Heritage science
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Heritage science is the interdisciplinary domain of scientific study of
cultural Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...
and
natural heritage Natural heritage refers to the sum total of the elements of biodiversity, includes flora and fauna, ecosystems and geological structures. It forms part of our natural resources. Definition Definitions: * Natural heritage refers to natural feat ...
. Heritage science draws on diverse
humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture, including Philosophy, certain fundamental questions asked by humans. During the Renaissance, the term "humanities" referred to the study of classical literature a ...
,
sciences Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...
and
engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...
disciplines. It focuses on enhancing the
understanding Understanding is a cognitive process related to an abstract or physical object, such as a person, situation, or message whereby one is able to use concepts to model that object. Understanding is a relation between the knower and an object of u ...
, care and
sustainable Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long period of time. Definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time. Sustainability usually has three dimensions (or pillars): env ...
use of heritage so it can enrich people's lives, both today and in the future. Heritage science is an umbrella term encompassing all forms of scientific enquiry into human works and the combined works of nature and humans, of value to people. The above definition was developed though a community consultation organised by ICCROM and the European Research Infrastructure for Heritage Science in 2019. The term has become widely used after 2006, when it became increasingly evident that the more traditional terms conservation science or preservation science inadequately reflected the breadth of research into cultural heritage. Heritage scientists in museums, galleries, libraries, archives, universities and research institutions support conservation (often called conservation science), access (e.g. development of new ICT tools), interpretation, including archaeometry and
archaeological science Archaeological science consists of the application of scientific techniques to the analysis of archaeological materials and sites. It is related to methodologies of archaeology. Martinón-Torres and Killick distinguish ‘scientific archaeology ...
(e.g. dating, provenancing, attribution), heritage management (e.g. development of tools and knowledge supporting strategic or environmental management decisions) and wider societal engagement with heritage (e.g. heritage values and ethics). Heritage science is also an excellent vehicle for public engagement with science as well as heritage. Heritage science is seen as "key to the long-term sustainability of heritage: it is about managing change and risk and maximising social, cultural and economic benefit not just today, but in such a way that we can pass on to future generations that which we have inherited." Domains of research, where heritage science makes a particular input were recognised by the United Kingdom National Heritage Science Strategy documents to be museums, galleries, libraries and archives; the built historic environment and archaeology.


Theory

The field still requires its literature canon, and opinions on whether heritage science is a domain in its own right or a field of research diverge. However, this appears to be a matter of academic recognition, rather than a matter of research practice. Heritage science is an old field of research: in his Royal Institution Christmas Lecture in 1843,
Michael Faraday Michael Faraday (; 22 September 1791 – 25 August 1867) was an English chemist and physicist who contributed to the study of electrochemistry and electromagnetism. His main discoveries include the principles underlying electromagnetic inducti ...
already pointed out how pollution importantly contributes to book degradation. The following
premise A premise or premiss is a proposition—a true or false declarative statement—used in an argument to prove the truth of another proposition called the conclusion. Arguments consist of a set of premises and a conclusion. An argument is meaningf ...
s appear to be of defining importance: # Heritage science is inherently biased, as scientists, by doing research on heritage, contribute to its value: they create and popularize heritage through their research. # Heritage science is neither fundamental nor experimental: work with actual heritage objects, buildings or sites cannot be repeatable, because heritage is not an experiment. On the other hand, the
scientific method The scientific method is an Empirical evidence, empirical method for acquiring knowledge that has been referred to while doing science since at least the 17th century. Historically, it was developed through the centuries from the ancient and ...
and deductive reasoning are easily applied when working with models and model objects, which heritage scientists often do due to the high value of actual historic objects and consequentially, sampling restrictions. Since the historical context of heritage is often unknown, there can be any number of variables affecting the heritage system under observation – inductive reasoning is therefore often applied in heritage science. In this aspect, the premise of heritage science comes close to social science. Heritage that is accessible, in its preserved authentic form or as a (digital) reproduction, is also a "resource for economic growth, employment and social cohesion". Through improved access, heritage science can contribute to people's well-being. Heritage science is proof that there is no world of 'Two Cultures'. A scientist, researching heritage defies the existence of the divide: there can be no scientific research of heritage without a contribution by humanities research. Heritage science also successfully bridges science and notions of culture, because it provides an attractive vehicle to convey ideas and concepts related to technology and engineering, as well as culture and society. Heritage science can be considered an anthropogenic analogue to environmental geography, which was defined by
Halford Mackinder Sir Halford John Mackinder (15 February 1861 – 6 March 1947) was a British geographer, academic and politician, who is regarded as one of the founding fathers of both geopolitics and geostrategy. He was the first Principal of University Ext ...
in 1887 as a discipline that aims to "bridge one of the greatest of all gaps" between "the natural sciences and the study of humanity". A different definition of heritage as part of a group's social psychology has been proposed by F.F.J. Schouten as "history processed through mythology, ideology, nationalism, local pride, romantic ideas or just plain marketing."


Research

Heritage science is an increasingly lively science domain. Materials and techniques of the past are often very difficult to study and state-of-the-art techniques and methods need to be employed. Discoveries new to science are often the result of such endeavours, e.g. new antibiotics from bacteria discovered in the
Cave of Altamira The Cave of Altamira ( ; ) is a cave complex, located near the historic town of Santillana del Mar in Cantabria, Spain. It is renowned for prehistoric cave painting, cave art featuring charcoal drawings and polychrome paintings of contemporary ...
, in Spain. With its wide definition, heritage science spans a significant variety of scientific activities. In order to support conservation, access, interpretation and management, heritage science must be based on an
interdisciplinary Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several fields such as sociology, anthropology, psychology, economi ...
palette of knowledge, from fundamental sciences (
chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...
,
physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...
,
mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...
,
biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...
) to
arts The arts or creative arts are a vast range of human practices involving creativity, creative expression, storytelling, and cultural participation. The arts encompass diverse and plural modes of thought, deeds, and existence in an extensive ...
and humanities ( conservation,
archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...
,
philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
,
ethics Ethics is the philosophy, philosophical study of Morality, moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates Normativity, normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches inclu ...
,
history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...
,
art history Art history is the study of Work of art, artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Tradit ...
etc.), including
economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...
,
sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...
,
computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...
s and
engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...
. In academia, heritage science is often performed by scientists spending a proportion of their time on heritage-related research. The academic field, judged by the number of academic outputs published annually, is steadily increasing. This could be taken to estimate the domain size – with the number of outputs in 2014 being 6,800 (Source: Web of Science), it could be assumed that there are about 3,000 heritage scientists active in the field (publishing on average 2 academic publications per year). This goes against the generally held view that the field is small. The proportion per country varies greatly, about 20% of researchers being active in the US, 15% in the UK, 10% in Italy, 5% in France, and 5% in China (with a strong increase in the last decade). While the results of the field are published in a large number of journals from the application and methodology field that accept interdisciplinary publications, since 2013, a specific journal was developed for the field, ''Heritage Science''. In 2013, the Mind the Gap project, funded by the UK EPSRC/AHRC Science and Heritage Programme, reported on the drivers and impediments in cross-disciplinary research. The project found that there is no gap between rigour and relevance in heritage science research, but rather that there is a continuum of activity. However, there was less satisfaction with heritage science research in relation to its impact on practice, in comparison to its academic impact. In 2017, in the frame of H2020-INFRADEV-2016-2, the European programme for the development and long-term sustainability of new pan-European research infrastructures, the European Commission funded the Preparatory Phase of the project European Research Infrastructure for Heritage Science (E-RIHS) that supports research on heritage interpretation, preservation, documentation and management. Its mission is to deliver integrated access to expertise, data and technologies through a standardized approach, and to integrate world-leading European facilities into an organisation with a clear identity and a strong cohesive role within the global heritage science community. E-RIHS is currently in a transition and implementation phase to change its status into a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) in 2022. At the
University of Opole The University of Opole () is a public university in the city of Opole. It was founded in 1994 from a merger of two parallel educational institutions. The university has 17,500 students completing 32 academic majors and 53 specializations. The ...
in Poland, the UNESCO Chair on Cultural Property Law publishes critical research relating to the intersection between law, culture, cultural diversity, and cultural heritage.


Higher education

The heritage science career paths are various. Due to the cross-disciplinary nature of heritage science, any academic background is suitable, from
formal sciences Formal science is a Branches of science, branch of science studying disciplines concerned with abstract structures described by formal systems, such as logic, mathematics, statistics, theoretical computer science, artificial intelligence, inform ...
,
natural sciences Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...
to
social sciences Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of society, societies and the Social relation, relationships among members within those societies. The term was former ...
. Most researchers have entered the field by carrying out doctoral research in the field, because there is currently no undergraduate course in this domain. Since 2010, Master's degree courses in heritage science have become available at
University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...
and
Queen's University Belfast The Queen's University of Belfast, commonly known as Queen's University Belfast (; abbreviated Queen's or QUB), is a public research university in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. The university received its charter in 1845 as part of ...
. In Italy, since early 2000s, students can obtain undergraduate and/or graduate degrees in conservation science at the
University of Florence The University of Florence ( Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Firenze'') (in acronym UNIFI) is an Italian public research university located in Florence, Italy. It comprises 12 schools and has around 50,000 students enrolled. History The f ...
,
University of Bologna The University of Bologna (, abbreviated Unibo) is a Public university, public research university in Bologna, Italy. Teaching began around 1088, with the university becoming organised as guilds of students () by the late 12th century. It is the ...
, and a recently created programme at the University of Venice. Several other universities in Italy have faculty members whose primary research focus is in heritage science; these groups often accept international students who would like to obtain a PhD in the field. Taught courses in heritage science programmes include elements of heritage science, e.g. technical art history is often part of art history courses, and natural sciences are often taught in conservation courses. Brandenburg University of Technology in Germany offers the international Master's programme World Heritage Studies and PhD programme Heritage Studies. At University College London,
University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...
and
University of Brighton The University of Brighton is a public university based in Brighton on the south coast of England. Its roots can be traced back to 1858 when the Brighton School of Art was opened in the Royal Pavilion. It achieved university status in 1992. T ...
, the Centre for Doctoral Training in Science and Engineering in Arts, Heritage and Archaeology
SEAHA
was established in 2014. A key aspect of the SEAHA scheme is the collaborative nature of projects, enabling partnerships between academic institutions, industry and national heritage agencies and giving an applied focus to the research training. Major regional initiatives include the in the
ÃŽle-de-France The ÃŽle-de-France (; ; ) is the most populous of the eighteen regions of France, with an official estimated population of 12,271,794 residents on 1 January 2023. Centered on the capital Paris, it is located in the north-central part of the cou ...
region of France (Ancient and Heritage Materials, 2017–2021; Tangible Heritage, 2022–2026), which has funded dozens of research projects since its creation. Since the field requires significant cross-disciplinary and transferable skills, graduates may be able to take jobs in industry and academia. To work within the field of heritage science (e.g. in a museum laboratory), a PhD in a field of science and significant experience in a heritage environment is typically required.


Professional activities

Many major heritage institutions have heritage science departments. A UK body, the National Heritage Science Forum was established to enable the 'users' and 'doers' of heritage science to access information on heritage science research, to exchange knowledge and increase collaboration. In 2016, the forum had 20 institutional members. Several international professional associations have heritage science groups: * Committee for Conservation, Working Group Scientific Research (
International Council of Museums The International Council of Museums (ICOM) is a non-governmental organisation dedicated to museums, maintaining formal relations with UNESCO and having a consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. Founded in 1946, ...
) * Institute for Conservation, Heritage Science Group (Institute for Conservation) * Royal Society of Chemistry, Heritage Science Expert Working Group (EWG), which produces freely available Technical Briefs on a wide range of topics for conservators, scientists, and students The Heritage Science Research Network captures the current activity in the field in the UK. In Spain, the Spanish Network of Science and Technology for the Conservation of Cultural Heritage (TechnoHeritage) brings together more than 65 research groups working in heritage science, from the Spanish National Research Council ( CSIC), universities, conservation institutes and other cultural institutions.


Events

There are major heritage science events including conferences, symposia, and meetings. In addition, conferences organised by the Institute of Conservation, American Institute for Conservation and International Institute for Conservation usually feature heritage science sessions and talks.


Journals

Notable journals often or exclusively publishing academic papers in heritage science include: * ''Heritage Science'', open-access & peer-reviewed journal published by SpringerOpen, part of
Springer Nature Springer Nature or the Springer Nature Group is a German-British academic publishing company created by the May 2015 merger of Springer Science+Business Media and Holtzbrinck Publishing Group's Nature Publishing Group, Palgrave Macmillan, and Macm ...
* '' Archaeometry'' * ''
Heritage Heritage may refer to: History and society * A heritage asset A heritage asset is an item which has value because of its contribution to a nation's society, knowledge and/or culture. Such items are usually physical assets, but some countries also ...
'' * ''
Journal of Cultural Heritage A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to: *Bullet journal, a method of personal organization *Diary, a record of personal secretive thoughts and as open book to personal therapy or used to feel connected to onesel ...
'' * '' Journal of the American Institute for Conservation'' * '' Studies in Conservation''


See also

* Heritage studies * Paleo-inspiration


References


External links

;Heritage science departments
Museum Conservation Institute of the Smithsonian Institution, US

Department of Conservation and Science of the British Museum, UK

Centre for Conservation Research, France
*
Getty Conservation Institute The Getty Conservation Institute (GCI), located in Los Angeles, California, is a program of the J. Paul Getty Trust. It is headquartered at the Getty Center but also has facilities at the Getty Villa, and commenced operation in 1985.J. Paul Gett ...
, US
Conservation Science Department of the V&A Museum, UK

Science Laboratory of the Art Institute of Chicago, US

The Netherlands Institute for Conservation, Art and Science, The Netherlands

Heritage Science Lab Ljubljana, Slovenia

Istituto Superiore per la Conservazione e il Restauro, Italy

Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Italy

Institute of Heritage Sciences of the National Research Council, Italy

Koninklijk Instituut voor het Kunstpatrimonium/Institut Royal du Patrimoine Artistique, Belgium

University of Oxford - Resilient Buildings and Landscapes Lab (OxRBL), UK


* Paris-Saclay University's Graduate School of Humanities and Heritage Sciences, France
CSIC-Plataforma Temática Interdisciplinar "Patrimonio Abierto: Investigación y Sociedad"
;Events
Science and Engineering in Arts, Heritage and Archaeology

Gordon Research Conference Scientific Methods in Cultural Heritage Research

Technart

Eastern Analytical Symposium, Conservation Science session

International Symposium on Archaeometry

Lasers in the Conservation of Artworks

Indoor Air Quality in Museums, libraries and Archives

CMA4CH Biennial Meeting
{{Cultural Conservation-Restoration , state=expanded Collections care Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage Museology Cultural heritage Art history Science and culture Applied sciences