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Talk about public-private partnerships that work. Responding to the National Museums of Kenya’s need to preserve, study and document its cultural and natural collections, Amazon Web Services and Intel banded together to digitise the entire collection and put it online. It’s a project that will take five to seven years.
I can already hear you yawning, but think about it...
The museums of our northern neighbour contain artefacts that show early human technology and technological evolution dating back 2.5 million years.
It’s evidence of mankind’s origins in Africa, and a reminder of where we came from.
We chatted to Frederick Manthi, head of earth sciences at the museum, via email on this digital endeavour.
“The 1 million-plus specimen archive shows that our earliest human ancestors evolved in eastern Africa and used tools we call artefacts to acquire their foods, respond to natural threats, develop social relations with other members of our species and flourish on this planet,” he said.
The museum has been housing artefacts like these since 1910, meaning it’s been building up its collection over 107 years.
“Archaeological and palaeontological work in numerous sites in Kenya starting in the 1930s have yielded important records of our human origins, placing the museum at the forefront in preserving Kenya’s cultural heritage, which by extension is a heritage for the entire world and humanity,” said Manthi.
The collection includes 6 million years of humankind’s palaeontology and 3.3 million years of cultural evolution. Some of the most valuable artefacts there include the earliest member of the genus Australopithecus, Au anamensis, discovered at Kanapoi, southwest of Lake Turkana (it was discovered in 1994 and is dated at 4.19 million years old).
The oldest stone tools belonging to the Lomekwian industry have also been recovered at Lomekwi, west of Lake Turkana, as well as an early member of our lineage, Homo rudolfensis (discovered east of Lake Turkana in Koobi Fora).
Having each specimen recorded and put on a standardised database online helps researchers, archaeologists and paleontologists to access fossil records from wherever they are.
“Our goal is that, by developing a standard, referenceable ontology and by building a relational database framework accessible over the cloud, we will be able to provide standardised, searchable data for researchers to analyse collections from new perspectives and improve the accuracy of curation of existing and new collections.”
Another cool aspect of the project is that it’s using young, Kenyan people to perform all the digitisation work.
“Teaching these valuable next-generation digital skills helps create jobs for Kenyan young people, providing multiyear employment opportunities across conservation, technology and digital archiving. It’s our hope it will serve as a national model for digital preservation of fossils and artefacts that can be replicated across Kenya and other African countries,” says Manthi.
Amazon is also working on creating a virtual museum that will give visitors to the website a more immersive and engaging experience. It will be completed at the end of 2018.
I closed off the interview by asking Manthi what his favourite part of his job is. “Being able to share not only Kenya’s heritage with the world, but a collection that includes 6 million years of humankind’s evolutionary history,” he said.
Amen to that.
Once the project is complete, researchers and the public will be able to access the digital collection at museums.or.ke
