Digital Heritage and the Sheela na Gig 3D Project

New techniques in digital heritage recording are helping us to gain new insights into archaeological sites, features and artefacts. Digital Heritage is the process of digitally documenting heritage and culture. It focuses on finding the best best method of digitally recording a heritage site or artefact while presenting it to the public in an accessible way. In this episode of the Amplify Archaeology Podcast, Neil had the opportunity to chat with Orla Power and Gary Dempsey of Digital Heritage Age who are helping to pioneer these new methods in Ireland. Digital Heritage Age are a network of digital heritage professionals engaged in the promotion of digitising cultural heritage in Ireland. They seek to promote best practice in digital heritage projects and build links between professionals and local heritage groups, communities and societies.

Digital Heritage Age are inspired by the Irish word for a work team, gang, or party, ‘meitheal’, and their work helps to develop a platform for cooperation between groups and individuals sharing a common cause. Digital Heritage Age also strive to nurture a local ‘sense of place’ and ownership in local heritage, by engaging with local sites and artefacts and by helping to empower communities by giving them the skills and confidence to record their local heritage. The flagship project of Digital Heritage Age is the The Digital County Initiative a coming together of communities, to share workloads and skills for digital heritage. This project aims to create a locally curated ‘digital museum’ for every county in Ireland. The project aims to train both professionals and heritage communities with the skills to develop their own digital heritage projects.

In this episode Orla and Gary discuss the benefits and challenges of Digital Heritage and their work. We also chat about Ireland’s enigmatic Sheela na Gig and try to cast light on what they might mean and how attitudes to them have changed over time. With their values on community engagement and making heritage accessible to all, Gary and Orla are such an inspiration for us and it was terrific to get the opportunity to chat with them.