How can legacy data inform archaeological investigations? And how can we access the untapped potentials of archival material in order to shed new light on the ancient as well as the more recent past? These questions along with many more queries on the importance, accessibility and use of archival records are explored in a new edited volume: Archival Historiographies: The Impact of Twentieth-Century Legacy Data on Archaeological Investigations.

The publication is edited by three researchers from the ALIPH-funded Archive Archaeology project, namely postdoc Olympia Bobou, former postdoc Amy C. Miranda and centre director, Professor Rubina Raja. The three experts on Palmyrene art and archival research joined forces in the project ‘Archive Archaeology: Preserving and Sharing Palmyra’s Cultural Heritage through Harald Ingholt’s Digital Archives’, which began in 2020. They have scrutinised the archival material pertaining to the site of Palmyra and the legacy data of one of Palmyra’s early excavators, the Danish archaeologist Harald Ingholt (1896–1985), and the newly published volume is one of the outcomes of their work.

In addition to drawing forward and discussing the records of Ingholt, a set of colleagues working with legacy data within the field of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology were also invited to contribute to the volume. The geographical focus is thus expanded, and it also means that the results, possibilities and unsolved dilemmas of the work done in a range of different projects and at several archives are explored in the volume. In ten chapters and an introduction, twentieth-century archival records are revisited, and themes on the democratisation of archaeological data, cultural heritage in conflict zones and ethical responsibilities are discussed.

Full reference

Bobou, O., Miranda, A. C. & Raja, R. 2022. Archival Historiographies: The Impact of Twentieth-Century Legacy Data on Archaeological Investigations, Archive Archaeology 3 (Turnhout: Brepols).

A book series on the importance of archives for archaeological research

The book series Archive Archaeology delves into the archival material related to the archaeological and historical disciplines. Unpublished material from archives around the world is being made available through the book series, and theoretical and methodological considerations regarding the handling and dissemination of such data are also highlighted in the publications of the series. Archaeological Historiographies is the third volume of the series. The two former volumes dealt with a travel account by Johannes Østrup (a translation from Danish to English, published in June 2022) and the Ingholt Archive (a full publication of the archive, forthcoming in early 2023). The series is published by Brepols Publishers (Turnhout, Belgium).

The project ‘Archive Archaeology’

The project ‘Archive Archaeology: Preserving and Sharing Palmyra’s Cultural Heritage through Harald Ingholt’s Digital Archives’ is directed by Professor Rubina Raja, and it is financially supported by the ALIPH Foundation. It explores and researches the legacy data of Harald Ingholt – his fieldwork diaries and his large archive of information on Palmyrene sculpture. Through this work, the project team assesses the endangered cultural heritage of Palmyra and reconstructs lost and damaged contexts. The work on the portrait sculpture of Palmyra and the legacy data of Ingholt is furthermore supported by the Carlsberg Foundation and the Danish National Research Foundation under the grant DNRF119 – Centre of Excellence for Urban Network Evolutions (UrbNet).