Endangered Cultural Heritage

LSN’s heritage work, run as 4D Heritage, records sites at risk with drones, laser scanning, photogrammetry and 360° imaging. The records serve conservation, advocacy and teaching. Wherever possible, local people are trained to make them.

MALI
With support from Elrha’s Humanitarian Innovation Fund and DFID, the mCubed project recorded sites at Djenné, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, by drone. It also built a prototype course training citizen heritage activists to map and model endangered sites from the air. The team presented the work at a summit in Rome with UNESCO and ICCROM. The summit produced a declaration on documenting endangered heritage, which was taken to the G7.

ZANZIBAR
In June 2017 LSN took part in “Capturing the Cultural Heritage of Eastern Africa”, a workshop recording the Persian baths at Kidichi and the ruins at Mtoni. The team used drones, ground-penetrating radar, laser scanning and photogrammetry. The results were published as “Laser-Scanning Shihrazad’s Baths: 1001 Tales of Zanzibar Nights” in The Antiquaries Journal (2020).

EGYPT
In 2018 LSN joined EQI in the EU-funded Revival of the Shali Fortress project in Siwa Oasis, documenting the fortress digitally. During the pandemic the Cultural Heritage Institute at the Royal Agricultural University ran webinars and virtual tours of the site with EQI and LSN. One webinar covered young people’s role in heritage stewardship. Participants joined from more than 20 countries. The minaret stair takes four people at a time; one virtual tour, led by a local guide, took 62.

OMAN
With the Centre for International Learning and Leadership (CILL), and with support from the Anglo-Omani Society, LSN developed “Young Omanis as Digital Heritage Curators”. It is an online course for young people in community-based heritage education.

LONDON
In 2023 students from St Charles Catholic Sixth Form College learned 360° imaging and heritage storytelling at Dora House, home of the Royal Society of Sculptors. LSN ran the programme with the Society and CILL, and the National Lottery Heritage Fund paid for it. The students showed their work at Heritage Open Days that September. In Notting Dale, LSN’s walks trace the area’s churches, synagogue, mosque and gurdwara.

PARTNERS AND FUNDERS
European Union · EQI · Cultural Heritage Institute, Royal Agricultural University · Humanitarian Innovation Fund (Elrha) · Anglo-Omani Society · Centre for International Learning and Leadership · Royal Society of Sculptors · National Lottery Heritage Fund