‘Tech can protect hidden archaeological sites’

NEW DELHI: Even after setting boundaries around prominent heritage sites, buried archaeological foundations in close proximity can still go undetected — something that can be resolved through tech-based interventions like satellite imagery and remote sensing, landscape archaeologist and geo-spatial researcher, MB Rajani said here.

“In the periphery of a site, there are buried remains that are not exposed. An archaeologist can recognise them but a lay man can only recognise what is presented as heritage to them,” she said.

“For buried remains, if you leave it, some archaeologist will come and study and expose it,” the researcher, who has worked in sites like Nalanda Mahavihara, Bodh Gaya, Vijayanagara and Srirangapatna told IANS on the sidelines of the two-day conference on “Eu-india Partnership for Cultural Heritage Conservation” that concluded on Wednesday at the National Museum here.

Pointing to a birds-eye map of the Unesco world heritage site of Mahabodhi Temple in Bihar’s Bodh Gaya, the Bengaluru-based National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) professor said a lot of urbanisation had occurred since 2002 — the year the heritage status was accorded — leading to loss of ‘potential’ buried remains surrounding the temple.

This, she said, is where boundaries come in.

Put simply, improper demarcation often leads to burying of sites (under hotels and other support for tourists) not detected and excavated yet — a threat that can be allayed using technology available today.

To ensure that heritage sites do not fall victim to their own heritage tag, it then becomes important to demarcate using “geo-spatial research, GPS, new and old maps, and visits to the site” that increases the chances of “having included more remains” within the limits set.

Rajani has been an assistant professor in the M.tech GIS programme at NIIT University, Neemrana in Rajasthan, Fellow of Nalanda University in Bihar, and guest faculty at Indian Institute of Technology-gandhinagar in Gujarat, along with a post-doctoral associate at NIAS, and a doctoral scholar at NIAS. She was awarded a PH.D for her thesis titled ‘Space-based archaeological investigations’ by University of Mysore in 2011.