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Invitation

               It is our greatest pleasure to invite you to the international workshop on "Digital Preservation of Archaeological Heritage" as part of the Golden Jubiliee celebrations of Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. The workshop will provide an opportunity to present and share latest developments in the area of digital technology such as Geoinformatics (Electronics surveying, GPS, GIS, Remote Sensing / Photogrammetry, GPR, laser scanning), CAD, Rapid Prototyping, Virtual Reality, optical  & laser scanning, and Cultural Resource Management (CRM) in Digital Preservation of Archaeological Heritage.

Objectives

               The objectives of workshop are to create awareness about the upcoming digital technology for archaeological preservation and to train the young scientists / archaeologists about this new technology.

About the workshop

               Our cultural inheritance is rooted in a deeper past, where lies the source of our national identity. The past therefore matters for understanding the present and planning for change, i.e. shaping the future. The facts and other forms of evidence of the past have to be identified, classified, examined and evaluated, to interrogate the past and draw conclusions. The disciplines of history and archaeology, which are central to this enterprise, have, in the course of their development, increasingly taken the assistance of scientific concepts and methods in the pursuit and fulfilment of their concerns, and archaeology in particular relies crucially on them.

               The advanced concepts and technologies being employed in archaeological and historical investigations and analyses have made possible a detailed and hitherto near-impossible recording and presentation of a variety of data from sites, monuments and artefacts, the digital storage and quick and custom-oriented retrieval of information, the reproduction (to different scales, as per need) of the data, 3-dimensional representations and its electronic transmission to remote analysts and users. They have also enabled historians and archaeologists to uncover new evidence about the past, derive new information from existing data and acquire a more authentic, deeper and richer understanding of material, social and cultural life of bygone ages. The methods are also of basic relevance in Cultural Resource Management (CRM) and the preservation of our heritage.

               There appears to be some urgency for an assembly of all those engaged in activities relating to digital preservation of archaeological heritage, to take stock of the Indian and International efforts, experience and requirements - both in the application of digital technology and in its indigenous development - and for making a coordinated national effort towards realising speedily its full potential. It is proposed to have, in the conference, sessions of contributed papers and reports on activities related to digital preservation of archaeological heritage in this country and across the world, state-of-the-art review lectures and tutorials on the various aspects of digital archaeological preservation. Exhibition and demonstration of related prototype and commercial products is also planned.