Inventorying Cultural Heritage, a Wonderful Tool for Archaeologists

Join Augustin, Alex, Lisa and the whole ArkeoTopia team to discover additional resources for step 2.6 in My Archaeology Book about locating ancient human occupations through campaigns for inventorying cultural heritage.

Step 2.6 – Locating Archaeological Remains
Inventorying Cultural Heritage

Corresponding pages in MAB1 and MAB2

MAB 1, p. 11 (step 1.2 on p. 5 in previous versions) and MAB 2, pp. 14-15

More about this step’s reference artifact

Are you familiar with the Institute of Art and Archaeology, also called the Michelet Center? This building in the 6th district of Paris is located between 6 avenue de l’Observatoire and 3 rue Michelet, at the edge of the Luxembourg Garden. Until a few years ago, it housed the art history departments of the universities Paris I and Paris IV, some of which have now moved. It was designed by the architect Paul Bigot between 1925 and 1928. Since September 9, 1996, it has been classified as a historical monument. It was the subject of a report by Christian Hottin (in French), of the Architecture and Heritage Department (Direction de l’architecture et du patrimoine), available on the open archive HAL Human and Social Sciences (HAL Sciences de l’Homme et de la Société) website, which is intended for the deposit and diffusion of scientific articles.

This step illustrates part of the process of inventorying cultural heritage. This is a very important action for archaeologists, especially ones working on the medieval period and more recent periods, as it ensures that all cultural heritage which could be destroyed one day is preserved in registers with different information such as photos, drawings, GPS coordinates, construction date, materials, etc.

In the drawing, Lisa the archaeologist takes notes and draws. Meanwhile, Alex the archaeologist takes a picture with his camera. They are recording information about the building in front of them. This is the job of scientists who conduct inventory campaigns. These campaigns can take place in cities, villages, the countryside and even forests. Here, the street sign and the building’s decorative elements help us understand where the action takes place: at the southeast corner of the Institute of Art and Archaeology (Institut d’Art et d’Archéologie). This methodology enabled ArkeoTopia to see that the buildings of the Irish College had not been the subject of an archaeological study.

Clues

The 6 clues include:

1. Lisa, the archaeologist
2. Alex, the archaeologist
3. The camera
4. The notebook with the pencil
5. The street sign
6. The building itself, the Institute of Art and Archaeology