UNESCO Nomination

Pyu Cities. Birth of urbanisation in South-East Asia

After decades of isolation of Myanmar (formerly called Burma), the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Italy in 2002 authorized the start of a Myanmar Cultural Project entitled “Pyu Cities. Birth of urbanisation in South-East Asia”. The historical-archaeological study of Pyu cities is part of a broader research programme the Foundation, under the guidance of Dr. Patrizia Zolese, was developing in South-East Asia: a study on the beginning of States in the Indo-Chinese peninsula. Following this research, Unesco asked the Foundation to contribute to the nomination of Pyu cities as World Heritage, an objective achieved in 2014.

Map of the Pyu cities.

Payama-Gyi in Sri Ksetra.

The study started with the birth of the Khmer State (Wat Phou project in Laos) as well as the Cham Kingdom (My Son project in Vietnam). Actually, the historical-archaeological theme of Pyu cities is of greatest importance, because they are the most ancient case of urbanization in South-East Asia (I-IX centuries A.D.).

In its former phase the project was intended neither to direct preservation interventions, nor to restoration of monumental remains, but aimed at devoting the available resources to explore the archaeological area, to geomorphological and historical-archaeological studies of the area, to investigate the static conditions of the monuments, along with establishing a data bank managed by a Territorial Information System, and last but not least, the training of local staff. The latest point was crucial, keeping in mind the long isolation of Burma researchers and technicians up to that moment.

HMA-53 cemetery excavations.

HMA-53 paleoanthropological research.

Field Shool of Archaeology and Conservation in Pyay

For that reason since 2003 Lerici Foundation, together with the General Advisor for Asia and the Pacific of UNESCO in Bangkok, Dr. Richard Engelhardt, started a range of actions at the level both of the Myanmar Government (Culture Ministry), UNESCO and Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in order to get authorization for the establishment of a Field Archaeology and Conservation School in the Sri Ksetra – Pyay Archaeological Site. In 2005 the Myanmar Government provided to build the School and to organize che training courses at national level (according to the guidelines suggested by the Foundation).

On field lesson.

Beikthano on field lesson.

In 2020 it was still the only Archaeology and Conservation School at national level in Myanmar, managed by the Culture Ministry. Since its birth on, every year experts/teachers from Lerici Foundation directed by Dr. Patrizia Zolese and from Politecnico have alternate (a month per year) in keeping courses on diverse specialties: techniques of archaeological excavation, topography, restoration of archaeological finds, monuments conservation, conservation of wooden buildings, geophysical prospections, mechanical probing, museography, management of UNESCO sites, Database and GIS.