Building capacity for map making to better preserve cultural heritage sites in Iraq

Smithsonian trainings at the Iraqi Institute for the Conservation of Antiquities and Heritage in Erbil, Iraq have included map making as key component in cultural heritage protection capacity building. MCI cultural heritage preservation scholar Katharyn Hanson, PhD, focuses on this type of documentation training in order to better protect archaeological sites. For example, her work training the Mosul based, Nimrud Rescue Team, in Iraq, has focused on using satellite imagery to support ground assessments and recovery. A methodology has been created using coordinates and a grid to document the precise location of where artifacts are found during recovery at the ISIS damaged site of ancient Nimrud.