Afterword: Return to the First Seminar: Protecting an Invaluable Heritage. The Egyptian Case

An extraordinary session of the first joint Sapienza-McGill Universities Seminar, held in Rome in December 2021 and organized by the Italian Embassy in Cairo, was dedicated to Egypt. The results of the Egyptian session are summarized here to argue for a broader view of protection that includes the dimension of cultural transmission to future generations. Cultural heritage is something that has complex characteristics. It is a blend of tangible and intangible assets, the result of a process of selection, because not all that comes to us from the past can be classified as relevant, and of a process of values-reception and interpretation. Its growth does not stop, the criteria of selection have changed over time, and the dynamics of meaning attribution are always at work. In a country worldwide renowned for its historical civilization such as Egypt, cultural heritage is a fundamental component of national representation, a powerful glue that unites the nation and connects the Egyptian people to their past and to the rest of the world through the universal meaning attributed to it. Egypt can be considered a vantage point from which to observe how an invaluable cultural heritage can be subject to new challenges. Considering the point of view of the beneficiaries and the cultural value transferred to the young generations, a discussion is provided about the complex interplay between protection and intergenerational transmission of such a huge and unique cultural heritage. Formed along the axis of cultural selection, shaped by institutional programs, and recombined through individual needs, cultural heritage deserves new approaches.