Digitisation is in progress

The ruins of one of the world’s largest ancient cities, referred to as the “desert oasis”, were ransacked, as revealed by a UNESCO report that mentions “considerable damage in the museum”, including several decapitated statues and shelled sarcophagi. A temple, as well as the triumphal arch, have also disappeared. But these witnesses of history can be reborn...

“... In recent years, I have noticed one thing: the countries I travel in are home to magnificent treasures. Sometimes known and protected, sometimes not listed and occasionally even without archives. There are very few international organisations that do full reconstruction work, whether the subject is recent or ancient. This is all the more problematic because sometimes some monuments* disappear, for many different reasons, notably erosion, urban evolution, excessive visitor numbers or because of armed conflicts.

To save them, it is possible to reconstitute them virtually in order to highlight their exceptional value. This answers a problem: memorisation. It makes it possible to keep track and to enrich the collective memory, because unfortunately today and even more in the future, accessing all these sites will become more and more complicated, such will be existence of future generations. Even though these images will never replace the physical presence of heritage and they are only a ‘complement to contact with the material’ ...”

*Here used in a broad sense, this term denotes any “object” that testifies to the existence, the reality of something that can serve as a testimony of historical and cultural value.