Three Vacancies at Hong Kong Shue Yan University

The new Arts, Culture and Technology (ACT) Programme of the Department of Sociology is inviting applications for full-time Assistant or Associate Professor (3 positions) to start in September 2023 or January 2024. Rank will be commensurate with qualifications and experience. Candidates should have a master or doctoral degree and demonstrate the ability to effectively teach at the undergraduate level while pursuing an active research agenda.

CIPA Spring School on Heritage Documentation

CIPA is happy to announce its 8th Heritage Documentation Spring School on “Cultural Heritage 3D Surveying and Modelling” which will take place from 23-29 march 2023 in Montecatini Terme, Italy. As with the past editions, this summer school will consist of theoretical lectures (on photogrammetry/computer vision, laser scanning, photography and total station survey) and practical work, in the field and in the lab.

In Memoriam: Prof. Dr. Cevat Erder

We are deeply saddened by the loss of Prof. Dr. Cevat Erder, former CIPA president.

His enlightened thought and the values he established and defended with ever present wisdom shall always stay in our mind, while his beloved memories, his wit and jokes will forever be in our hearts. We shall never forget our dear Professor Cevat. May he rest in peace.

CIPA2023: Documenting, Understanding, Preserving Cultural Heritage. Humanities and digital technologies for shaping the future

We are pleased to invite you to participate in CIPA2023, the 29th CIPA-HD biennial Symposium, held from June 26th to 30th, 2023, in Florence, Italy.
CIPA2023 will focus on “Documenting, understanding, preserving Cultural Heritage. Humanities and digital technologies for shaping the future”.
The conference will explore the digital and green dimensions required to handle the complexity of Cultural Heritage management and to come up with new solutions to the challenges of reducing anthropogenic and natural risks.

Archdoc goes 20

Crossing the bog – Excavation and Documentation of a wooden track North-West Germany

Lower-Saxony is located in North-West Germany, East of the Netherlands and ending in the North Sea. This region is known for its wetlands and bogs, which represent today only about 5% of its total surface. These were and are mainly made of peat also called also turf, which is a deposit soil formed by the partial decomposition of vegetal matter in wet acidic conditions. Left in the sun for drying, peat was used as a fuel for cooking and heating.

The COVID Spring Egyptomania: Egypt’s Extraordinary Museum Happenings and Findings

By: Minna Silver

This spring, exactly after 10 years from the Arab Spring and now during and despite the pandemic, there has been a spectacular move of Egypt’s great pharaohs from the Old Egyptian Museum in Cairo to the modern Grand Egyptian Museum in the Golden Parade of the Pharaohs. The parade was broadcasted by Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and indeed undoubtedly it will boost tourism to the new Grand Egyptian Museum which inauguration is expected to happen in June 2021.

One could now this spring follow the televised once in the lifetime procession of mummified pharaohs while a symphony orchestra and singers were playing and Egyptian dignitaries were attending the feast. Dimitri Tomkin had once composed Land of the Pharaohs and a special peace Pharaonic Procession which, for example, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra had recorded. We could now from distance enjoy a real historical procession and have change into the world of lockdowns at our homes.

Such famous pharaohs as the female pharaoh Hatshepsut and pharaoh Ramesses II, proceeded in specially modified vehicles in the streets of Cairo while the orchestra was playing pompous music and the vehicles transported the pharaohs to the better equipped Grand Egyptina Museum in Giza. It is fine that the ancient Egyptian finds including mummies will get the best laboratory treatment in the museum. The mummy of Tutankhamen, perhaps to us the most famous pharaoh, has been returned to its tomb which from the archaeological ethic point of view is an appropriate gesture.

Soon after the spectacle, the world was hearing about extraordinary findings when Dr. Zahi Hawass’s announced the discovery of the lost city of “the Rise of Athen” or “the Dazzling Aten” in Western Thebes next and across the Nile from Luxor. The city dates from the time of Pharaoh Amenophis III (ca. 1390-1352 BC) and his son Amenophis IV (ca. 1353-1336 BC), the latter later known as Akhenaten. The city was apparently used by successive pharaohs Tutankhamen (ca. 1334-1325 BC) and Ay. Pharaoh Akhenaten had created a new monotheistic religion known Atenism which the name of the lost city refers to. He also built the city for Aten in Amarna situated between Cairo and Luxor. From the palaeopathological and DNA examinations, Akhenaten has been identified as having been the father to the boy king Tutankhamen’s.

Some archaeologists have reacted to the discovery of the city that it is the most significant archaeological find made in Egypt since the tomb of Tutankhamen in 1922. The city was discovered when Hawass was looking for the so-called mortuary temple of Tutankhamen. The unearthed finds now consist of buildings, pottery, tools, jewelry and tombs. It seems to have partly served as an industrial centre of pharaohs, but only parts are exposed and the future can bring more new information of the nature of the city. It is claimed that the discovered city is the largest ever known in ancient Egypt.

In this digital age, there are numerous new ways to save the sites and finds from deterioration. The replica of Tutankhamen’s tomb has been produced by FactumArte to people to visit and save the original tomb. The unwrapping linen shrouds and wrappings of mummies have developed digitally. Now there are algorithmic ways to virtually unwrap mummies without actually opening them. We can see inside the wrappings: jewelry and shabtis, little anthropomorphic and magic statues set under wrappings. The director of the Egyptian Museum in Turin introduced the new invention of digitally unwrapping mummies at the GEORES conference in Milan in the spring of 2019.ByB

CIPA BEIJING 2021 in Hybrid Format

Since travel restrictions for most parts of the world will not be lifted by the end of August, it was decided that the coming CIPA Symposium in Beijing will be held in a hybrid format. This means that it will be a combination of both an online and a physical meeting. Our members and enthusiasts coming from the hosting country can meet each other in person at the venue – the Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. For the rest of us, the symposium will be held online. This hybrid format has consequences regarding the submission deadlines, the registration fees and the program. Detailed information can be found on www.cipa2021.org

Please mind that:

  • the registration fees are significantly reduced;
  • the submission deadline for full papers to be double blind peer reviewed and published in the ISPRS Annals, is moved to April 30th
  • the deadline for abstracts, resulting in full papers published in the ISPRS Archives, is moved to March 30th;
  • since the symposium will be live streamed entirely, the various sessions are scheduled as follows:  
    • Beijing Time (Chinese Standard Time): 09:00 – 11:30 AM; 4:00 – 6:30 PM; 9:00-11:30 PM
    • Central European Summer Time: 10:00 – 12:30; 15:00 – 17:30
    • Central Daylight Time: 08:00 – 10:30; 8:00 – 10:30 PM 

We hope you will participate in and enjoy the symposium.

THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL CAMP FOR DOCUMENTATION OF MODERN ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE IN IRAN

Faculty of architecture and urbanism of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad organized an international camp for documentation of a modern architectural heritage in Iran, with collaboration of DOCOMOMO Iran (international committee for documentation and conservation of buildings, sites and neighborhoods of the modern movement), petroleum museums and documents center of Iran, and CIPA (international scientific committee for documentation of cultural heritage) inaugurated on 26th October 2020 and continued for four consecutive days. The camp aimed at technologically conducting measurement sciences into the heritage documentation and recording discipline. The participant students in this 30 hrs workshop learned and practiced computerizing photogrammetric survey of a modern architectural heritage, historical instruments and documents and have practiced facade mapping by drone photogrammetry. 

The camp scientific secretory and assistant professor of faculty of architecture and urbanism of FUM (Dr. Parsa Pahlavan), the digitalization instructor (eng. Ali Eghra), with help of two assistants and a guest instructor, formed a team that included GIS expert, architect and material scientist, conservation expert, and BIM expert. The supervision guided the students from Iran, Afghanistan and Iraq to practice production of scientifically reliable documents on their own.

The petroleum reservoir of Mashhad (built in 1920) was digitally documented by modern tools and techniques and aside, some documents and objects related to the history of petroleum transfer were scanned for the first time. The general secretary of CIPA (prof. Fulvio Rinaudo), director of DOCMOMO (Hadi Naderi) Iran and I.R. IRAN representative in CIPA (Abbass Malian) sent video messages to the final ceremony of this event.

ICOMOS Board Elections

In October 2020, the 20th ICOMOS General Assembly and Scientific Symposium would have taken place in Sydney, Australia. Unfortunately COVID-19 determined otherwise. The “ICOMOS GA2020 Marker Event” took place to acknowledge the excellent work and support of the ICOMOS organizer team. The ICOMOS 21st General Assembly and Scientific Symposium will be held on 31 August – 09 September 2023 in Sydney, Australia. 

Under normal conditions, during the GA elections take place for the new ICOMOS board. Given the situation, for the first time it was held online (from December 3th-4th and December 7th-8th). CIPA Heritage Documentation is pleased to inform you that two of its former presidents were elected, i.e. Andreas Georgopoulos and Mario Santana. The latter will also take the role of Secretary General. Needless to say that we are very proud. We would like to express our sincere congratulations and wish you a very productive term!

CIPA HD

More information can be found on the ICOMOS webpage:

https://www.icomos.org/en/about-icomos/governance/general-information-about-the-general-assembly/future-general-assemblies-2019-2020/84739-20th-icomos-general-assembly-voting-platform-1-election-of-the-icomos-board-result

https://www.icomos.org/en/about-icomos/governance/general-information-about-the-general-assembly/future-general-assemblies-2019-2020/85062-20e-assemblee-generale-de-l-icomos-resultats-des-votes-pour-l-election-du-president-du-secretaire-general-et-du-tresorier-et-pour-les-resolutions-2