Collaborations

Project: Epigraphic and petroglyphic complexes of the Upper Indus: Digital preservation and promotion of written and visual cultures (progress: SSHRC application submitted)

Project Director: Jason Neelis, Wilfred Laurier University

Project Website: https://www.wlu.ca/academics/faculties/faculty-of-arts/faculty-profiles/jason-neelis/upper-indus-petroglyphs-and-inscriptions/index.html

Collaborator: GIS and technical specialist in digital humanities

Description: The goal of the proposed project is to build and enhance capacity for cultural heritage preservation and promotion in Pakistan by expanding the scope of partnerships between Canadian, Pakistani and international academic and institutional stakeholders. There is urgent necessity to bring multilateral interdisciplinary partners together in order to develop and apply strategies to preserve specific aspects of Pakistan’s tangible cultural heritage. This partnership focuses on a particular area of Cultural Heritage in Pakistan facing imminent threats: rock drawings and inscriptions threatened by a planned hydroelectric project on the Upper Indus River by the construction of the Diamer-Bhasha dam, road construction, and other forms of intentional and unintentional destruction - such records are vital information of regional and world cultural heritage created by visitors and local residents from prehistoric times to the present.

Links to BBC Urdu story featuring Dr. Neelis' comments: https://www.bbc.com/urdu/pakistan-53460168; an Express Tribune story [in English] about UNESCO's potential involvement: https://tribune.com.pk/story/2257334/unesco-to-preserve-g-bs-ancient-rocks; and a Third Pole story about preservation issues and plans: https://www.thethirdpole.net/2020/08/06/pakistans-diamer-basha-dam-will-drown-ancient-carvings/).

Rock art at Shatial. Left: Ancient graffitti. Right: Rock art depicting a previous birth of the Buddha on the left; centre: a stupa; right: a shrine. Images from: https://www.wlu.ca/news/spotlights/2018/oct/laurier-researchers-working-to-preserve-1000-year-old-rock-art-in-pakistan.html