Cultural Heritage Administration Builds Digital Data of Fossils and Rocks... Preventing Loss of Cultural Assets

The Cultural Heritage Administration (Administrator Kim Hyun-mo) is building digital data on the status of geological heritage (such as fossils and rock specimens) dispersed nationwide. Among them, geological heritage with high cultural value will undergo national ownership procedures to be systematically preserved and managed.

Under the Cultural Heritage Protection Act, geological heritage such as fossils and rocks are considered buried cultural assets and ownerless property (objects without an owner). When discovered (excavated), they are cultural assets that become state property through a series of procedures such as discovery reporting and lost property announcements in accordance with the Buried Cultural Heritage Act.

However, despite the national ownership regulations being specified since the enactment of the Cultural Heritage Protection Act in 1962, unlike other buried cultural assets, cases of individuals or organizations (institutions) arbitrarily monopolizing (owning) and trading fossil and rock specimens have frequently occurred.

To prevent this, in September 2020, the Cultural Heritage Administration established a national ownership promotion plan for buried cultural assets (fossils and rocks), implementing step-by-step procedures necessary for national ownership targeting national and public institutions, universities, private institutions, and individuals, including ▲ reporting the status of fossil and rock specimen holdings ▲ on-site inspections by related experts and identification of fossil and rock specimen information ▲ selection meetings (value evaluation) ▲ lost property announcements for fossil and rock specimens subject to national ownership.

First, among 30 national and public institutions, 25 institutions including the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, the National Science Museum, and the Jinju Pterosaur Footprint Exhibition Hall reported their geological heritage holdings. After on-site inspections by related experts and the National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage (first half of 2021), the list of 3,058 specimens held by 12 institutions was confirmed, value-evaluated, and a 90-day lost property announcement was completed through the competent police station.

The 3,058 fossil and rock specimens will be finally confirmed as cultural assets subject to national ownership through a ‘related experts meeting’ in December. Geological heritage that has become state property will be managed under an integrated management system, increasing public opportunities to enjoy natural heritage through sharing, consignment, lending, and circulating exhibitions of related information, and is expected to be utilized as a tourism resource by local governments and exhibition institutions, as well as to activate academic research by related experts.

National ownership of geological heritage will gradually expand from this case to national and public institutions, universities, private institutions, and individuals through a nationwide campaign. In particular, starting next year, with the budget for ‘fossil and rock specimen survey and cataloging’ secured through the national participation budget review, a project to build a geological heritage database will be carried out jointly with the Geological Society of Korea, which is expected to further accelerate the preservation and management of geological heritage.

The Cultural Heritage Administration will also concurrently promote the project to create a nationwide geological heritage distribution map and reflect it in areas where buried cultural assets remain, enabling anyone to easily access related information through the construction of a ‘Geological Heritage Distribution Map (GIS)’ (2020?2025).