A critical analysis of the international standards for research and conservation of pleistocene sites: the future of the global heritage of human evolution

Abstract

On the basis of a critical revision of the application of the criteria that justify the Outstanding Universal Value over time, this work discusses and identifies the need for a specific chapter in 2the Operational Guidelines of the Convention related to Pleistocene sites and properties related to non-sedentary populations. The International community at UNESCO, guided by the most advanced research and conservation knowledge, should set up specific rules and categories for inscription and standards for the integrated preservation of Pleistocene sites. These pages illustrate how to channel the process to pass from Pleistocene knowledge to a Pleistocene heritage, and how to avoid the useless distinction between the arrays of heritages: immovable, movable, intangible, documentary or molecular when defining the very nature of a site related to our early past as humans. Finally, my dissertation invites the research and conservation communities to merge practices and to set up a collaborative dialogue in the interest of our long-term cultural evolution. This dissertation conceives the origins of our remotest cultural diversity as a human capital, which can guide our species on its journey through the enormous challenges toward climate change and artificial intelligence.