Preservation is, obviously, an essential part of archaeology; if artifacts aren’t preserved then archaeologists don’t have anything to study. There have been some useful recent developments in preparation for postconflict priority actions in Syria.

Archaeological sites require an extra level of care in regards to their conservation and restoration. All of this has brought strengths as well as complications.

Rendered models and, increasingly, augmented and virtual reality have the potential to build on all these spatial data sources to provide complex visualizations to support site interpretation.There have been substantive advances in the approaches to the conservation and management of earthen architecture. Ellis Woodman, “Replicating Palmyra’s Temples with 3D Printers Will Not Repair Syria’s Hurt,” 6. Archaeological heritage management is no longer the exclusive province of the conservator but is now perceived by many to be an ethical concern for any practicing archaeologist.

Restoration is the "returning of the existing fabric of a place to a known earlier state by removing accretions or by reassembling existing components without the introduction of new material. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Methods in archaeology. In some cases, these standards can be regulatory. The cost of equipment and software has dropped dramatically within the last decade, making photographic point-cloud data generation in particular a lowcost and easily implemented strategy for many archaeological sites and landscapes.

It is unfortunate that the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003) divided the intangible from the tangible, as intangible values are also inherent in material culture.

There was an Ancient Puebloan site that dates to A.D. 900-1350 was damaged by construction activities while putting in a new road.While development cannot be discontinued simply to protect archaeological sites, having a basic understanding of what might be impacted before development takes place could help protect sites and at least the information they can provide. We must use heritage to support communities, especially if we are committed to helping lift people out of poverty.Archaeologists must engage with stakeholders to consider what is excavated, what we leave in situ, and why.

However, the value of traditional management systems has been only slowly recognized in this process. In many countries, the presumption of preservation in situ without an intention to communicate, use, or engage has made archaeology seem a mere obstacle to sustainable urban communities. Randall Mason, “Assessing Values in Conservation Planning: Methodological Issues and Choices,” in 2. The bias toward the preservation of the monumental and the elite serves an appreciation of the complexity of past societies poorly, and it should be reconsidered. 63- 71) This study describes the direct visualization of lipids in wall cross-sections of archaeological potsherds using mass spectrometry imaging. "Relocation is a dramatic form of conservation which involves the physical movement of the site or part of the site itself.

September 12, 2017 | Raven Todd DaSilva The survival of organic materials in within the archaeological record hangs greatly upon the environment in which they were left. Recognition of the need to sustain values and not simply fabric has serious implications for conservation, raising issues about the universality of conservation principles and the need to manage change. This list may not reflect recent changes .

However, effective planning for the role of heritage in postwar recovery is still poor.