:Preserving Cultural Heritage in the Digital Age: Sending Out an S.O.S.

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Previous articleNext article FreeBook ReviewPreserving Cultural Heritage in the Digital Age: Sending Out an S.O.S. Edited by Nicola Lercari, Willeke Wendrich, Benjamin W. Porter, Margie M. Burton, and Thomas E. Levy. Sheffield: Equinox 2022. Pp. 250. ISBN 9781800501263 (paperback) $115.Damian KoropeckyjDamian KoropeckyjIndependent scholar Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreThis book presents a collection of case studies and lessons learned mainly from the University of California’s (UC) At-Risk Cultural Heritage and the Digital Humanities project, combining contributions from professors and staff at partner UC institutions plus a member of an additional international institution: the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). The introduction describes violence on cultural heritage workers and the destruction of cultural heritage in conflict and then pivots attention to the “more insidious loss of knowledge” attributable to improper recording, retention, and publication of data by archaeologists as they conduct research, along with the loss of sites accompanying global development (3). Despite the comparison, it is difficult to accept executions of cultural heritage practitioners and a lack of archaeological publications as equivalent. The aim of the book is to provide theories and methodologies for the use of digital tools in practicing digital preservation and “cyber-archaeology,” defined as a “digital process in which a virtual world is generated through interactions and interconnections” (4), with the intention of not only implementing proper technique but also maximizing the ability of these tools to engage with local communities (10). The 11 chapters are arranged in three sections ordered to provide a workflow akin to the practice expected: “Data Collection,” “Data Analysis and Presentation,” and “Data Curation and Dissemination.” It is worth considering how the organization of the book’s three sections aligns with the stated objectives of the book and the workflows described in the provided case studies.Opening the “Data Collection” section is a chapter by Wendrich seeking to contextualize the destruction of heritage occurring in evolving landscapes and the increased ease of public engagement with affected communities made possible through digital practices (ch. 1). Guillem and Lercari follow with an effort to set the theoretical framework for the cases and methodologies presented (ch. 2). Notably, Guillem and Lercari use the second chapter to confront the attitudes treating these new approaches as “digital solutionism” (26), and they further attempt to fit answers to several other important questions that deserve more space in a larger forum. The chapter draws parallels with other preservation workflows in practice today, while putting the onus on archaeologists to begin implementing the new standards in collection and curation outlined below.Moving past the theoretical introduction, Lucet (ch. 3) discusses new digital recording efforts at Cempoala in Mexico that consisted of applying digital photogrammetry and survey techniques to produce more accurate and objective measurements, with the intention of producing scientific data that is reliable and repeatable. Compared with the original documentation from the mid 20th-century survey of the site, the digitally recorded and processed models were deemed more precise, though carrying limitations inherent in these new methods such as gaps in photogrammetry products due to vegetation (53). Lucet acknowledges that this comparison would not be possible without the retention and digitization of the original survey records but leaves to the authors of the later chapters the discussion of how the new digital products should be curated (54).Lucet’s conclusion provides an opportunity for chapter 4 (Levy, Liss, Yoo, Liritzis, and Burton), the closing chapter of the “Data Analysis” section, to describe a more thorough treatment of digital data collected in the field. The authors describe a holistic approach to recording an archaeological excavation, which required the creation and hosting of proprietary software by UC entities that stored not only 3D models and imagery associated with evolving digital archaeological techniques, but also entirely digital contextual data recorded during excavation, plus associated artifact catalogues. The chapter provides a start-to-finish vision of digital collection and storage of archaeological data can be implemented (though only after many years of technical contributions and considerable funding). Much of the explanation of this implementation concerns the actual storage and dissemination of the data, which points to the final and strongest section of the book.In the “Data Curation and Dissemination” section, McManamon and Ellison (ch. 10) describe the concepts and ideal models of digital data curation, and they provide case studies of these activities and the use of the Digital Archaeological Record (tDAR). The chapter provides detailed lists of practices expected in the digital curation process and how these practices were applied in rescuing a digital collection that was in danger of total loss if not for digital curatorial intervention and transition to tDAR. An example is given of a project that embraced digital curation best practices from the start and engaged with tDAR systematically through the research process.In the final chapter of the book, Hoffman, Porter, and Black provide a very honest account of successfully implementing a collections management system (CMS) at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the UC Berkeley campus (ch. 11). Acknowledging that “only the wealthiest museums” can afford expensive CMS software (213), the authors discuss the evolution of information management at the Hearst Museum and the repeated experiments, and financial investments, required to build a successful, sustainable, and publicly accessible CMS.Few of the chapters are limited to their respective overarching themes of collection, analysis, and curation, in that order of work as prescribed by the book. Other chapters would be better placed in a different order. In the curation section, chapters 9 and 10 both imply that digital curation tasks should actually be considered far earlier than the final stage of research. Brin highlights a fundamental lack of data standards in the archaeological research phase, pointing out that curatorial intervention often occurs “quite late in the research cycle” (163). Similarly, McManamon and Ellison also point out the need for curatorial planning before undertaking research and collection of digital data (196).Readers would benefit from reading the chapters of the curation section first, since it provides an important set of considerations, with which readers can then approach the other chapters, concerning both collection and analysis, including Anderson’s contribution to the analysis section of the book titled “The Digital Context of At-Risk Textual Archives” (ch. 7). The analysis of Old Assyrian cuneiform tablets first depends on the proper digital curation of the tablets and the dissemination of their digital records. Anderson describes building upon the digitized records of the texts with social network analysis to reconstruct archival connections for these documents, which are missing their context. For many of the tablets, this lack of context is due to looting. The proposed method provides not only a solution for recontextualizing artifacts without provenance but also an approach to comparing different archival data sets.Reordering the book chapters would act as a more effective bridge from the countless historic archaeological records yet to be digitized to new archaeological investigations that embrace digital methods from the start. These important solutions to curating the physical records and objects that can still be digitized can then be carried forward as methods that are applicable to all the new digital data being produced. Ultimately, placing discussion of data curation first would build a stronger foundation for methods and techniques that must grow to be more than the aforementioned “digital solutionism.”This book provokes needed discussion about how to approach the increasing embrace of digital archaeology. A notable driver of that discussion is a quest for data that are reliable, reusable, and replicable (chs. 2, 3, 7, 9). The book also holds overviews of practices in digital archaeology that would prove useful in courses on archaeological methods and techniques, cultural heritage management, and curation. It is important to note, however, that many of these projects were well funded and were provided with technical support by numerous partners at the various branches of “perhaps the world’s largest and finest” university system (xv). It is difficult to imagine how some of these methods can be implemented in sustainable ways by researchers and the communities who deserve access to but do not have similar resources available.Notes[email protected] Previous articleNext article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by American Journal of Archaeology Volume 127, Number 2April 2023 The journal of the Archaeological Institute of America Views: 36Total views on this site Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/724680HistoryPublished online March 07, 2023 Copyright © 2023 by the Archaeological Institute of AmericaPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.