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The winners of the Cultural Heritage Game Jam were announced on December 16, 2021, at the USA Pavilion at Expo2020 in Dubai.  This global videogame development contest brought together 850 participants from 72 countries to create 116 new games that raise awareness about threats to cultural heritage and to celebrate diverse cultural art, artifacts, traditions, and places.  The competition judges scored the games based on their educational design principles, innovation, level of engagement, accessibility, art, and audio. 

The game “Purunmachu: Whispers of the Chachapoyas” won the grand prize.  The game confronts the player, a member of a pre-Hispanic people, with a dilemma:  loot the sacred objects of the Chachapoyas for short-term gain, or save their heritage for the spiritual life and future of their people? 

One of the game’s developers, Vania Castagningo Ugolotti, said, “We would like to highlight our multicultural team, with developers from Sweden, Peru, and Iran.  It’s the mix of our viewpoints that enriches our game.”  Her teammate Nahid Moosavi added, “We hope we can develop our game and deliver the main message of protecting cultural heritage to all players.” 

Members of the grand prize-winning team have been invited to travel to San Francisco in March 2022 for the Game Developers Conference to share innovative ways to protect heritage through gaming and meet with industry leaders.   

Other Winning Games: 

  • Second Place: “smART Detective” is a U.S./Italian collaboration in which players must discover and identify lost Italian paintings using conservation techniques. 

  • Third Place: “Ai Apaec” celebrates the ancient Moche culture of Peru as you play as the hero Ai Apaec to rescue the sun.  

  • Fourth Place: “Involved” is a boardgame in which players must work cooperatively to balance urban development and heritage revitalization in Varna, Bulgaria.   

  • Fifth Place: “Siamese:  Puzzle Heritage Game” challenges players to re-construct five temples from the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Sukhothai Historical Park in Thailand. 

Watch the recording of the awards ceremony at the USA Pavilion at Expo2020 Dubai here:  https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1234981471 

Play all the games from the Cultural Heritage Game Jam here: https://itch.io/jam/cultural-heritage-game-jam/entries 

 

About the Cultural Antiquities Task Force 

Created by the State Department in 2004 at the direction of Congress, the CATF comprises federal agencies that share a common mission to disrupt cultural property trafficking in the United States and abroad. Since its creation, the CATF has supported more than 100 domestic and international cultural property training programs. CATF is a law enforcement-focused working group of the Cultural Heritage Coordinating Committee.  Both are managed by the State Department’s Cultural Heritage Center.

The Cultural Property Advisory Committee will meet January 25-27, 2022, to review the proposed extensions of the cultural property agreements with the Government of the Republic of Cyprus, the Government of the Republic of Guatemala, and the Government of the Republic of Mali.

The Committee invites public comment on the proposed extensions. The public may provide written comment in advance of the meeting and/or register to speak   in the virtual open session scheduled for January 25, 2022, at 11:00 a.m. EST (see instructions below).

Cyprus Extension Summary
The Committee will continue to consider extension of the Memorandum of Understanding Between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Republic of Cyprus Concerning the Imposition of Import Restrictions on Pre-Classical and Classical Archaeological Objects and Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Period Ecclesiastical and Ritual Ethnological Materials.  The Government of the Republic of Cyprus requested that the agreement be amended to include additional categories of archaeological and ethnological materials from the 11th millennium B.C. to A.D 1920 .  A history of U.S. actions concerning the agreement can be found on the Current Import Restrictions Page.
Public comments on the Cyprus extension that were made during the October 2021 meeting will also be considered by the Committee at this time.  If you submitted written comments for the October 2021 meeting, you do not need to resubmit them. 
 
Guatemala Extension Summary  
The Committee will consider extension of the Memorandum of Understanding Between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Republic of Guatemala Concerning the Imposition of Import Restrictions on Archaeological Material from the Pre-Columbian Cultures and Ecclesiastical Ethnological Material from the Conquest and Colonial Periods of Guatemala.  A history of U.S. actions concerning the agreement can be found on the Current Import Restrictions Page.

Mali Extension Summary
The Committee will consider extension of the Agreement Between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Republic of Mali Concerning the Imposition of Import Restrictions on Certain Categories of Archaeological Material and Ethnological Material of the Republic of Mali. The Government of the Republic of Mali requested that the agreement be amended to include additional categories of archaeological and ethnological materials from the Paleolithic period to A.D .1920   .  A history of U.S. actions concerning the agreement can be found on the Current Import Restrictions Page.

The Review Process
The State Department follows these procedures when considering cultural property agreements and import restrictions for materials that meet the definitions in the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act (CPIA).

Public Comments
Public comments on the possible extensions of these cultural property agreements should focus on the four determinations in the CPIA.
How to submit written comments:  Use regulations.gov, enter docket DOS-2021-0037, and follow the prompts to submit written comments. Please submit separate comments for each country.  Written comments  must be submitted no later than January 18, 2022, at 11:59 p.m. (EST).
How to make oral comments: Make oral comments during   the Virtual Open Session on January 25, 2022 (instructions below).  Requests to speak must be submitted no later than January 18, 2022.

Join the Virtual Open Session
The virtual open session of the Committee meeting will be held on January 25, 2022, at 11:00 a.m. (EST) using Zoom. The open session will start with a brief presentation by the Committee, after which registered public participants will comment on the possible extensions.

To Speak: Registered participants can speak and may be asked questions by the Committee. If you wish to register to speak you must submit your name and organizational affiliation in an email request to culprop@state.gov by January 18. After you pre-register you will receive an email response with a unique link and instructions on how to participate.  Due to time constraints, each participant will have no more than five minutes to speak.

To Observe: Anyone may observe the open session through Zoom (instructions below), but they will not be able to speak.  It is not necessary to pre-register to observe. If needed, please request reasonable accommodation by email to culprop@state.gov no later than January 18.   It may not be possible to fulfill requests made after that date.

To join as an observer:
Click the link to join the webinar: https://statedept.zoomgov.com/j/1604972981
Webinar ID: 160 497 2981
Or by Telephone: US: +1 669 254 5252  or +1 646 828 7666 
International numbers available by request

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