Current World Archaeology Celebrate 40th Anniversary of World Heritage

Hampi, India is one of six GHF project sites on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Photo: Sourav De

To celebrate the 40-year anniversary of UNESCO World Heritage, Current World Archaeology (CWA), a popular British world archaeology magazine, has launched a new webpage in partnership with GHF to raise awareness of important and endangered cultural heritage sites, what we can do to save them, and how they can improve the lives of future generations across the developing world.
In November 1972, UNESCO adopted The Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, an international treaty that linked for the first time the concepts of nature conservation and cultural heritage preservation. Selection criteria for the World Heritage List was not finalized until 1978, when Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands became the first of 12 sites added to the list.  Since then, a total of 936 properties in 153 countries have been inscribed.
The list, however, is by no means complete.  Of approximately 650 sites in the Global Heritage Network (GHN) database, only 76 are designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites, while all are registered national treasures in their respective countries.  Similarly, of GHF’s 13 current project sites, six have World Heritage status — Chavín de Huántar, Cyrene, Fujian Tulous, Hampi, Pingyao and Wat Phu — but all are among the world’s most spectacular ancient treasures.
CWA’s World Heritage page features a brief history of the convention and links to stories about global heritage sites recognized and not recognized by UNESCO World Heritage.  As 40th anniversary festivities continue around the world, more content will be added to the CWA page, including upcoming feature stories about GHF sites Göbekli Tepe and Ciudad Perdida.
CWA was founded in 2003 as a sister magazine to Current Archaeology, which since 1967 has been reporting on the latest discoveries in British archaeology. CWA is printed six times annually and focuses on archaeological sites around the world.  Last March, the magazine published a feature on Banteay Chhmar written by John Sanday, GHF’s Director of Asia & Pacific.