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

Centre for Sustainable Heritage, Room 106, Roberts Building 1st Floor – Malet Place, Corner with Torrington Place
London WC1E 6BT

Guest Lecture delivered by:
Professor Michael Turner
UNESCO Chair in Urban Design and Conservation Studies
Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem
Member of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee

The conservation of cultural heritage in general and of Jerusalem in particular, can be perceived either as the means of consensus or as the essence of the casus belli of the cultural and political reality of the city. The former has more to offer and with the need for sustainability – conserving the city of past, present and future generations – mutual recognition can transcend the barriers of conflict.

The Arch of Ecce Homo, Jerusalem

This presentation takes a look at the wider options for the definition of Jerusalem’s multi-cultural significance and will present a possible scenario that employs the almost globally accepted UNESCO World Heritage Convention as the foundation of consensus building. While the significance of religious myth and symbolism is high on the list, it should be put into the spatial perspective to balance the sacred and profane. This reappraisal might provide a focus for a clearer definition of the city’s cultural significance, peeling the palimpsest, thus giving revised boundaries, relevant buffer zones and a mechanism for management. A dynamic interpretation demands a collective respect by all concerned citizens of the events in the city, thus allowing the shared historic score to be played with different emphases and different instruments by each of the players.

Please email Ben Glynn at b.glynn@ucl.ac.uk if you wish to attend.
Please note that this is a public lecture and all are welcome to attend

Contributing to the UCL Grand Challenge of Sustainable Cities debate

Grave-stone, Southampton Old Cemetery, photo: Tom Goskar

Our Sacred Landscapes was an evening discussion event organised by ICOMOS-UK, the first in a new series called Conversations. It took place on 23 April 2008 at the School of Jewellery, Birmingham City University.

The panel of three speakers, Harbinder Singh (Anglo-Sikh Heritage Trail), Elizabeth Perkins (Birmingham Conservation Trust) and Dr Richard Gale (University of Birmingham) spoke on various themes relating to where religious heritage can be found in our built landscapes and there was a particular focus on Birmingham. This was followed by conversation between the panel and the audience and addressed themes such as:

• How do sacred acts and religious beliefs impact on our built heritage?
• Where can we find the buildings and landscapes, big and small, of Britain’s diverse religious cultures?

Read the Review of Our Sacred Landscapes

The event formed the UK contribution to International Sites and Monuments Day 2008, on the theme ‘Religious Heritage and Sacred Places’.

Conversations is a new series of events which explores different aspects of how past and present cultural activities influence and change our historic surroundings. The events aim to reveal the importance of the interactions between tangible and intangible heritage and the next event is planned on the theme of Sporting Heritage in the Landscape, followed by another on the relationship between music and poetry and place.