The Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Warsaw, received almost 2 mln PLN from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education as a DIALOG grant for its program “ArcheoCDN. Archeologiczne Centrum Doskonałości Naukowej / Archaeological Centre of Scientific Excellence”
With the funding from this grant (DIALOG 0298/2018), the PCMA can continue shaping up as a modern research institute of an interdisciplinary and international character. The project’s goals will be realized by implementing modern trends in archaeology and heritage management, while drawing upon the PCMA’s resources and expertise gathered during several decades of research in Northern Africa and the Middle East.
Among the PCMA’s most important fields of interest is the research on ancient and medieval Nubia. It will also be the focus of work conducted within this project. A holistic approach to archaeology calls for intensifying cooperation with specialists in various fields. Therefore, the project includes, among others, studies on the climatic history of the middle Nile valley, the heart of the medieval kingdom of Makuria. The program involves also actions engaging the local community (the inhabitants of el-Ghaddar) in heritage management and tapping the latter’s potential for the stimulation of local economic growth.
The program will also involve work with current and archival field documentation in order to create Virtual Reality (VR) modules for “touring” two Nubian Christian monasteries of exquisite historical and artistic value, in Dongola and Ghazali (Sudan). Such enterprises show how the humanities can open up for cooperation with business-oriented environments. In the process, the PCMA will create a modern repository of archival documentation focused on presenting and sharing the archaeological visual records.
The project will last for 24 months. It is the second DIALOG grant obtained by the PCMA. The first one (0088/DLG/2017/10) was awarded in 2017 jointly to the PCMA and the Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures for the management of documentation of the Polish-Egyptian Archaeological and Conservation Mission at the Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari.