Archive Archaeology in palmyra, Syria a new 3D reconstruction of the tomb of Ḥairan

Archive Archaeology: Preserving and Sharing Palmyra's Cultural Heritage through Harald Ingholt's Digital Archives. A case study in the accessibility and potential of archives

“…The need for the sharing and utilising of archival material-particularly in conflict zones-is an issue not only pertinent to Syria, as the escalating conflict in Afghanistan has shown. As part of the commitment to the preservation of heritage, the Archive Archaeology project has compiled a list of cultural heritage resources (https://projects.au.dk/archivearcheology/ cultural-heritage-resources/) and has drawn upon the archive to produce several works on the preservation of Palmyra (Raja 2015(Raja , 2016a(Raja , 2016b(Raja , 2020. Archives must be made accessible in order to be utilised by scholars and members of the public with an interest in the ancient world and heritage preservation; they are currently under-utilised, despite the wealth of information they contain.…”

“…Enhancing the accessibility of the Ingholt Archive aims to set a benchmark for best practice in archaeology and lead by example in future research and cultural heritage preservation initiatives. The archive has already begun to yield such results, as it provided the foundation for the digital reconstruction of the Tomb of Ḥ airan (Bobou et al 2020). Digital models and other forthcoming research, such as work on looted and faked sculptures, will aid restitution efforts in Syria.…”

Harald Ingholt’s Excavation Diaries from his Fieldwork in Palmyra – an Open Data Online Resource

“…Furthermore, through the documentation on the grave of Hairan in the diaries, together with articles published by Ingholt in the years after the excavation campaigns, it was possible to create a 3D-construction of the tomb [17]. Through the information from the diaries in 1924 and 1928 as well as a sketch of the ground-plan from 1925 and water colour drawings of the wall paintings, it was possible to reconstruct a digital model.…”

“…In total, only 13 tombs were published by Ingholt [11,12,13,14,15,16], which means that the information from the diaries is yet to be connected to more recent excavations and research. As such, the diaries can help to close gaps in our knowledge of the Palmyrene hypogea and expand our knowledge on the city and the burial spaces [17].…”

“The Ingholt Archive. Data from the Project ‘Archive Archaeology: Preserving and Sharing Palmyra’s Cultural Heritage through Harald Ingholt’s Digital Archives’”

“…The Palmyra Portrait Project has used the archive since its digitization in 2012 as the foundation for several publications on Palmyra [14]. Such recent work includes studies of Palmyrene sculpture at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, economic and demographic trends, Palmyrene women, tomb reconstructions, and sculpture recontextualization [15,16,17,18,19].…”