The Director of the Christiansborg Archaeological Heritage Project, Professor Rachel Ama Asaa Engmann, has urged the government to invest in archaeological work to help provide documented information on the country’s past.
She said archaeological information was critical for development, and provided insights into a country’s past, which could serve as source of revenue generation for the country.
Prof. Engmann, who is a United States-based Ghanaian archaeological professor, disclosed this in an interview with the Ghanaian Times in Accra yesterday, on the preparation for the fifth stage of the project to document the artefacts and heritage information about the Osu Christianborg Castle.
The project, being funded by the government of France, is aimed at providing rich information about artefacts found at the archaeological site in the castle, also known as the Osu Castle.
It would provide a trove and a veritable source of information for tourists who visit the Christiansborg Castle, which is being transformed into a tourist site.
Working with some selected indigenes from Osu, Prof. Engmann had started work on the fifth stage of theproject to document the artefacts and heritage information about the Christiansborg Castle.
She explained that the project had become necessary in view of the country’s reliance on oral tradition to get information about its past, which could be distorted.
“The project is unique because all the team members have a personal connection to the site as their relatives either worked at the castle or lived in its environs,” Prof. Engmann, said.
She said the project which started in 2014, found many artefacts which had been profiled for further study, while more were being unearthed under the four initial stages of the project.
Some of the artefacts discovered, she said included the foundation of what appeared to be a human settlement within the castle with different compartments such as a kitchen, smoking pipes, water bottles, beads, cowries, broken pots, presidential ceramic cups and grinding tools.
The director of the Christiansborg Archaeological Heritage Project said the artefacts discovered indicated that there were forms of human activities in an established setting at the excavated area.
Mr Malik Ludric Lutterodt, an indigene of Osu told the Ghanaian Times that the project had provided a worth of information about the ancestral history of Osu and knowledge on archaeological work.
A Technical Advisor in-charge of France-Ghana Higher Education Co-operation and Research, Dr Sonia Couprie, expressed the French government’s commitment to the project, saying heritage was important for France.
She said the project would ensure that the Ghanaian heritage would become more visible for the country’s tourism sector.
BY VIVIAN ARTHUR
