Interpretation and presentation of urban archeology Kom el-Dikka archeological site in view of principle 1 of ename charter

Abstract EN

In developing countries, like Egypt, urban archaeological sites are usually fenced and segregated from their surrounding context.

Those sites which are open with fees to the public, remain ruins to be visited with either guided tours or information panels presenting the history of the site.

This type of urban archaeology has witnessed development through consecutive international charters for conservation of cultural heritage.

These charters developed the concept of archaeological sites from sites visited by scholars and professionals who are in the field of conservation and preservation, to sites opened to the wider range of society.

The Ename Charter 2008 have specifically addressed this point by focusing on the interpretation and presentation of cultural heritage sites.

In his paper “Process not product: the ICOMOS Ename charter (2008) and the practice of heritage stewardship”, Neil Silberman highlighted the challenge of anticipating the consequence of implementing each of the charter's principles and to understand that each principle could be a great opportunity or a total disaster (Silberman, 2009, p.9).

Picking up on Silberman's posed challenge, the paper focuses on the first principle of this charter and discusses the potential of implementing it on one of the important urban archeological sites in Alexandria “The kom El-Dikka archeological site”.

After thoroughly going through literature related to interpretation and presentation and studying the current situation of the site, the paper presents a partial framework of an interpretation and presentation plan related to “the access and understanding” principle of the Ename charter.