A Preliminary Recap: Major Issues in Managing Cultural Heritage from Field Research

This final chapter aims to underline some of the major issues which have already emerged during the case histories analysis, but which need to be put in a broader context in order to better understand the overall process of change in managing cultural heritage in China, either at the municipal and the national level. Such a general view has two rational. On the one hand, several issues are not related to a single institution but need be discussed, analyzed and potentially solved at a general (system) level. In many instances there is the need to redesign an administrative system which could adequately cope with all aspects of the archaeological chain (excavation, field and desk research, preservation, restoration and visitors aspects). Indeed, in our research the nine case histories have been selected not only because of their individual importance, but also because they represent different elements inside the archaeological chain. On the other hand, a more general view allows to better focus the links between professional and administrative aspects. Both of them are related to Luoyang peculiarities in terms of the nature and richness of cultural heritage, affecting effectiveness and efficiency in managing it.