Event 1: Heritage at High Tide: archaeology and climate crisis in the Eastern Mediterranea

This weekend, I attended the Zoom event Heritage at High Tide: archaeology and climate crisis in the Eastern Mediterranean and dived deep with the panelists into Cyprus’ and Greece’s Imperiled Treasures. The event is very meaningful as it calls for our attention to the protection of the beautiful history heritages in those Mediterranean countries and sheds light on the possibilities of using technology to preserve historical artworks.

At the beginning of the event, the panelist showed a picture of a sculpture called “Support” by Lorenzo Quinn. The sculpture was created for the UN Climate Change Conference (Halcyon Gallery). The hands emerged from the Grand Canal in Venice to protect and support the historical building of the Ca' Sagredo Hotel which was under threat from rising sea levels (Halcyon Gallery). This is a good example of art being used to save art (from different times).

 

Support (Quinn 2017), #1 Picture from the event

Moving on to the technology side, as shown in the picture from the panel, modern technology allows us to predict natural disasters (floods) and record key data caused by climate change and global warming: sea level, ocean acidity, etc.

#2 Picture from the event: Flood Risk in 2100 (prediction)


According to a paper from Nature Communications, when studying the risk of coastal flooding and erosion due to sea level rise, a very scientific method was developed to evaluate the riskiness and devise suitable adaptation strategies taking into consideration local terrain when constructing flood modeling (Reimann). 

The use of technology also contributed to the preservation of humanity's heritage as an application. A great example is the hydrophobic coating that was used to protect ancient copper artifacts from corrosion (Lob). 

After the event and doing more research on the topic, I’m glad that we are still able to save world heritage artworks by applying technology to minimize the damage. It’s great to see how technology plays an important role in preserving historical artifacts and I’m looking forward to seeing our technology improvements getting inspiration from the artworks created by the great ancient minds.


Works Cited

Lob, Silvia, et al. “Hydrophobic Coating Using Sustainable Sol-Gel Process Doped with Carboxylic Acids to Protect Heritage Copper Artefacts.” Progress in Organic Coatings, vol. 186, 2024, pp. 108035-, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.porgcoat.2023.108035.

“Lorenzo Quinn’s Sculpture ‘support’ on Display at the UN Climate Change Conference.” Halcyon Gallery, www.halcyongallery.com/news/9-lorenzo-quinn-s-sculpture-support-on-display-at-the/. Accessed 7 Apr. 2024. 

Reimann, Lena, et al. “Mediterranean UNESCO World Heritage at Risk from Coastal Flooding and Erosion Due to Sea-Level Rise.” Nature Communications, vol. 9, no. 1, 2018, pp. 4161–11, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-06645-9.

Appendix: Proof of attendance (screenshot of registration email)


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