Premodern Digital Cultural Heritage: Networking Open-Access Image Repositories of Ancient and Medieval Content

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Growing numbers of digital archive projects are engaging with cultural heritage issues, from digitising historic photos of archaeological sites in regions in conflict, to recording data on sites under threat from climate change. However, often these projects do not communicate with each other as best they could, leading to a duplication of efforts. Additionally, projects have been focused so far on academic audiences rather than on other groups of users, even though they are useful and important resources for museum and cultural heritage professionals, students, and other groups. The 'Premodern Digital Cultural Heritage' research network aims to address both of these issues by promoting collaboration between open-access (i.e. freely accessible) digital projects based in the UK and in Ireland that focus on ancient and medieval cultural heritage, including art, architecture, and archaeology. The network is run by the Manar al-Athar ('Guide to Archaeology') photo-archive of images of archaeological sites, buildings, and objects in the Middle East and North Africa. Over the course of the next year, the network will host three workshops, two at University College Dublin and one at the University of Oxford, allowing members of participating digital projects to gather and discuss issues related to project missions, operating processes, sustainability, usability and accessibility for different audiences, and outreach to younger audiences, particularly secondary school students. Through knowledge exchange and collaboration, the projects will aim to coordinate their activities, including linking resources when appropriate. Several research projects will emerge from the workshops, targeted at various groups. First, the network will produce two articles, intended especially for museum and cultural heritage professionals, on collaborative practices between digital heritage projects and on the use of digital projects for research. Second, the network will draft a model curriculum for the teaching of cultural heritage issues in secondary schools, with the aim of promoting heritage education in schools through the use of digital projects. Finally, these research projects will be made freely available on the network website that will serve as a home for information and further research activities. By producing opportunities for collaboration, the 'Premodern Digital Cultural Heritage' network will deliver meaningful results for museum and cultural heritage professionals, secondary school students, academic researchers, and other audiences.