest for adventure: in addition to plundering the cultural heritage of countries in strife, the money made by selling ancient treasures on the black market sometimes helps to fund groups like the Islamic State.

“During a time of war people take advantage of the lack of security,” art and cultural heritage lawyer Leila Amineddoleh tells Caulderwood. “The problem is that there’s a market for these objects. If there wasn’t a market there wouldn’t be sale or demand.”

It’s unclear exactly how much money smugglers make from selling looted objects, but according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement selling illicit relics is the third most profitable wing of the black market, after drugs and weapons. When civil war broke out in Syria in 2013, investigators noticed a sharp rise in antiquities imported from the war-torn country — about $11 million, or a 134 percent rise from the year before. But despite some successes, Operation Mummy’s Curse is an uphill battle.

Even when a smuggler is caught red-handed like antiques dealer Mousa “Morris” Khouli was with a mummy in his garage, sentences tend to be relatively light, writes Caulderwood. Khouli and his accomplices could have gotten up to 20 years in prison each. But none of them served time. While Khouli received the harshest sentence of the bunch, he left the courtroom with only one year of probation, six months of house arrest and 200 hours of community service.

But since the Islamic State group began publicizing its habit of demolishing and looting historical sites for sale on the black market, politicians have begun to take the issue more seriously. Last month, several members of Congress introduced the Protect and Preserve International Cultural Property Act, which would direct the president to restrict importing archaeological items from Syria.

For now, though, there’s no need to fret about Shesepamutayesher’s Curse: her sarcophagus was finally returned to Egyptian authorities during a recent ceremony, sparing Brooklyn from this particular mummy’s revenge.
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Reference:

Lewis, Danny. 2015. “How "Operation Mummy’s Curse" is Helping Fight Terrorism”. Smithsonian Magazine. Posted: April 28, 2015. Available online: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/ist/?next=/smart-news/federal-agents-are-fighting-terrorism-tracking-down-missing-mummies-180955113

Being Gullah or Geechee, Once Looked Down On, Now a Treasured Heritage

The Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor links historic African-American communities in four southern coastal states.

Emory Campbell remembers growing up Gullah on Hilton Head Island, before the golf courses and the resorts. He remembers hunting in the forests and roaming free in the marshes. He remembers an island where white people were a rarity and his family was part of a close-knit community of African-American farmers and fishers, of teachers and preachers. He remembers the curse and blessing found in the island's isolation, of having to take a ferry to get to the outside world. And he remembers the year it all changed: 1956, when the first bridge opened and the developers poured in. Campbell was 15. Today, the cemetery where his ancestors are buried is corralled by vacation homes set back from a fairway at the Harbour Town Golf Links. To visit, he needs to get waved through at a guardhouse.

"This part of the South used to be too hot for anybody to care about before mosquito control, before bridges and air conditioning," said Campbell. "We were the ones that endured, and ironically, it is us who is now suffering."

Most Threatened Places

The Gullahs or Geechees are descendants of slaves who lived and still live on the coastal islands and lowcountry along the coast of the southeastern United States, from the St. John's River in Florida to the Cape Fear River in North Carolina. (Gullah tends to be the preferred name in North and South Carolina, Geechee in Georgia and Florida.) Their communities dot the 400-mile strip, and they are slowly disappearing, casualties of progress and our love affair with coastal living.

In 2004, the National Trust for Historic Preservation placed the Gullah/Geechee Coast on its list of most threatened places. "Unless something is done to halt the destruction," the trust said, "Gullah/Geechee culture will be relegated to museums and history books, and our nation's unique cultural mosaic will lose one of its richest and most colorful pieces." (Read "Lowcountry Legacy" in the November issue of National Geographic magazine.)

Congress created the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission in 2006, and the agency published its first management plan in 2013. With limited funds and authority, it is working at the grassroots level across the region. It has teamed up with transportation departments in the four states to place road signs informing motorists when they are in the corridor. And it's also getting involved with public policy. You can see the commission's efforts in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, which lies just across the Cooper River from Charleston. The town is known for its sweetgrass basketmakers, who have sold their work from small stands along U.S. 17 for many years. Mount Pleasant's population is now about 75,000, up almost 60 percent since 2000.

When the highway was widened two years ago, the gravel shoulders were eliminated. The commission was one of several agencies that devised a plan to rebuild the basket stands, and in some cases move them to the entrances of shopping centers. It's an imperfect compromise that made the road safer while still allowing the artisans some access to customers.

"People are taking note of the Gullah community and not making decisions without including them," said Michael Allen, a community partnership specialist with the National Park Service at the Charles Pinckney National Historic Site, north of Sullivan's Island. He has worked closely on the planning and implementation of the heritage commission.

In addition to the road project, Mount Pleasant has embraced its basketmakers in other ways. Council member Thomasena Stokes-Marshall is the executive director of the Sweetgrass Cultural Arts Festival Association. She said the town has set aside areas where the basketmakers can gather their raw materials, a task that had become more difficult as development placed more of the lowcountry off-limits.

Stokes-Marshall was born in Mount Pleasant and moved away as a child, but returned in 1993 to care for her aging mother. She then became immersed in politics and preserving what is left of the Gullah culture. "It's woven into the fabric of this community, and many people don't even realize it," she said.

Pressures Intensifying

The pressures on Gullah communities are intensifying, she said. The soaring value of coastal property drives up property taxes. Regulations designed to make homes more storm-safe increase the cost of building, making it difficult for people of modest means to build new homes on long-held property.

In addition, the land is often held communally by numerous family members. This diffuse ownership can lead to forced sales under what is called "Heirs' Property" law. Stokes-Marshall and others say that these laws allow developers to pit family members against each other and push short-term profits at the expense of long-term community stability. "All the white-owned tracts are gone," she said. "Now they're coming for the black landowners."

An environmental impact statement published in 2005 estimated that 200,000 people of Gullah and Geechee heritage live along the southeast coast. But these numbers don't tell the full story. Many people left the area to seek opportunity in other cities, taking their culture and cuisine with them.

"It is everywhere," said Jonathan Green, an internationally acclaimed artist who lives in Charleston and whose paintings celebrate the Gullah world. "This is the beautiful thing about the Gullah culture. It is a culture. So it becomes submerged in groups of people. You hear it in the language, the tone in which people speak, the dialect, the words they use, the cuisine they favor, the facial attitudes, the expression. So the culture is very much alive."

Green grew up in Gardens Corner, a small community near Beaufort, South Carolina. In recent years he has turned much of his attention to researching the role of rice in the region's history. It remains a staple of Gullah cuisine and was the crop that brought his ancestors here in bondage from the west coast of Africa. Their labor and knowledge of rice cultivation—everything from the sweetgrass baskets used to winnow the crop to the construction of the dikes and canals that managed the flow of water—helped create enormous wealth, and it's a contribution that has been long ignored.

Hiding in Plain Sight

You can still see the remains of a rice dike near Bill Wilder's house on James Island, which is across the Ashley River from downtown Charleston. Wilder lives in the Sol Legare community, which is set behind a supermarket along a marsh and an inlet.

A few hundred yards from his house is the Seashore Farmers' Lodge No. 767, which once served as a gathering place and provided assistance for families facing hardship. Built in 1915, it fell into disrepair but was saved and now is a small museum that tells part of the story of Sol Legare and how its residents found strength in their isolation.

Like many Gullah and Geechee communities, Sol Legare is hiding in plain sight. It's also aging, said Wilder, filled with retirees like himself who don't mind the slower pace. He is worried about the future, about a time when his generation is gone, when Sol Legare yields to high-end development and there's little left but memories.

Almost all of the people involved in the preservation efforts are middle-aged or older, and they recognize the need to bring younger people into the effort. I met Shirley Carter as she was cleaning the Sol Legare Community Center, a former school built in the 1940s. "[Young people] don't see it the way that we do, but when you explain to them the heritage, they appreciate it."

In the past, many Gullahs and Geechees were looked down upon. They spoke their own language, a Creole that had roots in both English and African words and sentence structure and a singsong cadence that is still heard today. But not everyone was proud to be Gullah, said Allen, and that creates a need to build trust across the corridor and be respectful of privacy while telling the larger story.

Since retiring in 2002 from the Penn Center, which was created in 1862 as a school for the Gullah Geechee on St. Helena Island and the other sea islands, Campbell has given tours of his Hilton Head. He takes visitors down Beach City Road, once the site of the Mitchelville community, created in 1862 as a town for freed slaves. It's gone now, but the town of Hilton Head and a local group have developed part of the area as a park, a place for recreation and paying tribute to the island's Gullah heritage.

As a former chair of the Gullah Geechee commission, Campbell is encouraged by what he sees, but he also understands the uphill nature of the struggle and the need to move quickly to preserve both places and a way of life. "Whatever happens," he said, "is going to require a lot of work, a lot of sweat, and a lot of cooperation."
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Otterbourg, Ken. 2014. “Being Gullah or Geechee, Once Looked Down On, Now a Treasured Heritage”. National Geographic News. Posted: October 17, 2014. Available online: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/10/141017-gullah-geechee-heritage-corridor-lowcountry-coast-sea-islands-sweetgrass/

Collateral damage to cultural heritage of the past

Though it is not often the subject of front-page news on the Middle East, a largely unreported tragedy of literally monumental proportions is taking place there. While the world's attention has been quite naturally focused on the catastrophic human toll of the conflict in Syria and surrounding areas and the lives that have been destroyed by political instability in Egypt, economic privation, unrelenting civil war, and irresponsible governments have driven an unprecedented destruction of cultural heritage in those countries. Looted Dahshur, Abusir, Tarknan and the Malawi Museum in Egypt and devastated Aleppo, Apamea and Krak des Chevaliers in Syria provide bleak testimony to this calamity.

In a recent issue of the Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies, six front-line heritage preservation activists come together for the first time to express theirs views and provide an update on what is happening today to Middle Eastern archaeological sites. These six articles are starkly illustrated by photographs -- a number of them taken by the authors and their informants on cell phones at risk of life and limb.

Joris Kila, a heritage specialist and reserve officer in the Royal Netherlands Army undertook cultural rescue missions to Iraq, Macedonia, Egypt, and Libya. Writing unsparingly about the irresponsibility of governments, the callous acts of individuals, and the inexplicable neglect of international organizations, he lements that, despite the number of conflict related heritage disasters that have occurred in the last few decades, "no lessons have been learned about prevention and practical solutions." Emma Cunliffe, who in 2012 brought the cultural costs of the Syrian uprising to the world's attention, cautions academics who steer clear of these issues that "an anti-war/pro-peace stance does not preclude acceptance of the fact that conflict still happens and must be dealt with."

Syrian archaeologists Salam Al Quntar and Ali Cheilmous describe the very human dimensions of damage to heritage. "Not only impressive ancient buildings have values for Syrians," Al Quntar writes, "but the entire setting of the ancient urban landscape, historical and religious buildings, suqs or bazaars, cafes and restaurants, and even the narrow warm streets." Cheikmous concludes, "No political solution to the Syrian conflict can be imagined at the moment…As a result, the nation's heritage is hostage to both sides of the conflict."

Salima Ikram and Monica Hanna, Egyptian archaeologists, discuss the stepped up looting activity and illegal land appropriation that has accompanied Egypt's volatile political situation. Hanna decries the fact that "There is not a single site in Egypt that has not suffered the attack of the land mafia and looters." Ikram, similarly, sees these events, concluding with the dire prediction that "Now, until the rule of law has been re-established, Egypt's heritage will continue to be lost. This is tragic for the whole world, but most of all for Egyptians."
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References:

Science Daily. 2014. “Collateral damage to cultural heritage of the past”. Science Daily. Posted: August 7, 2014. Available online: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/08/140807104705.htm

Qatar coastal heritage revealed

The Wales Qatar Archaeological Project was originally set up in 2010 by archaeologist Dr Andrew Petersen from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD). The project is concerned with the research excavation and survey of a number of coastal sites in northern Qatar.

Currently the university is working on two sites, Ruwaydha and Rubayqa. Preliminary reports on both sites have been published in the Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies.

Dr Petersen first travelled to Qatar in 2008, a visit which by chance coincided with a decision by the Qatar Museum Authority (QMA) to begin a comprehensive series of archaeological investigations targeting Islamic period sites. This was the catalyst for the creation of the project.]

Dr Petersen explained: “On a tour of the archaeological sites in northern Qatar, I was immediately struck by the density of the occupation along the coast and saw the potential of a targeted excavation programme.

Ras ‘Ushairiq

“So far two sites have unearthed a rich history of the State. The excavation of a site called Ras ‘Ushairiq uncovered a large settlement called Rubayaqa which revealed several large courtyard homes, a mosque and two cemeteries.”

Ruwayda

“A second site called Ruwayda has revealed the remains of a town which was dominated by a large fortress. It includes a mosque complex, workshops, warehouses and a tomb. Other finds, such as ceramics, indicate long-distance trade with nations such as China, southeast Asia, Oman, Iran and India.”

Al-Ruwayda rarely appears in historical sources. It does not, for example, appear on the map made by Captain Brucks in the 1820s. The site is first mentioned in the 1790s when it was one of a number of settlements conquered by the Wahhābī commander Ibrāhīm ibn Ufaysān.

John Gordon Lorimer, the writer of the Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia: an encyclopaedic two volume work of colonial intelligence surveying the history and geography of the region at the end of the 19th century is the first to refer to the site as ‘Dōhat al-Ruwaydah’ (i.e. the bay of al-Ruwayda) and describes it as ‘a deserted village three miles above Khor Hassan [al-Khuwayr]’. Lorimer further states that ‘the inhabitants migrated to Zubarah when the latter was founded’.

Three main phases

The first excavations at the site concentrated on the area of the fort in an attempt to understand the sequence and nature of construction. It now appears that it was built in three main phases. In the first phase a small square fort was built with a single round tower at the northwest corner. The date of this early construction is not yet known although it appears to have existed before the eighteenth century when extensive repairs were carried out. In the second phase dating to the early eighteenth century the size of the fortress was more than doubled and had a maximum length of 100 metres per side. However the walls of this larger fortress were fairly thin (less than 80cm wide) and this feeble construction suggests the level of attack that was expected despite the display of strength it tried to present with its large rectangular towers at each corner and in the middle of each wall.

At the northeast corner of the newly enlarged fortress there was a large courtyard house with a portico supported on stone piers. This building has been interpreted as the ruler or governor’s palace and in addition to the rooms ranged around the courtyard also had direct access to the north-east corner tower.

Soon the palace walls of the second phase fortress (18th century) were dismantled and its size was drastically reduced, but the walls doubled in thickness, suggesting a concern with security, perhaps due to raids from the sea. In addition to the fortress a number of other structures within it have been identified and excavated, including a mosque, a series of warehouses and an enigmatic tomb like structure.

The excavations have provided plentiful evidence for long distance trade with ceramics from China, southeast Asia (Burma), Oman, Iran and India. The proportion of East Asian ceramics is particularly high reaching 5% of the total, suggesting both a high standard of living as well as good connections to Indian Ocean trading routes. In addition to ceramics, numerous other types of objects were found including grinding stones, glass, jewellery and metalwork.

State of the art survey

Analysis of the sites have been further enhanced following the award of a Qatar National Research Fund Grant. This has given the Project an opportunity to use an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to carry out survey work. It allows 3D terrain models to be generated and is able to support the creation of high-resolution maps of the sites under investigation. Through the use of on-board sensing systems, such as near infra-red, thermal and various other techniques, the UAV has the potential to identify sub-surface remains.

The advantage of having a high specification UAV like the Microdrone is that it flies using waypoints or predetermined routes controlled by on-board GPS, gyroscope and barometric readings. For example this means that it is able to survey a grid pattern and take a series of photographs at predetermined intervals enabling production of a high resolution total map of the surface of the archaeological site.
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Past Horizons. 2014. “Qatar coastal heritage revealed”. Past Horizons. Posted: May 6, 2014. Available online: http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/05/2014/qatar-coastal-heritage-revealed

A History of Elves

Elves have been a popular subject in fiction for centuries, ranging from William Shakespeare's play "A Midsummer Night's Dream" to the classic fantasy novels of J.R.R. Tolkien 300 years later. But it's only recently that elves have been confined to plays, books, and fairy tales: In centuries past, belief in the existence of fairies and elves was common among both adults and children.

Like fairies, elves were said to be magical, diminutive shape-shifters. (Shakespeare's elves were tiny, winged creatures that lived in, and playfully flitted around, flowers.) English male elves were described as looking like little old men, though elf maidens were invariably young and beautiful. Like men of the time, elves lived in kingdoms found in forests, meadows, or hollowed-out tree trunks.

Elves, fairies, and leprechauns are all closely related in folklore, though elves specifically seem to have sprung from early Norse mythology. By the 1500s, people began incorporating elf folklore into stories and legends about fairies, and by 1800, fairies and elves were widely considered to be simply different names for the same magical creatures.

As with fairies, elves eventually developed a reputation for pranks and mischief, and strange daily occurrences were often attributed to them. For example, when the hair on a person or horse became tangled and knotted, such "elf locks" were blamed on elves, and a baby born with a birthmark or deformity was called "elf marked."

Indeed, our forefathers trifled with elves at their peril. According to folklorist Carol Rose in her encyclopedia "Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins," though elves were sometimes friendly toward humans, they were also known to take "terrible revenge on any human who offends them. They may steal babies, cattle, milk, and bread or enchant and hold young men in their spell for years at a time. An example of this is the well-known story of Rip Van Winkle."

Evolving elves

Another type of elf emerged, one with a somewhat different nature and form than the mischievous and diminutive sprites of yore. Some elves, such as those depicted in J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, are slender, human-sized, and beautiful, with fine — almost angelic — features. Tolkien's characters were drawn largely from his research into Scandinavian folklore, and therefore it's not surprising that his elves might be tall and blond. Though not immortal, these elves were said to live hundreds of years. They have also become a staple of modern fantasy fiction.

Gary Gygax, co-creator of the seminal role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons, was not only influenced by Tolkien's elves but also instrumental in popularizing them, even including elves as one of the character races (along with humans) that gamers could play.

In either form, elves are strongly associated with magic and nature. As with fairies, elves were said to secretly steal healthy human babies and replace them with their own kind. These changelings appeared at first glance to be human babies, but if they became seriously sick or temperamental, parents would sometimes suspect that their own child had been abducted by elves. There were even legends instructing parents on how to get their real child back from its elven abductors.

Each generation seems to have their own use for elves in their stories. Just as leprechauns have historically been associated with one type of work (shoemaking), it is perhaps not surprising that many common (and commercial) images of elves depict them as industrious workers — think, for example of Santa Claus' toymaking elves or even the Keebler cookie-baking elves. Folklore, like language and culture, is constantly evolving, and elves will likely always be with us, in one form or another.
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References:

Radford, Benjamin. 2013. “A History of Elves”. Live Science. Posted: September 16, 2013. Available online: www.livescience.com/39689-history-of-elves.html

(Ab)use of World Heritage Site causes rifts in Bosnia and Herzegovina

What happens when a theatre of war is elevated to a World Heritage Site while the wounds are still raw? In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the World Heritage Sites have become podiums from which various groups proclaim wrongs done to them in the war. This is shown in a thesis by ethnologist Dragan Nikolić at Lund University, Sweden.

Dragan Nikolić has studied how sites that are included on UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites – the old bridge in Mostar, the bridge over the Drina in Višegrad, and the nomination of the old town in Jajce – have gained a partly different meaning for the local people than that intended by national politicians and the international community.

World Heritage Sites have mainly been seen as a valuable asset for people's identity and a method to market locations. The thesis, Three Towns, Two Bridges and a Museum. Memory, Politics and World Heritage in Bosnia and Herzegovina, poses the question of what happens to World Heritage Sites where culturicide has been committed. Dragan Nikolić shows how the sites have been used strategically in political contexts and how they have been used and abused tactically in day-to-day life at transnational, national, local and individual level. The studies illustrate how the official memory of the World Heritage Sites often collides with the individual memories of members of the population.

"Instead of becoming symbols of reconciliation and pride, the bridges in Mostar and Višegrad, for example, became trouble spots. They were used to reinforce the memory of past injustices and to uphold a victims' perspective in the collective memory. They became a symbol for the role of victim. The people fight over who has suffered most", says Dragan Nikolić.

However, the thesis also gives examples of positive aspects of the involvement of civil society, such as in the case of the AVNOJ museum in Jajce, where many representatives and organisations came together to reinterpret the past.

The thesis follows both the intentions of the authorities and the frustration of the local population when symbolic actions have come before practical engagement, as well as how memorials have become weapons in a conflict that has been resolved only on the surface.

"My research shows that we cannot trivialise either cultural heritage monuments or people's memories; rather, we must strive to understand the interplay between them. Strategies and policies for World Heritage Sites must be changed and the authorities must follow up what happens after a place is designated a World Heritage Site, i.e. spend more time on the use and the practices that develop around this type of monument", says Dragan Nikolić.

Dragan Nikolić grew up in Bosnia Herzegovina and came to Sweden as a refugee in 1993 at the age of 17. This has given him a unique insider and outsider perspective in the work on his thesis. He defended his thesis in ethnology on 25 May at Lund University. The title of the thesis is Three Towns, Two Bridges and a Museum. Memory, Politics and World Heritage in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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References:

EurekAlert. 2012. "(Ab)use of World Heritage Site causes rifts in Bosnia and Herzegovina". EurekAlert. Posted: June 7, 2012. Available online: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-06/lu-ow060712.php

Norway tries to reclaim explorer Amundsen's ship Maud

A hearing on Thursday will decide the fate of a ship once captained by Roald Amundsen, the Norwegian explorer first to reach the south pole.

The Maud is partially sunk in Cambridge Bay in Nunavut, northern Canada.

A permit to return the ship to Norway was denied in December and Canadian officials have argued the ship is crucial to the nation's heritage.

Campaigner Jan Wanggaard is spearheading a project to overturn the decision.

Called Maud Returns Home, the project would see the wreck towed back to Norway to become a museum near Oslo.

Amundsen was using the ship to sail through the Northeast Passage between 1918 and 1920 but was unable to launch an expedition to the north pole from there.

The ship was sold to the Hudson's Bay Company and became a warehouse and radio station before sinking in 1930.

Asker Council in Norway bought the ship back for $1 in 1990, securing a permit to repatriate it - but the permit has since expired.

In December, the Canadian Border Services Agency rejected a renewed request to export the wreck.

Mr Wanggaard will appear before the Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board in Ottawa on Thursday to overturn that decision.

The board may roundly reject the proposal or impose a delay of up to six months on the decision, during which time it is believed a Canadian buyer may be sought.
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References:

BBC News. 2012. "Norway tries to reclaim explorer Amundsen's ship Maud". BBC News. Posted: March 15, 2012. Available online: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17364684

Museums and national identities

How museums are used and can be used to create a sense of community and identity is the theme for an event as part of the EuNaMus project. The event takes place in Brussels on 25 January.

Creating new national museums is a growing trend, both globally and within Europe. The challenge is to create unity and a common understanding of the history in evolving multi-ethnic and multicultural countries. However the challenge is not new, says Peter Aronsson, professor in Cultural Heritage and the Uses of History at Linköping University and coordinator of the European research project EuNaMus on Europe's national museums.

EuNaMus is a three-year project funded by the EU's Seventh Framework Programme. Eight European universities are involved and the project is coordinated from Sweden.

"The issue of assembling many different ethnic groups within one nation is not a new concept, just think about the great multicultural states Germany's and Italy's unification during the 1800s. National museums have long been used to create a binding element, a sense that "we belong together" in a national community, this despite their differences."

Aronsson claims that the current challenge for multicultural Europe can be addressed in two ways: either that diversity is affirmed, rendered harmless and culturally useful, or that it is seen as a threat that must be encountered by stronger integration.

Parallel to the issue of a national community is the one what Europeans actually have in common. Several other initiatives are also underway to create European museums.

These initiatives and trends will be discussed at an outreach event of the EuNaMus project in Brussels on 25 January. This will be followed by a more scientific conference on 26 and 27 January that will address how a conflict-ridden history is to be handled at national museums. One example that will be brought to the fore is Europe's dark colonial history.
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References:

EurekAlert. 2012. "Museums and national identities". EurekAlert. Posted: January 18, 2012. Available online: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/lu-man011812.php