Vacancy Notice: Head of the ICOMOS Documentation Centre

                       ICOMOS International Secretariat e-news

                                        17 December 2009

          Vacancy Notice: Head of the ICOMOS Documentation Centre

 

Announcement available as PDF download:

http://international.icomos.org/pdf/DOC_Announce_Poste_EN_20091217.pdf

ICOMOS (the International Council on Monuments and Sites) is an association of over 9000 cultural heritage professionals present in over 100 countries throughout the world, working for the conservation and protection of monuments and sites – the only global non-government organisation of its kind. It benefits from the cross-disciplinary exchange of its members – architects, archaeologists, art historians, engineers, historians, planners, who foster improved heritage conservation standards and techniques for all forms of cultural properties: buildings, historic towns, cultural landscapes, archaeological sites, etc. ICOMOS is officially recognized as an advisory body to UNESCO, actively contributing to the World Heritage Committee and taking part in the implementation of the World Heritage Convention.

The ICOMOS International Secretariat and its specialized Documentation Centre are located in Paris (France). The Documentation Centre specializes in the conservation of architectural and archaeological heritage; and the restoration and management of historic monuments and sites. Its collections include approximately 30,000 monographs and 600 periodicals (200 current). It also holds all the original nomination files for cultural properties proposed for inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List. It is open to ICOMOS members and the general public. In 2012, ICOMOS will move to new premises in Charenton (Paris) together with the Mediathèque de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine of France.

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ICOMOS-UK Christmas Lecture

MONUMENTS TIED TO THE SKY:
ANCIENT ASTRONOMY AND ITS GLOBAL HERITAGE

On Thursday 10th December 2009 at 6.30pm in The Gallery, 77 Cowcross Street, London, EC1M 6EL

We would like to invite you to this year’s ICOMOS-UK Christmas Lecture and Wine Reception, in association with The Royal Institution of Great Britain:

The lecture will be given by Professor Clive Ruggles, Chair of the International Astronomical Union ’s Working Group on Astronomy and World Heritage.

In today’s brightly lit world it is all too easy to forget just how overwhelming the dark night sky would have been to human societies in the past—a prominent part of the observed world that was impossible to ignore.

The objects and cycles seen there were vital to people striving to make sense of the world within which they dwelt and to keep their actions in harmony with the cosmos as they perceived it.

The Thirteen Towers, Peru

For the archaeoastronomer, certain ancient monuments provide tantalising glimpses of long lost beliefs and practices relating to the sky, although they have to be interpreted with considerable caution.

In this lecture Clive Ruggles, Emeritus Professor of Archaeoastronomy at the University of Leicester, will describe some major new discoveries made in recent years, focusing on his own ongoing work in Peru, Polynesia, and prehistoric Europe.

Clive is Chair of the International Astronomical Union’s Working Group on Astronomy and World Heritage, which is working with UNESCO and ICOMOS to help identify, protect and preserve the most outstanding manifestations of global cultural heritage relating to the sky. Clive is also President of the Prehistoric Society, and President of IAU Commission 41 (History of Astronomy).  His books include Skywatching in the Ancient World: New Perspectives in Cultural Astronomy, edited with Gary Urton (Colorado, 2007), Ancient Astronomy: An Encyclopedia of Cosmologies and Myth (ABC-CLIO, 2005), and Astronomy in Prehistoric Britain and Ireland (Yale UP, 1999).

Admission (including wine and mince pies after the lecture) is £15 for ICOMOS-UK or The Royal institution of Great Britain members.
Admission for non-members is £18 and for students it is £10.

We do hope you will join us on the 10th December, 

For more information and a booking form please contact:

Camilla Massara
Events Co-ordinator
International Council on Monuments & Sites UK

Tel 020 7566 0031
E-mail: camillamassara@icomos-uk.org

Cornwall in Europe

28th October, 4.30pm-7pm
London Metropolitan University, 31 Jewry Street, London, EC3N 2EY

This conference organised by The Federal Trust for Education and Research jointly with Cornish cultural group CERES, will be an opportunity to learn more about one of the historic regions of the United Kingdom and Europe from representatives of Cornish cultural and intellectual life. It will also be an opportunity to understand better the European links and networks in which Cornish representatives and  will bring together speakers from Cornwall and the European Commission to discuss shared interests from the perspective of one of Europe’s smaller historic regions.

The conference – “Cornwall in Europe: an example from minorities” – will be hosted by the Trust at the London Metropolitan University in the City, and be followed by a reception. There will be four Cornish speakers who will describe Cornwall’s cultural and economic experiences in the wider Europe against the backgound of Cornwall’s history and distinctive Celtic tradition.
Cornish participation in the Council of Europe’s Disadvantaged Neighbourhoods Programme will be outlined as a case study.

Please note that registration to this event is essential.

For more information and registration please contact John Fleet at CERES: ceres.sec@freeuk.com