Alessandro Sebastiani

Last year, I had the privilege of being invited to speak at the first World Archaeology Summit, organized in Al-Ula, Saudi Arabia, by the Royal Commission. This event will be held again this year, where I am invited as an international delegate.

The two days of debates and presentations among 80 global cultural heritage experts proved to be an important opportunity to forge new professional relationships and to discover a different reality. A podcast emerged from the conference, created with my colleague Laura Morabito, focusing on the future of information technologies in archaeology.

During our time in Saudi Arabia, we visited incredible sites, such as the area of Hegra, where the desert sands meet Nabatean and Roman civilization. The stay in the Al-Ula valley, with bungalows built against the rock walls from where one could watch the sunrise, was breathtakingly beautiful.

Reconnecting with old friends, new colleagues, and professors from the past was equally stimulating and evocative. Learning about the efforts the Royal Commission is making to safeguard cultural heritage is a source of inspiration for the various projects I am involved in. The meeting between the academic and professional worlds, with institutions such as UNESCO and the Louvre, allowed us to outline the guidelines to follow in the near future—a future that feels a moral duty to preserve and transmit our past.