Valuing rock art: a view from Northumberland in North East England

Abstract

Since the turn of the millennium three rock art projects focusing primarily on Northumberland in the United Kingdom (Northumberland Rock Art: Web Access to the Beckensall Archive, Rock Art on Mobile Phones and Heritage and Science: working together in the CARE of rock art) have made information and images widely available to the public via the Internet. All three projects were strongly underpinned by the ethos expressed in the Faro Convention and the Ename and Burra Charters that the value of cultural heritage should be enhanced by interpretation. This paper investigates the responses to these digital media initiatives, showing that they have increased the reach of this ancient rock art resource to large numbers of people in United Kingdom and Ireland, and globally. In addition, it reveals that having made these heritage resources available online, they have created a further desire among people to engage with the rock art virtually with the increased possibility of following this up with an in situ visit.

Keywords:

• Rock art
• Internet
• virtual
• interpretation
• value

Acknowledgements

This paper draws on work undertaken on the NRA project with Horacio Ayestaran, Geoff Bailey, Clive Waddington, Glyn Goodrick, Marc Johnstone and Jess Kemp, on the RAMP project with Areti Galani, Deborah Maxwell and Kate Sharpe, and on the CARE project with Myra Giesen and Peter Lewis. Many thanks are due to them although I take full responsibility for the paper. Thanks to three anonymous IJHS reviewers for their valuable feedback on earlier drafts of the paper.

Notes

1. The ADP’s likely user groups included (i) Rock Art researchers, (ii) Heritage managers/Owners/Tenants, (iii) University Lecturers/Archaeologists with a general interest in rock/students/amateur archaeologists, (iv) Locals/Tourists/Visitors to the area/Tour operators, and (v) School teachers/Students/Learners.