ABSTRACT
Bagan in Myanmar, the erstwhile capital of the Kingdom of Pagan (9th–13th c. CE), is a serial World Heritage property, 13 x 8 square kilometres in area and centred around Old Bagan. Most constructions are entirely of brick masonry, including stupas, temples, and other structures replete with inscriptions, murals and sculptures.
Bagan lies in a seismically active subduction region that witnessed large earthquakes most recently in 1975 and 2016. In the Mw 6.8 Chauk earthquake of 24 August 2016, 389 monuments were damaged in Bagan, with about 10% severely or moderately. The French Institute for the Far East (EFEO) undertook an extensive inventory of monuments exercise after 1975, documenting 2834 monuments, which have been digitised and georeferenced by the Department of Archaeology and National Museums (DANM) of the Government of Myanmar with assistance from UNESCO. After the 2016 earthquake, DANM adopted a mode of non-contact Rapid Visual Survey (RVS) for post-earthquake condition assessment focusing on the exterior of the monuments using UAV (drones), a safe and systematic procedure leading to a preliminary tagging of the severity of damage and basis for prioritisation of detailed physical surveys.
Database and data management are handled by DANM's GIS section, with a current focus on inventory and zoning maps, but specific systems are required to leverage this effectively for the conservation and regular monitoring of monuments. Streamlining these systems and training, capacity building, and continuing education programmes for the staff of the DANM are vital for a successful outcome of these databases and management systems for vast and rich archaeological sites such as Bagan.
