Developing a Collaborative Strategy to Manage and Preserve Cultural Heritage During the Libyan Conflict. The Case of the Gebel Nāfusa
The paper discusses the potential of a collaborative scheme for the
development of a protocol for recording and managing the cultural heritage in
Libya. The critical political situation in the country urges the development of
cultural heritage management policies in order to protect it more thoroughly and
consistently. Moving on from the numerous international initiatives and projects
dealing with a mostly Bremote^ approach to the issue, the project here presented to
engages with staff members of the Department of Antiquities (DoA) in the development
of a joint strategy for the application of remote sensing and geographical
information systems (GIS) to the preservation and monitoring of Libyan cultural
heritage. A series of training courses resulted in an initial development of new ways
of recording and analysing field data for a better awareness of the full range of
threats that the archaeology of the country is subject to. Focussing on the case of the
Jebel Nafusa, the training involved the assessment of site visibility on satellite
imagery, the analysis of high-resolution satellite datasets for archaeological
mapping, the creation of a GIS spatial database of field data, and the mapping of
risks and threats to archaeology from remote sensing data. This led to the creation
of of a risk map showing the areas that are affected by a number of threats, thus
giving the DoA a tool to prioritise future fieldwork to keep the assessment of site
damage up to date. Only a collaborative approach can lead to a sustainable strategy
for the protection of the invaluable cultural heritage of Libya.
, (8-2016)
