ArcLand - Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)

The Heritage Laboratory (LaPa) of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) is an interdisciplinary research unit based in Santiago de Compostela, currently in the Instituto de Estudos Galegos Padre Sarmiento.

Our main scientific interest is to analyze how Cultural Heritage and the values associated with it are produced, managed and socialized, as well as the material elements and social practices that integrate it.

Background

The Heritage Laboratory has existed as a research group since 1992, originally within the University of Santiago de Compostela. Through the 90's our activity was mostly linked with Landscape Archaeology.

Since 2001 most of the unit was incorporated into the CSIC and widened its research interests and fields, while keeping a strong and active link with the University of Santiago.

The head of the LaPa is professor Felipe Criado-Boado. Currently we are a group of over fifty people, including experts in archaeology, anthropology, architecture, history, art history, documentation, palaeoenvironment or information technologies.

Fields of activity

Our research activity is organized around some major issues:

Landscape Archaeology and Cultural Landscapes
Material Culture and Formalization Processes of Cultural Heritage
Theoretical and Historiographic Research on Cultural Heritage Studies
Archaeology of Buildings
Applied Archaeology and Methodological Developments
Processes of Heritage Formation: Memory, Identities and Conflicts
Semantic Technologies for Cultural Heritage
Socio-economics of Cultural Heritage

Other projects

Among the numerous recent and current projects where the LaPa personnel is involved, the following offer a good overview

Technologies for the preservation and valorization of Cultural Heritage
Archaeology in Contemporary Europe: Professional Practices and Public Outreach (ACE)
Archaeology in the Muni estuary (Equatorial Guinea)
From the workshop to the body: metalwork as an expression of power in the later prehistory of NW Iberian peninsula
Open air rock art in the Metal Ages between Central Asia and Europe
Fortified landscapes in the Andean Altiplano (northern Chile)
Cultural Heritage, coastal archaeology and vulnerability: an interrregional approach (Britanny - Galicia)
Processes of Heritage formation in the pilgrimage road to Santiago de Compostela
Identity and Conflict. Cultural Heritage and the reconstruction of identities after conflicts (CRIC)
Ruin Memories: Materiality, aesthetics and the archaeology of the recent past. Vestiges of the Spanish Civil War
A model for the representation of the spatial components of Cultural Heritage (SPATRIAL)A Methodology for the Formal Representation of Cultural Heritage (MIRFOL)

Publications

The Heritage Laboratory publishes two monographic series on cultural heritage. Issues from both series are available for download for free from Digital.CSIC.

The series Traballos de ArqueoloxÃa e Patrimonio (TAPA), published by the Publications Department of the CSIC since 2002, aims to the publication of monographic studies, PhD theses and conference proceedings. Manuscripts submitted for publication are put through a stringent process of peer review, according to the standards that the CSIC requires to all its series. CAPA

The series Cadernos de ArqueoloxÃa e Patrimonio (CAPA) is currently a desktop-published series oriented towards the dissemination of grey literature, including fieldwork reports, technical reports, academic works and specifications.

Address

The Heritage Laboratory
Instituto de Estudos Galegos Padre Sarmiento
San Roque, 2
15704 Santiago de Compostela
Spain

Project members

César Parcero-Oubiña
Felipe Criado-Boado
Pastor Fábrega-Álvarez
João Fonte

Further information

For further information on our activity and projects, see here.