Summary of the Proceedings and Papers Presented at - World ...

public works law as it pertains to cultural property needs
reviewing. Others suggested looking into the possibility of
setting up specially trained crews to carry out routine works,
although this might be complicated in light of Italy’s labor
laws.
Interpretation and tourism
“I am afraid we are going to lose the capacity to learn history,”
commented one of the archaeologists who felt reconstruction
was a dangerous trend in terms of education and
interpretation. His concern was answered by a commitment
not only to educate visitors about the history of the Romans,
but to try and share the experiences of investigating and of
conserving an archaeological site. Participants discussed
what kind of tourist comes to Pompeii, the short duration
of the average visit—one, maybe two hours—and most of all
how many come to the site. Some 2.4 million people visit
Pompeii in a year.
If you have 10,000 people walking through a site on a
daily basis the wear and tear has to be considerable, no matter
how large the site. This is certainly aggravated by tourists
having to walk along the same few streets and visit the
same two or three houses, because so much of Pompeii is
off limits. The de facto abandonment of blocks and blocks of
the excavated ancient city that were formerly accessible is
part of the vicious circle that was the main reason for bringing
together the 50 archaeologists, architects, conservators,
foundation administrators, and heritage conservationists for
last November’s symposium.
Site management
All of these concerns, which are concerns at every major
archaeological site, depend ultimately on good site management.
Planning, maintenance, and interpretation are all
elements of archaeological site management. The recently
completed Un Piano per Pompei provides an important tool
and the establishment of a planning office is indeed a promising
start. Perhaps the greatest need at this stage is for management
guidelines.
Sustainability depends on maintaining balance, and balance
requires careful management and an interdisciplinary
approach. The present symposium will hopefully open a dialogue
and enable those concerned to view the problems of
Pompeii in an international context. It is increasingly clear
that caring for the world’s very large archaeological sites
may to some extent need to be internationalized, to mobilize
international institutions, advisors and funding at many
of the world’s great archaeological sites; certainly Pompeii,
which after all was the first.
The symposium’s participants drew up a “list” of the main
points covered during the proceedings of the symposium,
which follow in the form of 12 principles and a series of ideas
for the future.