A műemlékek sokszínűsége (A 28. Egri Nyári Egyetem előadásai 1998 Eger, 1998)

Előadások / Presentations - Roland SILVA: Unesco-Sri Lanka project of the cultural triangle fifteen years work

Triangle, the Director General of UNESCO had this to say in its Second Appeal to the Member States in March 1994 concerning the work of the Central Cultural Fund: „The Government of Sri Lanka had demonstrated its support for the campaign by designing the Board of Governors of the Central Cultural Fund which is composed of the: Prime Minister as Chairman together with six Ministers and several other high level officials to co-ordinate and manage the campaign activities. Campaign organization is a model of efficiency with clear lines of authority, rapid decision-making mechanisms and excellent co-ordination of field work at all six sites. The highly committed staff is by now well experienced in all aspects of campaign management." Let us now view the Scientific aspects of the UNESCO-Sri Lanka Cultural Triangle Project in terms of its excavation, conservation and layout efforts. First of all the term „Cultural Triangle" was formulated by joining the geographical points of the three historical capitals of Sri Lanka, namely, Anuradhapura (4th century B, C. to 10th century A, D.) to the north. Polonnaruva (10th to 13th century) to the east and Kandy (14th to 19th century) to the south. The reason for coining the word „Cultural Triangle" was because the UNESCO-Sri Lanka team preparing the action plan for the campaign noticed that there was more than one monument or site that needed international attention and assistance. The six sites so selected included the Abhayagiri Monastery and Jetavana Monastery at Anuradhapura, Alahana Parivena at Polonnaruva, the Palace and Water Gardens at Sigiriya, the cave Shrines at Dambulla and the Sacred City of Kandy. Each of these sites had some special features of international standing for selection and listing as a campaign subject. For example, Abhayagiriya had 5000 Buddhist monks in the 5th century A. D. thus being one of the largest religious institutions in history. Similarly, Jetvana had the tallest Stupa (404 feet) in the world. Alahana was a flourishing university in the 12th century A. D. Sigiriya is the earliest extant gardens In Asia and dating to the 5th century A. D. Dambulla has 20,000 square feet of painted murals in the five cave shrines where the artwork dates from the 7th to 18th century A. D. Kandy is a living city of rituals and worship with an annual pegeant of the Tooth Relic shrine which tradition dates back to the 5th century A. D. Before any excavation was undertaken the total area of the six projects identified for the UNESCO-Sri Lanka campaign was surveyed under different scientific disciplines as initial prospecting. Some of the prospecting carried out included: a, Aerial Surveys at a flight height of 5000 feet and enlarged mosaic maps prepared for each of the six sites. b, Contour Surveys prepared at all sites at half metre intervals. This survey also has grided the area to 30 metre north-south squares. It also records all ancient and modern buildings at the site including trees giving their approximate height and variety. The grid crossing gives the mean sea level. c, Resistivity Surveys of selected areas of the site. d, Proposed final layout of the site in terms of services such as roads, electricity, flood lighting, water supply and other infrastructure units such as the site museum, the modern monastery, visitor centre including car parks and shopping plus security fences and entrances to the religious and historic parks. With the excavations commencing, certain decisions were collectively taken by the University Dons handling the six sites of the Cultural Triangle. This was with a view to ensure a sense of uniformity and the ability to compare research data on a computer network. At the same time the Central Cultural Fund had invented a recording technique using photogrammetry and the camera specially designed for this purpose being located approximately three metres above the ground on a quadropod that was movable to any uniform excavation grid. In order to develop an information base using three dimensional photographs that would record every strata of excavation data upon which measurements could be made not only for research at present, but could be plotted even in a hudred yars. Thus all the stratified layers of earth moved away could