World Rock Art Archives to meet in Tanum

The World Rock Art Archive Working Group will meet in Tanum, Sweden, from 13 to 15 May 2011 to approve the base metadata model of the World Rock Art Archive. Discussions will focus on the conservation and management priorities of the World Rock Art Archive in terms of needs and efficacy, the compatibility of metadata systems, and how best would it serve the overarching purposes of the World Heritage Convention. The Working Group comprises a group of international experts working in the digital archiving of rock art sites for documentation, conservation, research and management purposes, operating on a site-specific, national and/ or regional basis.

The meeting will include eleven participants from the Rock Art Institute, University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas de España (Spain), Fundação do Homem Americano (Brazil), Tanum World Heritage (Sweden) Swedish Rock Art Research Archives, University of Gothenburg (Sweden), and the UNESCO World Heritage Centre. The Working Group has met for discussions on two previous occasions, in November 2010 (Rock Art Institute, South Africa) and December 2010 (UNESCO, Paris). The meeting is jointly financed by the Swedish National Heritage Board and the Spanish Funds-in-Trust.