UNESCO

On July 6, 2019, an extraordinary event took place. During the 43rd Session of the World Heritage Committee in Baku (Republic of Azerbaijan), the Krzemionki Prehistoric Striped Flint Mining Region was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. This is the sixteenth site in Poland to be included on this prestigious list. Previously, the Old Town in Kraków, the Royal Salt Mines in Wieliczka and Bochnia, and the Lead, Silver, and Zinc Ore Mine in Tarnowskie Góry were recognized. 2019 also turned out to be a lucky year for, for example, Bagan, the former capital of Burma, the famous „pink city” of Jaipur in India, or ancient Babylon.

The entry on the UNESCO World Heritage List is the result of many years of work by a broad group of people. The idea itself was born in the Polish archaeological community in the late 1990s, but it took another 15 years to be implemented. The first step towards UNESCO was to prepare an application to accept Krzemionki on the so-called Polish Tentative List. Work on the application began in 2014. Such a document, prepared by archaeologists from the Archaeological Museum and Krzemionki Reserve: Artur Jedynak and Kamil Kaptur, enabled the acceptance of Krzemionki in 2016 as an official candidate for entry on the World Heritage List. In the same year, work began on the nomination application for the Krzemionki Prehistoric Striped Flint Mining Region, consisting of the Krzemionki, Borownia, and Korycizna mining fields and the Gawroniec settlement (authors: Barry Gamble, Artur Jedynak, Jacek Lech, Kamil Kaptur, Magdalena Uryś-Godek, Zuzanna Zezol, in cooperation with experts: Katarzyna Piotrowska, Jerzy Tomasz Bąbel, Zenon Duda, Jadwiga Anna Barga-Więcławska). The 394-page application was submitted by Poland in January 2018 to the World Heritage Centre in Paris. The next stage was the preparation of a management plan for the nominated region. The document was prepared by a team consisting of Waldemar Affelt, Jacek Dąbrowski, Artur Jedynak, Julian Kołodziej, Grażyna Krumeich, Ewa Nekanda-Trepka, Eufrozyna Piątek, Katarzyna Szczerbińska-Tercjak, Michał Smoktunowicz, Bogusław Szmygin, and Bartosz Walczak. The application was then assessed by the World Heritage Centre. An important element of the visit was the visit of an ICOMOS expert to Krzemionki. During this visit, site visits were carried out in the areas covered by the application. The year 2019 was the year of the decision to combine efforts for the Krzemionki Region of Prehistoric Striped Flint Mining. On 19 February, the following institutions concluded a cooperation agreement: the Historical and Archaeological Museum in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, Ostrowiec County, Opatów County, Bodzechów Commune, Ćmielów Commune, Ożarów Commune, Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski Forest District, Voivodeship Office for the Protection of Monuments in Kielce, Regional Directorate for Environmental Protection in Kielce. In June, the authorities of the Bodzechów, Ćmielów, and Ożarów communes signed a letter of intent regarding the establishment of a cultural park. All these activities led to the fact that during the 43rd session of the World Heritage Committee in Baku, the Krzemionki Region of Prehistoric Striped Flint Mining was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in the presence of the Polish delegation consisting of representatives of the National Heritage Institute, the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Poland to UNESCO, and our Museum.

We would like to thank everyone who actively collaborated on the application and contributed to its ultimate success. The presence on the UNESCO World Heritage List is owed to the above-mentioned authors of the application and the following people: Katarzyna Piotrowska, Head of the NID World Heritage Team; Jerzy Tomasz Bąbel, archaeologist, independent expert; Zenon Duda, miner, independent expert, Jadwiga Anna Barga-Więcławska: naturalist, malacologist, independent expert, Magdalena Gawin, Minister, General Conservator of Monuments, Bartosz Skaldawski, Director of the National Heritage Institute; Arkadiusz Łukawski, NID World Heritage Team; Anna Marconi-Betka, NID World Heritage Team; Barbara Furmanik, NID World Heritage Team; Agata Byszewska, NID World Heritage Team; Marek Konopka, Vice President of ICOMOS Poland. Jacek Purchla, Chairman of the Polish Commission for UNESCO; Sławomir Ratajski, Secretary General, Polish Commission for UNESCO; Krystyna Żurek, Ambassador, Director of the United Nations Department and Human Rights of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Róża Karlikowska, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Permanent Representation of the Republic of Poland to UNESCO.

The certificate confirming the entry of the Krzemionki region of prehistoric striped flint mining on the UNESCO World Heritage List was delivered to the Krzemionki Archaeological Museum and Reserve on 19 September 2019. The ceremony of presenting the document took place at the Department of Monument Protection of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. On behalf of the museum, the meeting was attended by acting director Beata Kobiałka and Artur Jedynak, archaeologist and co-author of the application.  Work is currently underway to create the Cultural Park of Prehistoric Flint Mining in the Kamienna River Valley. This action is extremely important due to the need to create a uniform and coherent management system for all four components of the World Heritage site and to introduce appropriate protection for buffer zones (protection zones of individual elements).

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