bestpreserved

Bestpreserved, stylized as bestpreserved, is a wiki-style online platform and community dedicated to documenting, analyzing, and showcasing well-preserved artifacts, sites, and built heritage across cultures. It collects case studies, image galleries, technical notes, and methodological guidance aimed at supporting conservation practice and public understanding of preservation outcomes. Entries are contributed by professionals, students, and enthusiasts, and are organized around standardized schemas that cover project overview, location, dating, materials, preservation status, threats, methods used, and references.

History: The project began in 2015 as a collaboration among archaeologists, conservators, and educators seeking to share best practices and exemplary preservation cases. It expanded through partnerships with museums, universities, and cultural heritage organizations, and adopted a Creative Commons licensing model to encourage reuse and redistribution.

Content and features: The platform emphasizes well-documented examples with high levels of artifact integrity or site integrity, with criteria that include documentation quality, transparency of methods, and reproducibility of results. It hosts image galleries, measurement data, and step-by-step treatment notes compatible with professional standards.

Governance and reception: An editorial board oversees content quality, while volunteer contributors perform revisions. The site seeks to balance detail with accessibility, and its content is widely used in teaching, outreach, and grant writing. Some critics note potential biases toward well-funded institutions and underrepresentation of non-Western heritage.

See also: conservation, heritage preservation, digital archives.