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Museums Commission to Organize International Conference on Education, Innovation in June

Museums Commission to Organize International Conference on Education, Innovation in June
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Museums Commission to Organize International Conference on Education, Innovation in June

Museums Commission to Organize International Conference on Education, Innovation in June

The Museums Commission is scheduled to organize the "International Conference for Education and Innovation in Museums", to be held between June 1 and 3 in Riyadh.
The conference will discuss topics that will help explore the latest trends and developments in museum education and innovation, with dialogue sessions and panel discussions involving local and international experts.
Attendees will have the opportunity to experience modern and innovative technologies, such as virtual and augmented reality, and take part in workshops, seminars and discussions on research and the latest trends in museum education and innovation, SPA reported.
The focus on education and innovation in museums stems from the fact that they play a significant cultural role, preserving and documenting the tangible and intangible heritage of societies. Museums play an important role in preserving the collective memory of communities, documenting their history and culture, and enhancing the national identity.
Museology has significantly developed in recent years, with museums becoming more diverse and inclusive. They now focus on providing educational and cultural experiences to the public and play an important role in the social and economic development of communities.
By organizing this conference, the Museums Commission aims to highlight the Kingdom's cultural and historical heritage, provide a platform for communication and exchange of knowledge and the best practices among museum specialists, institutions, and related organizations, discuss innovative ideas, support museum studies globally, establish partnerships, and launch global collaborative projects in the field of museum studies.

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Thousands Greet the Winter Solstice at the Ancient Stonehenge Monument

A person holds up a smart phone as they wait for sunrise during the winter Solstice celebrations at Stonehenge, England, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Anthony Upton)
A person holds up a smart phone as they wait for sunrise during the winter Solstice celebrations at Stonehenge, England, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Anthony Upton)
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Thousands Greet the Winter Solstice at the Ancient Stonehenge Monument

A person holds up a smart phone as they wait for sunrise during the winter Solstice celebrations at Stonehenge, England, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Anthony Upton)
A person holds up a smart phone as they wait for sunrise during the winter Solstice celebrations at Stonehenge, England, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Anthony Upton)

Thousands of tourists, pagans, druids and people simply yearning for the promise of spring marked the dawn of the shortest day of the year at the ancient Stonehenge monument on Saturday.

Revelers cheered and beat drums as the sun rose at 8:09 a.m. (0809 GMT) over the giant standing stones on the winter solstice — the shortest day and the longest night in the Northern Hemisphere. No one could see the sun through the low winter cloud, but that did not deter a flurry of drumming, chanting and singing as dawn broke.

There will be less than eight hours of daylight in England on Saturday — but after that, the days get longer until the summer solstice in June.

The solstices are the only occasions when visitors can go right up to the stones at Stonehenge, and thousands are willing to rise before dawn to soak up the atmosphere.

The stone circle, whose giant pillars each took 1,000 people to move, was erected starting about 5,000 years ago by a sun-worshiping Neolithic culture, according to The AP. Its full purpose is still debated: Was it a temple, a solar calculator, a cemetery, or some combination of all three?

In a paper published in the journal Archaeology International, researchers from University College London and Aberystwyth University said the site on Salisbury Plain, about 128 kilometers (80 miles) southwest of London, may have had political as well as spiritual significance.

That follows from the recent discovery that one of Stonehenge’s stones — the unique stone lying flat at the center of the monument, dubbed the “altar stone” — originated in Scotland, hundreds of miles north of the site. Some of the other stones were brought from the Preseli Hills in southwest Wales, nearly 240 kilometers (150 miles) to the west,

Lead author Mike Parker Pearson from UCL’s Institute of Archaeology said the geographical diversity suggests Stonehenge may have served as a “monument of unification for the peoples of Britain, celebrating their eternal links with their ancestors and the cosmos.”