2026/3(46)
Contents
HISTORICAL RESEARCH
APPLIED RESEARCH
Significant extension to an existing property on the example of the World Heritage site ‘White monuments of Vladimir and Suzdal
Methodological approaches to working with the cultural heritage of the region in the context of the cultural and educational policy of modern Russia
Objectification as a form of digital reconstruction of lost cultural heritage in the urban environment of tourist sites Western Siberia
INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE
CULTURAL HERITAGE STUDIES
Karbas of the 17th century. An Oransky find on the coast of Novaya Zemlya
40 years of the Marine Arctic Complex Expedition of the Heritage Institute
Shamanic ladder in the Muslim cemetery: to the semantics of the ornamented on-grave posts of the Tobol-Irtysh Tatars
Identification of immovable cultural heritage objects in Russia: conceptual, regulatory and regional aspects
HERITAGE PRESERVATION
MUSEOLOGY
School as a center for the preservation of cultural heritage: from the experience of cultural and educational activities of school museums
Publ. 18/09/2026
Archives
DOI 10.34685/HI.2026.75.89.006
Molodin A.
Digital twin as an object of protection of lost heritage
Abstract. The article addresses a museological problem: how to define the ontological and legal status of a digital catalog record in cases of irreversible loss or inaccessibility of the material carrier. The study is motivated by the specific conditions of distributed and diasporic heritage, which are marked by limited institutional oversight, fragmented holdings, and broken provenance. Its aim is to conceptualize the digital similar not as a secondary representation or mere “copy,” but as a “container of responsibility”—an autonomous unit of preservation capable of operationalizing, and under certain conditions functionally substituting for, the physical object within the sphere of professional ethics. Methodologically, the article combines a functional-institutional approach with an analysis of international digital preservation standards (OAIS) and metadata protocols (PREMIS, PROV). It argues against a narrowly technological understanding of the digital twin and instead treats it as an integrated structure composed of descriptive, evidentiary, procedural, and legal layers. The article shows that when the material object disappears, the “data stream” shifts into a socio-procedural domain in which digital provenance—the documented history of how information was generated—and the action log become the principal mechanisms for legitimizing knowledge. It further argues that revision history functions as a form of institutional memory that renders responsibility observable, while access regimes and rights belong to the object’s very ontology by constituting its operative boundaries. On this basis, the study formulates a museum-normative minimum of functional requirements for data architecture necessary to preserve evidentiary integrity and ensure the governability of heritage in digital environments. It concludes that the digital twin constitutes a new form of museum obligation and secures the verifiability of knowledge about a lost artifact.
Keywords: digital twin, container of responsibility, diasporic heritage, loss of material carrier, digital provenance, institutional memory, museum documentation, architecture of trust, long-term preservation, legal access regimes.
Molodin Alexander Vladimirovich,
PhD in Architecture, Associate Professor,
Novosibirsk State University of Architecture
and Civil Engineering (Novosibirsk)
Email: avmolodin@gmail.com
Published: The Heritage Institute Journal, 2026/2(45)
URL: http://nasledie-journal.ru/en/journals/869.html
Founder
Likhachev Russian Research
Institute for Cultural
and Natural Heritage
Publisher
Likhachev Russian Research
Institute for Cultural
and Natural Heritage
Certificate
of the Mass information mediaregistration:
ЭЛ № ФС 77–60211,
date: 17.12.2014
Frequency
4 issues per year
Published on-line only
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