No abstract

Byblos, modern Jbeil, is a northern Lebanese city considered as one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities since Neolithic times, designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1984. Thus, the archaeological area, strictly surrounded by city boundaries, is the result of several civilizations that came over the centuries producing many layers of architectural buildings now in precarious state of conservation. The recent nomination of Byblos as one of the "100 Resilient Cities", a project pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation, fostered some new intents aimed at the preservation of the urban space and the archaeological site. In order to support a possible valorization strategy, the Lion's Gate at the Persian Wall has been chosen as a case study to experiment how digital photogrammetric modeling of meaningful remains can improve dissemination of cultural legacy to remote visitors and transfer knowledge to town planners. This paper presents the preliminary research, which is supposed to be integrated by some more detailed surveys in the near future, in order to populate a shared web repository in which scholars, tourists and planners will find useful information on the archaeological park.

A B S T R A C T

Heritage admits diverse readings depending on different territorial spaces, contexts, and knowledge fields. The relation between Heritage and the social contexts is one of these knowledge areas. But Heritage accepts a dual perception as a cultural reflection. It may be considered either as the origins of the conflicts or the engine for recomposing disrupted territories. The paper proposes a reflection on the topics related to conflict territories and the roles currently played by Cultural Heritage. The recomposition of conflict territories is based on a continuous intercultural approach with important contributions from human rights, genders equality, intercultural dialogue perspectives and the fact of taking heritage as a territorial stabilization factor. The paper presents specific practical cases in the Eastern Mediterranean region where actions on Heritage religious elements collide with the national sovereign of the respective current countries. A comparative study among these different actions proves that the initial clashes can be progressively transformed into strategies able to become the future guideline for the resolution of heritage regional conflicts. These conflicts reflect two discourses: political (with strong links between national identity and religion) and scientific (with a clash between static concept and dynamic vision) where objects interact with the visitors.

No abstract