Cultural heritage management (CHM) is the vocation and practice of managing

cultural heritage Cultural heritage is the heritage of tangible and intangible heritage assets of a group or society that is inherited from past generations. Not all heritages of past generations are "heritage"; rather, heritage is a product of selection by soci ...

. It is a branch of

cultural resources management In the broadest sense, cultural resource management (CRM) is the vocation and practice of managing heritage assets, and other cultural resources such as contemporary art. It incorporates Cultural Heritage Management which is concerned with traditio ...

(CRM), although it also draws on the practices of

cultural conservation The conservation and restoration of cultural property focuses on protection and care of cultural property (tangible cultural heritage), including artworks, architecture, archaeology, and museum collections. Conservation activities include prev ...

restoration Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to: * Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage ** Audio restoration ** Film restoration ** Image restoration ** Textile restoration * Restoration ecology ...

museology Museology or museum studies is the study of museums. It explores the history of museums and their role in society, as well as the activities they engage in, including curating, preservation, public programming, and education. Terminology The w ...

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

and

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

. While the term cultural heritage is generally used in Europe, in the USA the term cultural resources is in more general use specifically referring to cultural ''heritage'' resources. CHM has traditionally been concerned with the identification, interpretation, maintenance, and preservation of significant cultural sites and physical heritage assets, although intangible aspects of heritage, such as traditional skills, cultures and languages are also considered. The subject typically receives most attention, and resources, in the face of threat, where the focus is often upon rescue or salvage archaeology. Possible threats include urban development, large-scale agriculture, mining activity, looting, erosion or unsustainable visitor numbers. The public face of CHM, and a significant source of income to support continued management of heritage, is the interpretation and presentation to the public, where it is an important aspect of tourism. Communicating with government and the public is therefore a key competence.

The development of CHM

CHM has its roots in the

rescue archaeology Rescue archaeology, sometimes called commercial archaeology, preventive archaeology, salvage archaeology, contract archaeology, developer-funded archaeology or compliance archaeology, is state-sanctioned, archaeological survey and excavation car ...

and

urban archaeology Urban archaeology is a sub discipline of archaeology specializing in the material past of towns and cities where long-term human habitation has often left a rich record of the past. In modern times, when someone talks about living in a city, they ...

undertaken throughout

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

in the years surrounding

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and the succeeding decades. Salvage projects were hasty attempts to identify and rescue archaeological remains before they were destroyed to make room for large public-works projects or other construction. In the early days of salvage archaeology, it was nearly unheard-of for a project to be delayed because of the presence of even the most fascinating cultural sites, so it behooved the salvage archaeologists to work as fast as possible. Although many sites were lost, much data was saved for posterity through these salvage efforts. In more recent decades, legislation has been passed that emphasizes the identification and protection of cultural sites, especially those on public lands. In the United States, the most notable of these laws remains the

National Historic Preservation Act The National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA; Public Law 89-665; 54 U.S.C. 300101 ''et seq.'') is legislation intended to preserve historic and archaeological sites in the United States of America. The act created the National Register of Historic ...

. The administration of President

Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...

was most instrumental in passing and developing this legislation, although it has been extended and elaborated upon since. These laws make it a crime to develop any federal lands without conducting a cultural resources survey in order to identify and assess any cultural sites that may be affected. In the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, PPG 16 has been instrumental in improving the management of historic sites in the face of development. The subject has developed from an emphasis on preservation of material culture (by record if not by physical remains), to encompass the broader concepts of culture, which are inseparable from the local communities. Modern thinking takes the view that cultural heritage belongs to the people, therefore access to cultural heritage has to be ensured. The public reaction to the proposed destruction of the Newport ship shows the importance of heritage to local communities. The legislation of individual nations is often based upon ratification of

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

conventions, such as the 1972 World Heritage Convention, the

Valletta treaty The Valletta Treaty (formally the European Convention on the Protection of the Archaeological Heritage (Revised), also known as the Malta Convention) is a multilateral treaty of the Council of Europe. The 1992 treaty aims to protect the Europea ...

and the 2001 Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage. Specific legislation is sometimes needed to ensure the appropriate protection of individual sites recognized as

World Heritage Sites A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the UNESCO, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNES ...

. Some researchers argue that the lack of proper project

management Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

is an important issue in the implementation of

projects A project is any undertaking, carried out individually or collaboratively and possibly involving research or design, that is carefully planned to achieve a particular goal. An alternative view sees a project managerially as a sequence of even ...

; the poor definition of

indicator Indicator may refer to: Biology * Environmental indicator of environmental health (pressures, conditions and responses) * Ecological indicator of ecosystem health (ecological processes) * Health indicator, which is used to describe the health ...

s in the field of

project performance A project is any undertaking, carried out individually or collaboratively and possibly involving research or design, that is carefully planned to achieve a particular goal. An alternative view sees a project managerially as a sequence of even ...

also contributes to this. Another identified other issues: 1) inadequate

evaluation Evaluation is a systematic determination and assessment of a subject's merit, worth and significance, using criteria governed by a set of standards. It can assist an organization, program, design, project or any other intervention or initiative ...

of existing policies and procedures (e.g.

public procurement Government procurement or public procurement is the procurement of goods, services and works on behalf of a public authority, such as a government agency. Amounting to 12 percent of global GDP in 2018, government procurement accounts for a subst ...

) necessary for project implementation; 2) non-preparation of the project

action plan Action may refer to: * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video game Film * Action film, a genre of film * ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford * ''Action'' (1980 fil ...

(which would ensure the efficiency of project implementation); 3) the documentation of

objects has not been arranged.Dvorak, J., & Burkšienė, V., Sadauskaitė, L. (2019). Issues in the implementation of cultural heritage projects in Lithuania: the case of the Klaipeda region. Cultural Management: Science and Education, 3 (1), 23-37. doi:10.30819/cmse.3-1.02
/ref>

Cultural heritage assessment

While

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...

s remain the primary focus for many CHM professionals, others research historical records or on

ethnohistorical Ethnohistory is the study of cultures and indigenous peoples customs by examining historical records as well as other sources of information on their lives and history. It is also the study of the history of various ethnic groups that may or may n ...

projects. Public outreach also falls within their purview. A recent concept is

Traditional Cultural Property The U.S. National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) classifies its listings by various types of properties. Listed properties generally fall into one of five categories, though there are special considerations for other types of properties whi ...

or TCP. These are places with cultural importance to a group that may not be either particularly historical or an archaeological site. An example would be a location used for contemporary Native American religious events that has no archaeological remains. A phase of evaluation is considered important in assessing the significance of a possible cultural heritage site. This can comprise a desk-based study, interviews with informants in the community, a wide-area survey, or trial trenching. In North America, survey normally includes either walking ploughed fields in 5–10-metre transects or digging shovel test pits at the same intervals. The soil from the test pits is sifted through 6 mm mesh to look for artifacts. If artifacts are found, the next stage of investigation is usually digging and sifting a spaced grid of test pits (1 m by 1 m trenches) to determine how large or significant the site is.

Mitigation

In the United Kingdom and Canada, all forms of development, public and private, are subject to archaeological requirements, while in the United States this work can only be undertaken in federally funded projects or those on government-owned land, except in a few states that have laws that apply also to private land. Where archaeological requirements apply to a site of proposed development, if no significant archaeological or other cultural property sites are found in the impacted area, construction may proceed as planned, often with the requirement that archaeologists are on-site providing a watching brief. If potentially significant remains are found, construction may be delayed to allow for evaluation of the site or sites found within the impacted area. This is done to determine the archaeological site's true significance. If archaeologists determine the site contains important/significant cultural remains, the adverse effects on the site must be mitigated. Site mitigation can involve avoiding the site through redesigning the development or excavating only a percentage of the site. In the U.S., these restrictions involve any federal project involving the possible disturbance of cultural resources and can also extend to state and private developments if they involve public waterways or federal funds. If archaeologists determine the site contains highly significant cultural remains, the adverse development effects on the site must be mitigated through a structured programme that is often long and expensive. Mitigation can include preservation by record i.e. the site is destroyed by archaeological excavation rather than by the development and meticulous recording transfers the physical traces in the earth to information in archives. Mitigation also includes construction techniques which ensure that archaeological remains are protected in undisturbed parts of the site or even underneath the development. An example of this type of mitigation is the Viking remains at

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

. Important sites are designated as being protected by the state so that no development at all can take place, and governments also recommend the most important sites to be recognised as World Heritage Sites.

The effect of CHM on archaeology

CHM has been a mixed blessing for archaeology. Preservation legislation has ensured that no valuable site will be destroyed by construction without study, but the work of rescue archaeologists is sometimes controversial. Some academic archaeologists do not take archaeological rescue or salvage work seriously because of its emphasis on site identification and preservation rather than intensive study and analysis. Where archaeology is motivated by proposed development, the archaeological contracts are placed through a bidding process. The choice of archaeological contractor typically lies with the developer and there is little incentive to prevent the company responsible for construction selecting the bid with the lowest price estimate, or shortest investigation time, regardless of the archaeological merits of the submitted bids. The impact of archaeological rescue and salvage work has been considerable; given the large amount of construction, and that the bulk of archaeological work in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom is developer led. Unfortunately, the large number of reports written on the thousands of sites dug each year are not necessarily published in public forums. So-called

grey literature Grey literature (or gray literature) is materials and research produced by organizations outside of the traditional commercial or academic publishing and distribution channels. Common grey literature publication types include reports (annual, rese ...

is sometimes difficult for even archaeologists outside the developer or the CRM organisation that performed the work to access. Some initiatives, notably th
OASIS project
of the Archaeological Data Service in the UK, are beginning to make the reports available to everyone.

Heritage curation and interpretation

Curation refers to the long-term preservation and retention of heritage assets and to providing access to them in a variety of forms. Fragile heritage assets may need to be preserved in a special environment, and protected from light (especially

ultra-violet Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 PHz) to 400 nm (750 THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiatio ...

humidity Humidity is the concentration of water vapor present in the air. Water vapor, the gaseous state of water, is generally invisible to the human eye. Humidity indicates the likelihood for precipitation, dew, or fog to be present. Humidity depe ...

, fluctuations in

temperature Temperature is a physical quantity that expresses quantitatively the perceptions of hotness and coldness. Temperature is measured with a thermometer. Thermometers are calibrated in various temperature scales that historically have relied o ...

and in some cases,

oxygen Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements as wel ...

from the air. Large

museums A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

generally employ specialist conservators as well as

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...

officers,

archivist An archivist is an information professional who assesses, collects, organizes, preserves, maintains control over, and provides access to Document, records and archives determined to have long-term value. The records maintained by an archivist c ...

s and

research Research is "creativity, creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular att ...

ers. Museums vary in their approach to interpretation ranging from traditional museums that display collections of artefacts behind glass, with labels identifying each item and giving

provenance Provenance (from the French ''provenir'', 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody or location of a historical object. The term was originally mostly used in relation to works of art but is now used in similar senses i ...

, to

living museum A living museum, also known as a living history museum, is a type of museum which recreates historical settings to simulate a past time period, providing visitors with an experiential interpretation of history. It is a type of museum that recr ...

s which attempt to recreate a historical place or period so that people can experience it. Within a single museum, a range of approaches may be used including interpretative panels, presenting artefacts in a realistic setting as they would have been experienced, and creating interactive and virtual exhibits. Museums also have processes to loan artefacts to other institutions or exhibitions. Interpretative panels, and other signage, such as

Blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker. The term i ...

s in the UK are important in ensuring that cultural heritage is understood in the context of the local community.

Historic preservation and restoration

Preservation and restoration usually refers to architectural or engineering heritage assets such as heritage buildings or other structures and

Heritage railways A heritage railway or heritage railroad (US usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) i ...

. The UK has a number of different forms of protection for buildings and structures, including

listed buildings In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

conservation area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...

s and

Scheduled Ancient Monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...

s. In France a building or other structure can be protected as a

Monument historique ''Monument historique'' () is a designation given to some national heritage sites in France. It may also refer to the state procedure in France by which National Heritage protection is extended to a building, a specific part of a building, a coll ...

. Successful heritage management for a building generally requires that the building continues to be used, as disused buildings are likely to deteriorate quickly. If the purpose for which the building was originally constructed is no longer viable, then other uses, often requiring sympathetic modification must be found. Heritage machinery, such as

antique An antique ( la, antiquus; 'old', 'ancient') is an item perceived as having value because of its aesthetic or historical significance, and often defined as at least 100 years old (or some other limit), although the term is often used loosely ...

vintage car A vintage car is, in the most general sense, an old automobile, and in the narrower senses of car enthusiasts and collectors, it is a car from the period of 1919 to 1930. Such enthusiasts have categorization schemes for ages of cars that en ...

s and

heritage railway A heritage railway or heritage railroad (US usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) i ...

s can best be understood and are best accessed and experienced by the public when they are in an operational condition. Moreover, the heritage

skills A skill is the learned ability to act with determined results with good execution often within a given amount of time, energy, or both. Skills can often be divided into domain-general and domain-specific skills. For example, in the domain of wo ...

associated with such heritage assets, such as driving a steam locomotive, can only be maintained if the machinery is used. Restoration to a working, if not pristine condition, and creation of exact working replicas are therefore part of the practice of heritage management.

Managing intangible cultural heritage

The

intangible cultural heritage An intangible cultural heritage (ICH) is a practice, representation, expression, knowledge, or skill considered by UNESCO to be part of a place's cultural heritage. Buildings, historic places, monuments, and artifacts are cultural property. Int ...

consists of traditional skills,

beliefs A belief is an attitude that something is the case, or that some proposition is true. In epistemology, philosophers use the term "belief" to refer to attitudes about the world which can be either true or false. To believe something is to take i ...

traditions A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or ...

oral tradition Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication wherein knowledge, art, ideas and cultural material is received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another. Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (1985 ...

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

songs A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetition ...

dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

etc. These cannot be stored in a museum but are constantly reinterpreted by the people in a particular

cultural region In anthropology and geography, a cultural region, cultural sphere, cultural area or culture area refers to a geography with one relatively homogeneous human activity or complex of activities (culture). Such activities are often associated ...

. The management of intangible cultural heritage is difficult as it requires consideration of the lives and living conditions of local communities. Some countries such as

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and the members of the

African union The African Union (AU) is a continental union consisting of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa. The AU was announced in the Sirte Declaration in Sirte, Libya, on 9 September 1999, calling for the establishment of the Africa ...

have recognised the importance of cultural resources and established government departments to manage them.

References

External links

OASIS projectCultural heritage
information from

Anthro Studies Center
A university-based cultural resources consultancy
Culturespaces, the Cultural heritage ManagementHerO - Heritage as Opportunity
European programme for sustainable development

{{Authority control Collections care Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage Museology Public archaeology sv:Kulturmiljövård

The development of CHM

Cultural heritage assessment

Mitigation

The effect of CHM on archaeology

Heritage curation and interpretation

Historic preservation and restoration

Managing intangible cultural heritage

See also

References

Further reading

External links