Where science and cultural heritage meet
The Swedish National Heritage Board, together with the Nationalmuseum, hosted a two-day forum on heritage science in Sweden, held 13-14th May in Stockholm. The Heritage Science Sweden Forum is a yearly recurring place for all professions involved in heritage science in Sweden to meet, network and strengthen contacts. During this year’s Forum, presentations of current projects in heritage science were presented, including sessions around topics such as heritage in times of crises, AI and infrastructures. One of the most gripping presentations came from Gunnar Almevik and Jonathan Westin from Gothenburg University, talking about their work on the digitalisation of the thousands of handwriting on the walls of St Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, Ukraine. Two keynote speakers were invited to talk about the European initiatives on infrastructures for heritage science. Brenda Doherty, CNR, presented the MOLAB journey through the years. Jan van ‘t Hof, national coordinator for E-RIHS Netherlands, presented the work done in the Netherlands to take formal and informal steps towards an infrastructure, including activities supported by money but – as important – common interest and mutual trust. Sara Norrehed from the Swedish National Heritage Board presented a summary of activities from the Swedish participation of IPERION HS and reflected on how working within an international infrastructure has had many positive effects on the heritage science community in Sweden.
Stefan Nilsson, head of the Heritage Laboratory at the Swedish National Heritage Board underlined how preserving historical objects and sites and creating new information to strengthen our knowledge of how our societies were built requires a combination of techniques and competencies. Overall, close cooperation between organisations both nationally and internationally is needed.
