A
6 term(s)

Accessibility

Ethics & Community

The commitment to make cultural heritage sites, museums, and materials available and usable for as many people as possible, including those with disabilities. This can mean physical accommodations (ramps, tactile exhibits, Braille labels), sensory accommodations (sign language tours, audio guides for the visually impaired), and intellectual accessibility (clear language signage, multilingual information) so that everyone has the opportunity to experience and learn from heritage.

Source: ICCROM, UNESCO

Advisory Bodies

Legal & Organizations

Expert organizations that provide advice and evaluations for international heritage frameworks, notably in the World Heritage system. The three formal Advisory Bodies to the World Heritage Committee are: ICOMOS (for cultural heritage), IUCN (for natural heritage), and ICCROM (for training and conservation). They review site nominations, monitor conservation status, and offer technical expertise to help guide decisions and uphold standards.

Source: UNESCO, Hague Convention, UNIDROIT, ICOM

Archaeological Heritage

Cultural Heritage

Archaeological Heritage refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Archaeological Site

Cultural Heritage

Archaeological Site refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Archival Heritage

Cultural Heritage

Archival Heritage refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Authenticity

Cultural Heritage

Authenticity refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

B
2 term(s)

Blue Shield

Legal & Organizations

The name refers to both an emblem and an organization dedicated to protecting cultural heritage during armed conflicts and disasters. The Blue Shield emblem (a blue and white shield) is the international symbol used to mark protected cultural property under the Hague Convention of 1954. The Blue Shield network (often called the cultural Red Cross) consists of committees and volunteers worldwide who work to safeguard museums, archives, monuments, and sites at risk from wars or natural catastrophes.

Source: UNESCO, Hague Convention, UNIDROIT, ICOM

Built Heritage

Cultural Heritage

Built Heritage refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

C
18 term(s)

Child Safeguarding

Legal & Organizations

Policies and practices put in place to ensure that children are safe from abuse or exploitation in all activities related to cultural heritage. This is especially relevant for heritage sites that involve children (like education programs, workshops in communities, or children performing in cultural events). Child safeguarding measures include vetting staff, providing training on child protection, and establishing clear reporting procedures for any concerns.

Source: UNESCO, Hague Convention, UNIDROIT, ICOM

Climate Change Adaptation

Cultural Heritage

Strategies and measures to protect cultural heritage from the effects of climate change. This includes adjusting how sites are managed in response to rising sea levels, increasing temperatures, more intense storms, or changing humidity patterns. Examples are installing better drainage at flood-prone historic sites, choosing climate-resistant materials for repairs, or documenting at-risk traditions so they are not lost due to environmental changes.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Commemoration

Cultural Heritage

Acts of remembrance honoring people or events of significance, often through ceremonies, memorials, or anniversaries. Communities commemorate to keep memories alive, using symbols or rituals to pay respect and reinforce shared history.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Community Empowerment

Ethics & Community

The process of enabling local communities to take an active, meaningful role in managing and protecting their own cultural heritage. This involves building skills, providing access to resources, and creating governance structures where community members can make decisions. Empowered communities are more likely to sustain heritage initiatives, as they feel ownership and responsibility over the outcomes.

Source: ICCROM, UNESCO

Community Engagement

Community & Participation

Community Engagement involves actively involving local communities in decision-making, protection efforts, and recovery processes related to cultural heritage, recognizing them as key stakeholders and knowledge holders.

Source: UNESCO

Community Engagement

Ethics & Community

The active involvement of local community members in the preservation, interpretation, and decision-making processes of cultural heritage. This goes beyond one-way communication – it includes workshops, community-led activities, volunteer programs, and forums where residents can share knowledge and voice concerns. Genuine community engagement helps make heritage initiatives more sustainable, as they reflect the community’s own priorities and foster local stewardship.

Source: ICCROM, UNESCO

Community Heritage

Cultural Heritage

Community Heritage refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Cultural Continuity

Cultural Heritage

Cultural Continuity refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Cultural Diversity

Cultural Heritage

Cultural Diversity refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Cultural Heritage

Cultural Heritage

Cultural Heritage refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Cultural Heritage Protection

Heritage Protection

Cultural Heritage Protection refers to the safeguarding, conservation, and management of tangible and intangible heritage assets before, during, and after disasters. It aims to preserve historical, cultural, social, and identity-related values for present and future generations through preventive, emergency, and recovery measures.

Source: UNESCO, ICCROM

Cultural Identity

Cultural Heritage

Cultural Identity refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Cultural Landscape

Cultural Heritage

Cultural Landscape refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Cultural Mapping

Cultural Heritage

Cultural Mapping refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Cultural Property

Cultural Heritage

Cultural Property refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Cultural Resilience

Disaster Management

The capacity of a community’s cultural heritage – its traditions, values, and identity – to endure and recover from challenges or disruptions. A culturally resilient community adapts to change (such as migration, conflict, or disasters) while maintaining or reasserting its core cultural expressions.

Source: UNDRR, UNESCO

Cultural Route

Cultural Heritage

A thematic pathway or network that links multiple heritage sites and locations across one or more regions or countries. These routes are defined by a common historical, cultural, or artistic theme (such as a pilgrimage trail or trade route) and promote understanding of shared heritage through the journey.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Cultural Significance

Cultural Heritage

Cultural Significance refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

D
5 term(s)

Damage Assessment

Assessment & Documentation

Damage Assessment is the process of systematically identifying, documenting, and evaluating physical, structural, and material damage to cultural heritage caused by disasters, forming the basis for stabilization and restoration decisions.

Source: ICOMOS, ICCROM

Decolonization (Heritage Context)

Legal & Organizations

Efforts to address and undo the legacy of colonialism in how cultural heritage is managed, interpreted, and represented. This can involve returning stolen artifacts to their countries or communities of origin (repatriation), revising museum exhibits that previously told history only from a colonial perspective, and supporting the heritage practices and voices of formerly colonized peoples to ensure their narratives are respected and central in heritage spaces.

Source: UNESCO, Hague Convention, UNIDROIT, ICOM

Digital Heritage

Cultural Heritage

Cultural content and expressions that are created, stored, or presented in digital form. This includes digitized collections (like scanned manuscripts or 3D models of artifacts) and born-digital materials (such as digital art, photography, or oral history recordings), which require special care to preserve for future access.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Do No Harm

Ethics & Community

A guiding principle originally from the medical field, applied in heritage and community work to mean that interventions should not inadvertently cause injury or adverse effects. In cultural heritage, Do No Harm reminds practitioners to consider the social and cultural ramifications of their actions – for instance, not disrupting local ways of life, not causing trauma by the way history is presented, or not taking measures that protect artifacts but endanger people.

Source: ICCROM, UNESCO

Documentary Heritage

Cultural Heritage

Records and documents of important cultural value, such as manuscripts, archives, photographs, films, and sound recordings. This form of heritage, often preserved in libraries, archives, or museums, serves as a memory of society by capturing information and stories from the past.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

E
2 term(s)

Emergency Preparedness

Preparedness & Safety

Emergency Preparedness refers to planning, training, and resource allocation carried out in advance to ensure effective response to disasters affecting cultural heritage. It includes evacuation planning, safety protocols, and coordination with emergency services.

Source: UNDRR, UNESCO

Environmental Monitoring

Conservation & Restoration

The ongoing tracking of environmental conditions – such as temperature, humidity, light, and pollution – in spaces where cultural heritage is kept or displayed. By using sensors and data loggers, conservators ensure conditions remain within safe ranges. Proper environmental monitoring helps prevent damage like mold growth (if humidity is too high), cracking (if air is too dry), or fading of pigments (if light is too intense).

Source: ICCROM, ICOMOS

F
4 term(s)

Faro Convention (2005)

Legal & Organizations

Short for the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society, adopted in Faro, Portugal. This international agreement emphasizes a people-centered approach to heritage – recognizing that everyone has a right to engage with cultural heritage and highlighting the importance of heritage in building peaceful, democratic and sustainable societies. It encourages citizen participation and regards heritage as not only objects or sites, but the meanings and uses those hold for communities.

Source: UNESCO, Hague Convention, UNIDROIT, ICOM

Fire Damage

Conservation & Restoration

The harm caused to structures, artifacts, or sites by fire and its effects (such as smoke and heat). In cultural heritage, fire damage can lead to loss of irreplaceable architecture, artworks, or archives. Understanding fire damage involves assessing burnt materials, structural stability, and the potential for restoration or consolidation of the remains.

Source: ICCROM, ICOMOS

Folklore

Cultural Heritage

Folklore refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Free, Prior and Informed Consent

Ethics & Community

A principle affirming that communities (especially indigenous peoples) have the right to give or withhold consent to projects that affect their cultural heritage, before those projects start. Free means free of coercion, prior means sufficiently in advance, and informed means they have all the relevant information. In heritage management, this ensures that community voices are respected in decisions like excavations, tourism development, or use of traditional knowledge.

Source: ICCROM, UNESCO

G
2 term(s)

Gastronomic Heritage

Cultural Heritage

Gastronomic Heritage refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Gender Inclusion

Ethics & Community

Practices and policies that ensure all genders have equal opportunity to participate in and benefit from cultural heritage activities. In heritage conservation and community projects, gender inclusion might involve encouraging women’s leadership in what may have been male-dominated preservation fields, recognizing gender-specific heritage (like women’s oral traditions or crafts), and making sure interpretation at sites reflects the experiences of all genders.

Source: ICCROM, UNESCO

H
15 term(s)

Hazard

Disaster Management

Any potential source of harm or adverse effect on lives, property, or heritage. Hazards can be natural (such as earthquakes, floods, or hurricanes) or human-made (like fires, armed conflict, or vandalism). In risk management for cultural heritage, identifying hazards is the first step toward assessing risks and taking preventive measures to protect sites and collections.

Source: UNDRR, UNESCO

Heritage Community

Cultural Heritage

Heritage Community refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Heritage Custodian

Cultural Heritage

Heritage Custodian refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Heritage Education

Cultural Heritage

Heritage Education refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Heritage Impact

Cultural Heritage

Heritage Impact refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Heritage Impact Assessment

Ethics & Community

A study conducted before a development project or policy is implemented, to evaluate its potential effects on cultural heritage sites and values. Similar to environmental impact assessments, a Heritage Impact Assessment looks at how construction, infrastructure, tourism expansion, or other changes might damage or alter heritage (from physical harm to changes in a site’s character or how the community uses it) and recommends measures to avoid or mitigate negative impacts.

Source: ICCROM, UNESCO

Heritage Interpretation

Cultural Heritage

Heritage Interpretation refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Heritage Register

Cultural Heritage

Heritage Register refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Heritage Risk Assessment

Risk & Preparedness

Heritage Risk Assessment is the systematic evaluation of potential threats to cultural heritage sites, including natural hazards, human-induced risks, and structural vulnerabilities, in order to prioritize protection and mitigation strategies.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Heritage Stewardship

Cultural Heritage

Heritage Stewardship refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Heritage Tourism

Cultural Heritage

Heritage Tourism refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Heritage Values

Cultural Heritage

Heritage Values refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Historic District

Cultural Heritage

A geographically defined urban or rural area recognized for its concentration of historic buildings, structures, or sites. Such districts reflect a common historical period or architectural style and are often protected by regulations to preserve their character.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Historic Preservation

Cultural Heritage

The practice and field dedicated to protecting, conserving, and restoring historic buildings, sites, and artifacts for the future. It involves research, planning, and interventions that respect the original character and significance of heritage places while keeping them functional and safe.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Historic Urban Landscape

Cultural Heritage

An approach to urban heritage management that views historic cities not just as collections of monuments, but as living landscapes shaped by a layering of cultural and natural features. It emphasizes integrating heritage conservation with social and economic development in the entire urban context.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

I
7 term(s)

IUCN

Legal & Organizations

The International Union for Conservation of Nature, an international organization that focuses on nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. In heritage terms, IUCN serves as the Advisory Body evaluating and monitoring natural and mixed (natural-cultural) World Heritage Sites. It brings expertise on biodiversity, geology, and ecosystem management to ensure that natural heritage is preserved alongside cultural heritage.

Source: UNESCO, Hague Convention, UNIDROIT, ICOM

Immovable Heritage

Cultural Heritage

Immovable Heritage refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Indigenous Knowledge

Cultural Heritage

The time-honored wisdom, know-how, and beliefs developed by indigenous communities through long-term interaction with their environment. It includes practices related to agriculture, medicine, cosmology, and resource management, and is transmitted orally or by example.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Industrial Heritage

Cultural Heritage

Historical sites, buildings, and objects associated with manufacturing, mining, transportation, and other industries. Examples include old factories, mills, railways, and machinery. Industrial heritage also covers the traditions and social history of workers and communities shaped by industrialization.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Intangible Cultural Heritage

Cultural Heritage

Intangible Cultural Heritage refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Intangible Heritage Bearers

Cultural Heritage

Intangible Heritage Bearers refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Integrity

Cultural Heritage

Integrity refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

K
1 term(s)

Kintsugi

Cultural Heritage

A Japanese repair practice that mends broken ceramics with lacquer and powdered metal, making cracks visible. It treats damage as part of an object’s history and meaning.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

L
3 term(s)

Language as Heritage

Cultural Heritage

Language as Heritage refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Living Heritage

Cultural Heritage

Cultural knowledge and practices that are actively maintained and passed on within communities today. It highlights that heritage is not only about preserving the past, but also about ongoing, evolving traditions that give communities a sense of identity and continuity.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Local Heritage

Cultural Heritage

Local Heritage refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

M
5 term(s)

Maritime Heritage

Cultural Heritage

The cultural and material legacy connected to human interaction with the sea. It encompasses traditions of seafaring, shipbuilding, navigation, fishing practices, as well as related artifacts, historic ships, coastal sites, and folklore of maritime communities.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Mitigation

Disaster Management

Actions taken to reduce the severity of a disaster’s impact on cultural heritage. Mitigation measures can be structural (for example, reinforcing a historic building to better withstand earthquakes) or non-structural (like creating firebreaks around an archaeological site or developing emergency plans). Effective mitigation lowers risk by addressing weaknesses before a hazard strikes.

Source: UNDRR, UNESCO

Modern Heritage

Cultural Heritage

Modern Heritage refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Monument

Cultural Heritage

Monument refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Movable Heritage

Cultural Heritage

Movable Heritage refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

N
2 term(s)

National Heritage

Cultural Heritage

National Heritage refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Natural Heritage

Ethics & Community

Natural sites or values recognized for their cultural significance or outstanding beauty, often included in heritage discussions alongside cultural heritage. Examples are distinctive landscapes, geological formations, or biodiversity (flora and fauna) that a community values as part of its heritage and identity.

Source: ICCROM, UNESCO

O
1 term(s)

Oral Tradition

Cultural Heritage

Oral Tradition refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

P
3 term(s)

Pilgrimage

Cultural Heritage

A journey undertaken for spiritual or cultural reasons to a site of special significance. Pilgrimages are traditional in many religions and cultures – travelers (pilgrims) often follow ancestral routes to sacred shrines or holy places, seeking personal meaning, healing, or fulfillment as part of their heritage practice.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Preventive Conservation

Conservation

Preventive Conservation focuses on proactive measures taken to minimize future deterioration or damage to cultural heritage by controlling environmental conditions, managing risks, and applying protective strategies before disasters occur.

Source: ICOM-CC

Provenance

Cultural Heritage

Provenance refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

R
4 term(s)

Reconstruction

Conservation & Restoration

The process of rebuilding or repairing cultural heritage structures that have been destroyed or heavily damaged. Reconstruction can range from anastylosis (reassembling original pieces of a ruined structure) to constructing accurate replicas of historic buildings. It often raises important debates about authenticity and memory – whether to rebuild as it was, adapt to modern needs, or preserve ruins as memorials.

Source: ICCROM, ICOMOS

Rehabilitation

Disaster Management

In disaster management, rehabilitation refers to the phase of recovery where essential services and normal life begin to be restored after an emergency. For cultural heritage, rehabilitation may involve reopening a damaged museum, re-establishing security and climate control for collections, or providing support to communities to restart cultural activities, serving as a bridge between immediate relief and long-term reconstruction.

Source: UNDRR, UNESCO

Repatriation

Legal & Organizations

The process of returning cultural artifacts, human remains, or other heritage items to their country of origin or to descendant communities. Repatriation often occurs in response to past wrongful removals (such as colonial-era looting or excavations without consent). Successful repatriation efforts involve legal and ethical negotiations and can help restore cultural heritage to communities, allowing them to reconnect with and care for those items.

Source: UNESCO, Hague Convention, UNIDROIT, ICOM

Ritual and Festive Events

Ethics & Community

Traditional ceremonies, celebrations, and social practices that are passed down within a community, often marking important cultural or religious occasions. They are key expressions of a community’s identity and intangible cultural heritage.

Source: ICCROM, UNESCO

S
7 term(s)

Sacred Site

Ethics & Community

A place revered for spiritual or religious reasons, regarded as holy or imbued with special meaning by a particular community. Sacred sites – such as temples, churches, shrines, burial grounds, or natural features like mountains and groves – are often key parts of cultural heritage and require respectful management.

Source: ICCROM, UNESCO

Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage

Ethics & Community

Measures and strategies aimed at ensuring that living cultural traditions (such as songs, crafts, and ceremonies) continue to thrive. This can include documentation, education, legal protection, or community support to help practitioners transmit their knowledge to future generations.

Source: ICCROM, UNESCO

Site Buffer Zone

Cultural Heritage

Site Buffer Zone refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Site of Memory

Cultural Heritage

A place – which can be a location, landmark, or landscape – that holds significant historical memory for a group of people. Sites of memory are often associated with notable or traumatic events (such as battlefields, memorials, or former institutions) and serve as focal points for remembrance and education.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Spirit of Place

Cultural Heritage

The unique atmosphere, character, or feeling that a location evokes, shaped by its history, environment, and cultural associations. Also known by the French term genius loci, it refers to the intangible essence that makes a heritage place special or meaningful to people.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Stakeholder Engagement

Ethics & Community

The practice of involving all parties who have an interest or stake in a cultural heritage project throughout its planning and implementation. Stakeholders can include local residents, indigenous groups, government agencies, funders, NGOs, and researchers. Effective engagement means communicating transparently, seeking input, and collaborating on decisions so that the project respects the needs and values of those affected.

Source: ICCROM, UNESCO

Statement of Significance

Cultural Heritage

Statement of Significance refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

T
4 term(s)

Tangible Cultural Heritage

Cultural Heritage

Tangible Cultural Heritage refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Traditional Craftsmanship

Cultural Heritage

Traditional Craftsmanship refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK)

Cultural Heritage

The accumulated knowledge and understanding of the natural environment that indigenous and local communities develop over centuries. TEK includes insights on weather patterns, animal behaviors, planting cycles, and sustainable resource use, reflecting a close relationship between cultural practices and the ecosystem.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Traditional Knowledge

Cultural Heritage

Long-standing knowledge, know-how, and practices developed by communities over generations, especially related to their environment, health, and way of life. This can include knowledge of plant medicines, sustainable farming, weather forecasting, or crafting techniques, and is usually transmitted through oral tradition and example.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

U
2 term(s)

Underwater Cultural Heritage

Cultural Heritage

Underwater Cultural Heritage refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

Underwater Cultural Heritage Convention (2001)

Legal & Organizations

A UNESCO treaty formally known as the 2001 Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage. It sets out guidelines and legal frameworks for preserving shipwrecks, sunken cities, and other submerged heritage. The convention discourages treasure-hunting and commercial exploitation of underwater sites, promoting instead scientific research and in-situ preservation (leaving items under water when feasible) so that these relics of human history are protected for future generations.

Source: UNESCO, Hague Convention, UNIDROIT, ICOM

V
1 term(s)

Vernacular Architecture

Cultural Heritage

Vernacular Architecture refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

W
1 term(s)

World Heritage Site

Cultural Heritage

World Heritage Site refers to cultural expressions, places, or objects valued for their historical, artistic, social, or spiritual meaning. It helps communities maintain identity and continuity while guiding protection and responsible use.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

X
1 term(s)

Xenophobic Targeting (Heritage)

Ethics & Community

Hostility toward perceived outsiders that can motivate discrimination, neglect, or attacks on their cultural heritage. It raises protection and ethics concerns in conflict and crisis settings.

Source: ICCROM, UNESCO

Z
1 term(s)

Zooarchaeology

Cultural Heritage

The study of animal remains from archaeological contexts to understand past diets, environments, and human–animal relationships. Findings inform interpretation of sites and cultural practices.

Source: UNESCO, ICOMOS

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