Where did you come from, where did you go? Approaching cross-cultural heritage data for ancient evidence [Poster]

Cultural heritage studies and projects have embraced aspects of digitization and computer- assisted approaches since decades, paving the way for «digital cultural heritage» and allowing for digital media, tools and infrastructures to support the preservation, documentation and dissemination of cultural (and natural) sites, objects and more intangible processes.

When connecting challenges faced by cultural heritage professionals in generating heritage data and translating it into a digital format for long-term use, with the disciplinary problems of those working with evidence from antiquity specifically, difficulties of the two both converge and diverge — issues of provenance, conservation and community meet concerns of periodization, contextualization and scholarship.

Two case studies illustrate these issues across millennia, evidence from Graeco-Roman Egypt and from Greco-Bactria. Alexander III of Macedonia (commonly known as Alexander the Great) defined the Eurasian continent in the 4th century BCE, venturing east, defeating the vast Persian Empire and conquering a territory roughly spanning from today’s Greece to Pakistan. This immense expansion had longstanding consequences for the world he left behind after his death in 323 BCE.

In the south of his empire, the new Ptolemaic Kingdom would begin a period today broadly termed «Graeco-Roman Egypt», consolidating power by creating new deities combining Greek and Egyptian elements, and instating a dynastic cult deifying its rulers. Further, Greek became the administrative language and official lingua franca, causing the majority of the written evidence of late- and post-Pharaonic Egypt to be transmitted to modern times in Ancient Greek.

In the east, initially under the rule of the new Seleucid Kingdom, the region of Bactria seceded to become the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom. It experienced influences by the neighboring Maurya Empire, which over time promoted Buddhism in the region, and Bactria would subsequently expand into the «Indo-Greek Kingdom» following the fall of the Mauryas. This area of overlapping cultures, religions and territories gave rise to «Greco-Buddhist art», more specifically termed «Gandhara art», named after the valley and region where most of its development occurred.

While reconstructing the histories of ancient artefacts can prove difficult for archaeologists and ancient historians, following the path of ancient objects in more recent history has proven no easier. Egyptian objects, especially papyri (the main writing material of the time), from the Graeco- Roman period and earlier are spread across countless institutions, where they are often housed after having been purchased, e.g., during the «papyrus boom» at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century, or after being bequeathed following the passing of private owners. These private collectors with connections to institutions have most often been researchers themselves, such as Prof. em. Karl Kalbfleisch to the University of Giessen in 1953 or Prof. em. Hachishi Suzuki to Tokai University (Tokyo) in 2010.

Likewise, objects from Gandhara (modern-day Pakistan and Afghanistan) have made their way to collections far from their source, such as the Tokyo National Museum, the Ancient Orient Museum (Tokyo), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), the Musée national des arts asiatiques Guimet (Paris) and the British Museum (London), and continue to be available on the antiquities market, sold at auction to private collectors.

Seeing the spread of these artefacts worldwide, the historical data extractable from surviving ancient evidence includes cross-cultural exchanges and syntheses in antiquity, as well as cross- cultural ownership and interpretation in modernity. This presents researchers with the double-task of tracing the transfer of culture/cultural practice in antiquity, and also following the paths of objects/cultural artefacts in recent history. Due to disciplinary borders and traditions, these two aspects of research work are not always undertaken by the same professionals. Adopting a concept like «provenance», expanded from art history to broader historical, archaeological and archival fields of research, is an example for a successful integration into rather than an overhaul of established approaches and expertise, facilitating transdisciplinary implementation.

Different institutions, platforms and projects utilize very different approaches to this type of cross- cultural evidence in their care, and thus multiple questions arise about the proper handling of these artefacts and their data. Seeing as physical collections regularly face the dilemma of assigning objects to a predefined area in their inventory and exhibition spaces, can the digital sphere remedy the situation by e.g., placing these objects in multiple contexts at once? How should we go about constructing (meta)data for these cross-cultural artefacts, which may not neatly fit into pre- determined categories? How should collections, projects and platforms proceed to «label» their objects, with origins both ancient and modern? How can accessibility be guaranteed for researchers and the public alike, satisfying the needs of both? And how can we map and visualize the history of these objects compellingly, acknowledging failings of the past and the potential for the future (e.g., «digital repatriation»)?

This talk addresses some aspects common to these questions and discusses existing and emerging methodologies proposed to holistically meet the expectations that go hand in hand with analog and digital custodianship of (ancient) cultural heritage. These solutions can include establishing connecting points between individual collections, the development of umbrella resources designed to accommodate the content of different systems, and developing joint standards across fields — all to facilitate open, safe and long-term interactions between objects, data, institutions, projects, scholars and the public.

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This poster was presented at the 12th Conference of the Japanese Association of Digital Humanities — Possibilities for Data-Driven Humanities (JADH 2023).