Training Camp: Conservation of archaeological artifacts and the preparation for musealization of the archaeological collection of Berat Museum

Implementor

QEND.NDERKOMB.PER ARKEOLOGJINE SHQIPTARE

The action

A Conservation Camp will run in partnership with the Ministry of Economy, Culture and Innovation, the Department of Archaeology & Cultural Heritage of the University of Tirana, the Municipality of Berat, and the International Centre for Albanian Archaeology. The objective is to bring together students and young professionals in a hands-on experience that aims at conserving archaeological artefacts (200 pottery, bronze, iron and glass objects) that once belonged to the collection of the Historical Museum of Berat (closed for more than 30 years). The goal is to prepare the core of a collection for the new Museum in Berat, a World Heritage Site since 2008, to encourage synergies, tolerance, education, and local development. Berat is a historical town registered as World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2008. Its town plan and domestic architecture of the Ottoman period represent one of the best preserved examples of a Balkan town of 18th and 19th centuries. The town’s Historical Museum has been closed since the early 1990s. For more than 30 years the small, yet very diverse archaeological collection of the former museum has been locked away in the storages of the town’s Ethnographic Museum. This collection of around 200 artefacts lacks thorough conservation for more than 4 decades. The World Heritage status of the town has brought attention and a growing number of visitors in the recent years. The Municipality is keen to work with MEKI, UT and NGOs to establish a new Archaeological Museum. The archaeological collection, object of this project, will become the core of the museum. The Ministry will be able to enrich it with recent discoveries. The Museum will present local traditions and a common European history from the outset of agriculture and settled life, to high Middle Ages.