Heritage is the full range of our inherited traditions, monuments, objects, and culture. Most important, it is the range of contemporary activities, meanings, and behaviors that we draw from them.
Heritage is a contemporary activity with far-reaching effects. It can be an element of far-sighted urban and regional planning. It can be the platform for political recognition, a medium for intercultural dialogue, a means of ethical reflection, and the potential basis for local economic development. It is simultaneously local and particular, global and shared (Center for Heritage & Society, University of Massachusetts Amherst n.d.).
Heritage is not only just about the past – it also defines who we are and shapes the future. It embraces both the arts and the sciences and it incorporates nature and culture.
Evidence and data from various countries in the world demonstrate that heritage assets serve as a catalyst, not only for conservation, partnerships, social cohesion, skills development and education, but also for job creation, infrastructure development, foreign direct investment and economic development.
The management of archaeological heritage resources has become an important and major component of heritage discourse. Heritage inspires and gives context to modern designs and planning. Heritage has become one of the central areas in many business and commercial enterprises; it has also become a source of entrepreneurship.
The archaeological heritage resource
An archaeological resource, as defined by ICOMOS is “that part of material heritage for which archaeological methods provide primary information” (ICOMOS, 1990). Archaeological heritage comprisessall traces of human existence, both in terms of places associated with human activities such as abandoned structures and remains of all kinds, as well as portable cultural materials (ICOMOS, 1990). The two main components of archaeological heritage resources are:
• the archaeological places and sites on the landscape;
• collections of objects housed in museums and in private ownership are normally referred to as ‘archaeological’ if they have been found buried in the ground or recovered from archaeological sites
(ICON, 2011).