Il journal «Conservation Science in Cultural Heritage»: la cultura della valutazione nella formazione e nella ricerca
10.6092/issn.1973-9494/15308
application/pdf
1973-9494
15308
en
Daniela Porro
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
Conservation Science in Cultural Heritage
The journal «Conservation Science in Cultural Heritage»: the culture of evaluation in learning and research
Text.Serial.Journal
https://conservation-science.unibo.it/
21
Opening section
2022-08-02
2022-07-28
2022-08-02
2022-08-02
CSCH
Daniela Porro
2021
10.6092/issn.1973-9494/15308
Superintendent Responsible for the Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape of Rome
1973-9494
en
The journal «Conservation Science in Cultural Heritage»: the culture of evaluation in learning and research
https://conservation-science.unibo.it/article/download/15308/14540
21
T    HE JOURNAL «CONSERVATION SCIENCE IN CULTURAL
     HERITAGE»: THE CULTURE OF EVALUATION IN LEARNING
     AND RESEARCH

Daniela Porro
Superintendent Responsible for the Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape of Rome




     The study of cultural and environmental heritage – archeological, architectural, his-
torical-artistic, archival-book, musical and naturalistic, urban and landscape – must un-
doubtedly be managed in an interdisciplinary way and include different experiences
and competences all of which are necessary to achieve the common objective of pro-
tection and valorization.
     Furthermore, the uniqueness, the specificity, the non-reproducibility of cultural and
environmental heritage, also in the variety of the specialist fields, require the applica-
tion of correct analytical methods. They refer not only to the anamnesis and investiga-
tion of a historical-artistic and aesthetic nature, but also to the characterization of the
constituent materials, the quali-quantification of their degradation, the appropriate meth-
od to use for restoration interventions, as well as knowledge of the conservation envi-
ronment of the artifacts and consequent problems.
     In this perspective, we believe the achievement of having reached an international
level of the historical-technical Journal «Conservation Science in Cultural Heritage» to
be emblematic. Founded in 2001 at the University of Bologna with the fundamental
support of the Alma Digital Library, it publishes scientific papers by researchers from
different schools and countries in both a paper version, “hard copy” and an electronic
version, “open access”, meeting the requirements of interdisciplinarity and internation-
alization, also with its Scientific Board and the involvement of Universities, Ministries,
Institutions, Academies, Research Centres, national and international. Having obtained
quality certification from Institutions and organizations in various continents, the Journal
also has an educational function for the professional figure who has to appropriately
deal with and help to find solutions to the numerous problems connected to the differ-
ent scientific areas of a historical-humanistic, technical-experimental, social-manage-
rial nature in the sector of cultural and environmental heritage.
     And bearing this in mind, it is necessary to encourage forms of cooperation be-
tween the players who are on the supply and demand side, and operate in the sector:
universities, ministries, the territory, in other words a cross section of the institutional plu-
ralism that today characterizes – and will probably continue to characterize – the sector
of training and education.
     But it is just as true that from a scientific point of view, quality, relevance, originali-
ty, innovation are the objectives related to the research published in the Journal, that is
subjected to an evaluation by Qualified Reviewers, in the context of a culture of evalu-
ation founded on criteria and methods that interest the whole scientific community: uni-
versities, the Ministry of Culture, research institutions, the productive world.
     It is therefore no longer based solely on philological and historiographical research,
but also from the point of view of the history of artistic techniques, thus, the material
constitution of the work, which can be defined as the “data of material culture”. The aim
is to show how historical-artistic research can be taken a step further towards objectiv-
ity, addressing it from new, more stimulating points of view and using a different inves-
tigation method. Thus, the material of an artwork may be considered, as “the historical
starting point” for a detailed examination based on objective data, also including the
traces, unintentionally left by the people who operated, and which are connected to the
concept stated by Cesare Brandi about the centrality of the knowledge of the material
in the critical study of the work.
     This is not done only in order to carry out research as an end in itself, but also to
guarantee its safeguard, according to a pragmatic approach and practical research.
     We wish to reiterate, therefore, the uselessness of research related to the knowledge
and protection of cultural heritage based on historiographic data and passed on through
time without being criticized or applying a different type of approach, as may evidently be
that relating to the material aspect of the work and connected to experimentation.
     The word experimentation should not lead us to believe that cultural heritage must be
considered a “testing ground for research”: being aware of the useless – as well as dan-
gerous – debates on the protection of cultural heritage, which are easily started when
such topics are addressed, we are sure it is necessary for “old” topics to be dealt with
from new points of view. They must be advantageous for its protection, intended essen-
tially as the knowledge and respect of that specific reality which, as a unique and excep-
tional material testimony of cultural evolution, is always contained in the work of art.
     Therefore, it is a matter of providing new ways of interpreting which must not re-
place the work but act as tools, that are a means and not an end in the hands of re-
search: this is the task we want to address here, aware of the essential importance of
the contribution provided by the various competences involved in this research. This is
what is found in the historical-technical Journal «Conservation Science in Cultural Her-
itage», whose articles are the result of knowledge attributable not only to the human
sciences but also to the experimental sciences.
     And it is also on these principles and aims that the research activity within the context
of the Soprintendenza Speciale di Archeologia Belle Arti Paesaggio of Rome of the Min-
istry for Culture, rests and that I, as Director (Soprintendente), have had the honor to man-
age. To conclude, I would like to mention some of the interventions that are in progress.


   Gabii

     In the ancient city of Gabii, located on the edge of Rome’s territory, interdisciplinary
research has been underway for many years and has involved various universities and
institutions. In many respects it is a special area that offers an impressive stratification
both from an archeological and landscape point of view: from the lakeside village that
dates back to the 15th century BC to the medieval evidence when it was the seat of an
episcopate. Currently, excavations and research are in progress under concession to
the Musée du Louvre, with the University of Michigan, in the urban area of the majes-
tic temple of Juno Gabina. The Archaeological Superintendence of Rome, in collabo-
ration with the University of Roma Tre, is instead examining in detail an excavation on
the regia, a building belonging to the monarchic power of the 6th century BC, when Gabii
was competing with Rome to gain control of the territory.
     It is an exceptional discovery, made about 15 years ago, thanks to excavations car-
ried out by the Superintendence, and whose different aspects are, today, being exam-
ined once more.
   Nymphaeum Museum

     At the origin of the recently inaugurated Nymphaeum Museum in the Piazza Vitto-
rio Emanuele square, is a preventive archeological excavation under the building of
the Enpam headquarters (offices dedicated to services for healthcare professionals). I
would like to underline how this new exhibition space is the result of the activity of a re-
search laboratory which lasted five years, where millions of unearthed finds were clas-
sified, studied, restored and recreated. In the end, about three thousand were select-
ed and then displayed where they were discovered, fully respecting the context. And it
was only thanks to this meticulous research on the materials, plants, animals and dec-
orations, that the museum is not only an exhibition of objects, but the reconstruction of
the life of a territory, its history, its development over the centuries from the origins of
the Urbs to our days and made possible by the extensive collaboration between public
and private institutions.


   The Archaeological Box on the Aventine

    On the Aventine the Archeological Box displays archeological evidence through a
multimedia installation that has been very successful. In this case too, the research,
carried out by archeologists from the Superintendence in collaboration with other insti-
tutes, was fundamental in reconstructing the events that marked, firstly, the construc-
tion of a defensive structure, then the terracing of a functional area for residential con-
structions, and finally the realization of a luxurious domus, until it was abandoned due
to underground galleries that compromised its stability. Another case study of how the
landscape, and in particular the orography of the slopes of the Aventine, conditioned
the material history of this place across the years.
    The research demonstrates not only that interdisciplinarity is useful and necessary
and is able to virtuously combine the different fields of knowledge for protection that
cannot happen without a deep understanding of heritage, but also sharing, by publish-
ing scientific papers in open source as happens in the Journal, and by offering the gen-
eral public, a conscious use which can only come from study, knowledge, intelligence.
