Digitisation and cultural protection for Sudan

Digitisation and cultural protection for Sudan

Digitisation and cultural protection for Sudan

24/07/2017

DAI Summer School on Data Curation in Berlin. Heritage registers are a worldwide basis for the protection and preservation of cultural heritage. The digitisation of heritage registers is vital for the reliable protection of cultural heritage.

Most of these registers are kept in analogue form in the archives of research institutes and heritage authorities. Nowadays digital heritage registers are required as they make it easier to manage the huge stock of data and to incorporate newly generated data. The documentation of archaeological sites and monuments is increasingly carried out in digital form.

Workshops in Berlin

A workshop was held this summer in Berlin that aimed to exchange information about management techniques for digital data needed for the establishment of heritage registers and about digital methods. The workshop was planned in cooperation with the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO), with whom the German Archaeological Institute signed a cooperation agreement in 2016, and with the Sudanese antiquities authority NCAM (National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums).

Sudanese delegation visiting the German Archaeological Institute. From the left: the president of the German Archaeological Institute, Friederike Fless, the ambassador of the Republic of Sudan, Badreldin M. Abdella, and the participants in the Summer School on Data Curation | © DAI.

The ALECSO organisation nominated workshop experts from Yemen, Libya, Palestine and Tunisia. The cooperation with Sudan is based on the extensive research activity of Friedrich W. Hinkel (deceased 2007).

Digital Research Archive accessible for future use

Hinkel built a huge archive related to Sudanese archaeology. Over 30,000 photographs, 10,000 slides, 540 topographic maps, 4,000 drawings and more than 20,000 index cards provide information for more than 13,000 archaeological sites in Sudan.

Reception in the garden of the Head Office of the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin | © DAI.

Thanks to the generous support by the Qatar Sudan Archaeological Project and the German Federal Foreign Office it was possible to make the extensive research archive digital accessible for future use at the Friedrich Hinkel Research Centre and by doing so to support the building of a national heritage register for Sudan.

Exchange in an international context

The participants in the DAI Summer School on Data Curation and in the “Summer Programme of the Iraqi-German Expert Forum on Cultural Heritage” met for discussion and exchange with German experts on the evening of 20th July in the garden of the DAI Head Office in Berlin. Basic issues related to the expansion of cooperation were discussed in the presence of the ambassador of the Baghdad University. In his speech the supervisor of the cultural preservation staff at the German Federal Foreign Office, Dr. Ronald Münch, stressed the outstanding joint efforts and achievements made in the fields of foreign culture, educational policy and international cultural preservation. The president explained the content of various workshops and events that run in parallel.


Source: DAI press release

Title image: Summer School on Data Curation at the Friedrich Hinkel research archive | © DAI.

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