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The Cultural Heritage Monitoring Lab (CHML) at the Virginia Museum of Natural History is currently playing a leading role in the United States' efforts to monitor and map Ukraine's cultural heritage sites that are currently under threat due to the country's armed conflict with Russia.
The work of CHML, which is directed by Assistant Curator of Archaeology Dr. Hayden Bassett, is at the center of an article published today by the The New York Times. The article also highlights the CHML's close relationship with the US Army Reserve's recently reactivated Monuments Officers, which is modeled after the famed Monuments Men of WWII. A subscription to the Times may be required to access the article, although users are normally allowed to read a limited number of articles without a subscription.
MORE ABOUT CHML
The Cultural Heritage Monitoring Lab is a partnership between the Virginia Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative. It provides global monitoring capability for cultural heritage sites threatened by armed conflict and natural disaster and is headquartered at the Virginia Museum of Natural History. Among other technologies, the CHML utilizes high-resolution satellite imagery provided by industry partners to rapidly identify destructive events and active threats to monuments, museums, archives, historic buildings, archaeological sites, and landscapes.
CHML is led by VMNH Assistant Curator of Archaeology Dr. Hayden Bassett and operates through a distributed workforce of archaeologists, art historians, GIS experts, and other heritage practitioners. The CHML works with the US Army Reserve's recently reactivated Monuments Officers (38G/6V), and other NGO and government stakeholders at research and response-oriented organizations.
Though CHML has only been operational for less than 2 years, it has already had a major impact monitoring sites across the globe, including sites in Afghanistan, Haiti, Ethiopia, Honduras, and others.
