Task 1 – The world of cultural heritage

Cultural heritage is a legacy of artefacts and attributes. These artefacts and attributes are important for a group or culture that inherited these from past generations. Cultural heritage can be a lot of items. It can be a building, monument, book or works of art. It can also be a tradition, language or knowledge. Because cultural heritage covers a variety of features, it can divided into two categories: tangible and intangible cultural heritage.

Tangible cultural heritage exists of physical artefacts that are important for a community, for example, historic buildings. Intangible cultural heritage consists of the practices, expressions, knowledge and skills of a community. An example of intangible cultural heritage is the knowledge and skills relating to the date palm in the Arab world or the craft of the miller operating windmills and watermills in the Netherlands. Next to cultural heritage, we also have natural heritage which refers to the unique set of elements of biodiversity, including flora and fauna, ecosystems and geological structures, such as the Victoria Falls between Zambia and Zimbabwe or the Galápagos Islands in Ecuador.

1. Now you know that there are different categories of heritage. Can you give another example of tangible and intangible cultural heritage, and natural heritage?

You have mentioned examples of different kinds of cultural heritage. But cultural heritage can also be present on a personal level.

Poetry is also an important example of cultural heritage. By writing poems a person can express his feelings, thoughts, opinions etc. These expressions are often related to the poet’s culture and in that way poems may represent all kinds of cultural manifestations. If you would be a poet, what feelings and thoughts would you incorporate in your poem?

As cultural heritage is an important state of expression for cultures, it should be preserved for future generations. This is what we call preservation or conservation. In 1972 UNESCO, the most well-known international organisation who preserves cultural heritage, held a Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage.

At that meeting they drew up a list with cultural heritage places. This World Heritage List contains sites which are considered to be important to the international community as they are unique and irreplaceable. In the winter of 2019–2020 the list included 869 tangible culture sites, 231 intangible sites and 39 natural heritage sites in 167 different countries!

Here is a summing-up of the criteria of the World Heritage List. To have a chance to be put on this list, it is important to meet one of the following criteria:

1. The site represents a masterpiece of human creative genius
2. The site exhibits an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or cultural area of the world
3. The site bears a unique testimony to a cultural tradition of culture that has disappeared
4. The site is an outstanding example of a type of building, architectural or technological ensemble or landscape which illustrates human history
5. The site is an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement, land-use or sea-use which represents a culture
6. The site is directly or tangibly associated with events of traditions (ideas or beliefs) that are works of an outstanding universal significance
7. The site contains superlative natural areas of exceptional natural beauty
8. The site is an outstanding example of a major stage of the earth’s history
9. The site is an outstanding example of ongoing ecological and biological processes in the evolution of the earth
10.  The site contains the most important natural habitats for biological diversity or an outstanding universal value for science or conservation

4. On the right you will find pictures of and information about different cultural heritage sites from all around the world. Have a look at these pictures and read the accompanying information carefully. Write down in the table which criteria on the list are related to the cultural sites in the pictures. You can choose more than one criterion. Decide also whether the site concerns ‘tangible’, ‘intangible’ or ‘natural’ heritage.

5. Till now we have discussed in what way experts describe ‘cultural heritage’. But what is cultural heritage to you? How would you describe cultural heritage?

As you know Jericho is a very special place with unique features. For that reason experts want to add Jericho to the World Heritage List. At the moment Jericho is on the waiting list. Hopefully UNESCO will decide to acknowledge the cultural heritage of Jericho as world heritage soon.

6. If a staff member of UNESCO would ask you what cultural heritage can be found in Jericho, what tangible, intangible and/or natural heritage in Jericho would you name? And for what reason would you select these particular sites?

Jericho has been put on a Tentative List. This is a list of locations that contain important cultural and/or natural heritage. The sites are nominated if they can meet the criteria of the ‘World Heritage List’. The next step – addition to the World Heritage List – takes a long time, about five to ten years.

7. The archaeological site of Tell es-Sultan in Jericho (see also the Archaeology Module and the History Module; check the 360° view in the right column!) has been put on UNESCO’s Tentative List. Now you will write a plea to the Committee, in order to convince them that Tell es-Sultan and the other cultural heritage of Jericho you mentioned in assignment 6 should be put on the World Heritage List. Use approximately 100 words to explain why the cultural heritage of Jericho is important enough to be put on the World Heritage List.

Task 2 – The dangers to cultural heritage

Although cultural heritage is considered to be important and must be preserved for future generations, dozens of heritage sites are currently in danger. The sites have to face both human and natural threats that can damage the monuments, traditions or nature forever.

8. What kind of disasters and human activities do endanger heritage sites? How many threats can you think of? Try to sum up as many dangers as possible, both human and natural ones.

9. Read the text in the right column about the dangers to World Heritage and answer the following question: what danger to cultural heritage mentioned in the article do you find the most threatening one and for what reason?

UNESCO published an interactive map with cultural heritage sites which are under threat. Also sites in Palestine are mentioned in this map.

10. Have a look at UNESCO’s interactive map and find out which three cultural heritage sites in Palestine are currently in danger.

11. Imagine you are a journalist. You want to write an article about the reasons why cultural heritage is in danger. Select one of the three cultural heritage sites in Palestine which are currently in danger and select one or more threats mentioned in the text of assignment 9. Your article should include the following aspects:

• a description of the cultural heritage site you have selected
• the way the site is being endangered or has been threatened in the past (the selected dangers from the list)
• the consequences of the damage to the site caused by those dangers
• a way to protect the site from those threats in the future

12. Now do a drawing that illustrates your newspaper article.

When a cultural heritage site is mentioned on the World Heritage in Danger List the responsible country should do everything that is needed to restore and protect the site. When the circumstances of the site have been improved substantially, it can be taken off the Danger List.

13. Give a reason why it is helpful if a cultural heritage site is mentioned on the List of World Heritage in Danger. Explain also why it is positive when a site is not on this list.

If a cultural heritage site does not meet the criteria of the World Heritage List anymore (see Task 1), there is a chance that it will be removed from the World Heritage List.

14. What negative consequence(s) can such removal have for the concerning site and for the region the site is located in?

Task 3 – Preserve and protect

In Tasks 1 and 2 you have been familiarised with cultural heritage and the definition behind it. You have also paid attention to the current threats that endanger cultural heritage. So the next step is to have a look at the way cultural heritage can be protected against these threats and how it can be preserved for the future.

Did you ever think of the idea that archaeologists in the far future might excavate the present Jericho you live in? What features of Jerichoan culture would they expose?

As already stated in Task 1 there are amazing cultural heritage sites in Jericho. For example, the archaeological sites of Tell es-Sultan and Hisham’s Palace (see also Archaeology Module and History Module). These sites represent a unique period of history, but – because of the age of the monuments – they are also vulnerable. There are some photos of these sites in the right column.

16. In Task 2 we have seen that heritage sites have to face serious threats, like conflict and war, earthquakes and other natural disasters, pollution, poaching and too many tourists. Which of these threats can be a realistic problem for Tell es-Sultan and Hisham’s Palace, do you think? Explain your answer.

Experts do their best to invent the best ways of protection and conservation for these two cultural heritage sites. On the other hand they want to keep the sites accessible for tourists as well.

17a. Can you help the experts? Here is a mind map (right column). Come up with as many ways of protection and conservation as you can think of – in which tourists can still visit the sites – and write them down on the right side of the mind map. Use your imagination!

17b. Now have a look at the protection and conservation solutions experts have already thought of. You may check books or the internet for this. Write the solutions you found on the left side of the mind map.

17c. You have collected all kinds of protection and conservation systems that can help to preserve the cultural heritage sites for the future. Consider them all over again and select the three best solutions and explain why you selected them.

17d. Now comes the hardest part: you have to choose your favourite way to protect and conserve the cultural heritage sites of Jericho. When you have made your decision, make as detailed a drawing as possible of the selected system.

17e. When everybody in the classroom has finished their drawings, you can present your idea to each other and discuss their advantages and disadvantages for protecting and conserving the cultural heritage sites of the Jericho Oasis.

Task 4 – Preserving Hisham’s Palace for the future

In the Archaeology and History Modules you have already worked on a scale model of Hisham’s Palace. In this assignment you will add your protection and conservation system (see Task 3) to the scale model. Don’t forget that on one hand the system must protect the cultural heritage site against human and natural threats, and on the other it must still admit tourists to visit the site.

18. When building your protection and conservation system, make sure you have drawn a plan first. Then gather all the materials you need for building the system. You can think of cardboard, wood, textile, needle and thread, plastic empty bottles etc. If you have done that, you can start to build! Good luck!

Anxious to see what you have learned in this Cultural Heritage Module?