ICOMOS-UK Christmas Lecture

MONUMENTS TIED TO THE SKY:
ANCIENT ASTRONOMY AND ITS GLOBAL HERITAGE

On Thursday 10th December 2009 at 6.30pm in The Gallery, 77 Cowcross Street, London, EC1M 6EL

We would like to invite you to this year’s ICOMOS-UK Christmas Lecture and Wine Reception, in association with The Royal Institution of Great Britain:

The lecture will be given by Professor Clive Ruggles, Chair of the International Astronomical Union ’s Working Group on Astronomy and World Heritage.

In today’s brightly lit world it is all too easy to forget just how overwhelming the dark night sky would have been to human societies in the past—a prominent part of the observed world that was impossible to ignore.

The objects and cycles seen there were vital to people striving to make sense of the world within which they dwelt and to keep their actions in harmony with the cosmos as they perceived it.

The Thirteen Towers, Peru

For the archaeoastronomer, certain ancient monuments provide tantalising glimpses of long lost beliefs and practices relating to the sky, although they have to be interpreted with considerable caution.

In this lecture Clive Ruggles, Emeritus Professor of Archaeoastronomy at the University of Leicester, will describe some major new discoveries made in recent years, focusing on his own ongoing work in Peru, Polynesia, and prehistoric Europe.

Clive is Chair of the International Astronomical Union’s Working Group on Astronomy and World Heritage, which is working with UNESCO and ICOMOS to help identify, protect and preserve the most outstanding manifestations of global cultural heritage relating to the sky. Clive is also President of the Prehistoric Society, and President of IAU Commission 41 (History of Astronomy).  His books include Skywatching in the Ancient World: New Perspectives in Cultural Astronomy, edited with Gary Urton (Colorado, 2007), Ancient Astronomy: An Encyclopedia of Cosmologies and Myth (ABC-CLIO, 2005), and Astronomy in Prehistoric Britain and Ireland (Yale UP, 1999).

Admission (including wine and mince pies after the lecture) is £15 for ICOMOS-UK or The Royal institution of Great Britain members.
Admission for non-members is £18 and for students it is £10.

We do hope you will join us on the 10th December, 

For more information and a booking form please contact:

Camilla Massara
Events Co-ordinator
International Council on Monuments & Sites UK

Tel 020 7566 0031
E-mail: camillamassara@icomos-uk.org

POETRY AND OPTIMISM IN THE CONSERVATION OF THE OLD CITY OF JERUSALEM

12th March 2009, 6.00pm

Centre for Sustainable Heritage, Room 106, Roberts Building 1st Floor – Malet Place, Corner with Torrington Place
London WC1E 6BT

Guest Lecture delivered by:
Professor Michael Turner
UNESCO Chair in Urban Design and Conservation Studies
Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem
Member of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee

The conservation of cultural heritage in general and of Jerusalem in particular, can be perceived either as the means of consensus or as the essence of the casus belli of the cultural and political reality of the city. The former has more to offer and with the need for sustainability – conserving the city of past, present and future generations – mutual recognition can transcend the barriers of conflict.

The Arch of Ecce Homo, Jerusalem

This presentation takes a look at the wider options for the definition of Jerusalem’s multi-cultural significance and will present a possible scenario that employs the almost globally accepted UNESCO World Heritage Convention as the foundation of consensus building. While the significance of religious myth and symbolism is high on the list, it should be put into the spatial perspective to balance the sacred and profane. This reappraisal might provide a focus for a clearer definition of the city’s cultural significance, peeling the palimpsest, thus giving revised boundaries, relevant buffer zones and a mechanism for management. A dynamic interpretation demands a collective respect by all concerned citizens of the events in the city, thus allowing the shared historic score to be played with different emphases and different instruments by each of the players.

Please email Ben Glynn at b.glynn@ucl.ac.uk if you wish to attend.
Please note that this is a public lecture and all are welcome to attend

Contributing to the UCL Grand Challenge of Sustainable Cities debate

Conservation and Management of Sacred Places

ICOMOS Thailand’s International Conference and Annual Meeting 2008

29th-30th November and 1st December 2008, Bangkok, Thailand

At every year end, ICOMOS Thailand organizes an annual conference for members and interested academia and practitioners in the field of heritage conservation and management.  The conference has its main purpose to seek for current trends and issues concerning cultural resource conservation and management.

Wat Arun, Bangkok, Thailand

This year ICOMOSThailand in cooperation with Architectural Heritage Management and Tourism (International Program), Faculty of Arhitecture, Silpakorn University, and the Fine Arts Committee of the Association of Siamese Architects under Royal Patronage (ASA) is pleased to announce the 2008 International Conference on the topic “Conservation and Management of Sacred Places”. The conference comprises 2-day paper presentation and one-day excursion to cases of sacred place management in Bangkok.  A special session of Preah Vihear is also provided in the afternoon of the second day of paper presentation.