Evaluating the authenticity of earthen heritage: The case of Ramses Wissa Wassef Art Centre in Egypt

The authenticity of earthen heritage has long been a challenge to the trials of the under-represented States Parties, to the World Heritage Convention, to identify properties for listing on their Tentative Lists, of potential World Heritage Sites. Many under-represented States Parties and regions, such as Africa and the Arab States, retain a large number of properties representing earthen heritage, yet none of them has been inscribed on the World Heritage List. For such a pattern of cultural heritage to qualify for the World Heritage Site status, nominated properties should enjoy an Outstanding Universal Value and should also meet the conditions of authenticity and integrity. Due to the fragility of its building material, earthen heritage has always been the subject of continuous maintenance works to its material. Consequently, an impression that the material authenticity of such cultural heritage is questionable has evolved. The main purpose of this study was to discuss such perceptions in further depth. The study also aimed at evaluating the contribution of the “materials and substance” attribute versus the contribution of the other attributes of authenticity, toward the evaluation of the authenticity of earthen heritage. The study approached these objectives by evaluating by means of a proposed methodology the authenticity of one case study, which is Ramses Wissa Wassef Art Centre, in Egypt. The adopted evaluation methodology was developed based on the Nara Document's notion of authenticity. The findings indicated the significant contribution of the non-material attributes, vis-à-vis the contribution of the “materials and substance” attribute, toward the authenticity of the examined property. The results suggest the need to broaden the narrow perception that reduces the authenticity of earthen heritage to its material aspects, so as to embrace all the other non-material attributes of authenticity.