Finanziamento dell’UE NextGenerationEU PRIN PNRR 2022 – Dialogues between ancient Western Asia and us. Untold stories from Italian collections and archives - M4C2 investimento 1.1 Avviso 1409/2022

The project “Dialogues between ancient Western Asia and us. Untold stories from Italian collections and archives” (DiWA) is aimed at the study, the enhancement and the communication of the collections of Western Asia artifacts and the related archives housed in two of the most important Italian museums, the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Firenze (MAF) and the Museo di Antichità – Musei Reali di Torino (MAT). Considering their relatively small size, these two venues provide a favorable environment for implementing innovative solutions in accordance with the principles of equality and inclusiveness. DiWA is a transdisciplinary project including historians, archaeologists and philologists of ancient Western Asia, conservation scientists, and experts in virtual museum and in public archaeology and cultural heritage communication. The project distinguishes itself for the use of cutting-edge technologies. DiWA aims at establishing and implementing an innovative model for managing a class of materials in a museum collection, adopting the holistic approach to the preservation and valorization of heritage proper of the new museum ethos. Such a concrete project model can be replicated in other contexts in the future. The goal of the DiWA project is to connote the Western Asia collections housed in Florence and Turin as free spaces for dialogue between past and present and between countries and cultures. It harnesses the full potential of cross-cultural heritage as a driver of sustainable innovation, realized through the engagement with society and citizens, as well as through its better documentation and promotion, in agreement with the strategic themes of the Cluster “Culture, Creativity & Inclusive Society” of the Horizon Europe Strategic Plan (2021 – 2024). DiWa’s innovative results will contribute to integration and societal cohesion by providing a better, wider, and more equal access to Western Asia cultural heritage in Italy. Moreover, it will foster a pattern of cultural inclusion which enhances the integrative potential of cultural heritage in multi-cultural societies. Among the outcomes of the project are the enhancement of cultural heritage both in Italy and in the artifacts’ countries of origin, the preservation of historical and cultural memory, and the provision to citizens and operators of new ways of social and cultural wellbeing. Importance spinoffs in the educational sphere to encourage creative rethinking and transformation of teaching methodologies are expected. DiWa’s impact will cover a wide range of academic and social aspects that have a common denominator, namely, the contribution to a comprehensive European strategy for inclusive growth and upward convergence of the wellbeing of citizens.