{
  "country_code": "UG",
  "id": "kasubi-restoration-dream-instructions",
  "title": "Kasubi: can dreams recover lost building knowledge?",
  "category": "reve",
  "date": "2023-01-01",
  "date_label": "Year of Harding's study, not a precisely dated dream",
  "location": "Kasubi Tombs, Kampala, Uganda",
  "lat": 0.347,
  "lng": 32.553,
  "summary": "After a devastating fire, an ethnographic study reported dream instructions entering debates over reconstruction. The inquiry compares attributed spiritual guidance with documented building history.",
  "documented_claim": "Harding reports dream instructions and a rejected roof-tiling proposal in restoration discussions.",
  "unproven_claim": "The restoration record proves that Kintu supplied historically accurate plans through dreams.",
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "Pauline Harding — Myths, Dreams and the Business of Spiritual Heritage in Uganda (2023)",
      "url": "https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10178390/",
      "language": "English",
      "kind": "Primary ethnographic study, DOI 10.22599/jachs.127",
      "note": "Institutional record and indexed author text reviewed; analysis and participant claims are distinguished.",
      "id": "S1",
      "accessed_on": "2026-09-30"
    },
    {
      "title": "UNESCO — Kasubi removed from the List of World Heritage in Danger (12 September 2023)",
      "url": "https://whc.unesco.org/en/news/2607/",
      "language": "English",
      "kind": "Primary conservation decision report",
      "note": "Documents the fire and reconstruction chronology, not supernatural guidance.",
      "id": "S2",
      "accessed_on": "2026-09-30"
    }
  ],
  "country": "Uganda",
  "author": "Eklipsis",
  "content_languages": [
    "en"
  ],
  "path": "/investigations/kasubi-restoration-dream-instructions",
  "source_url": "https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10178390/",
  "location_precision": "region",
  "location_note": "Approximate orientation marker for the named locality, not an exact encounter, burial, ritual or excavation position.",
  "location_source_url": "https://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=0.347&mlon=32.553#map=8/0.347/32.553",
  "reviewed_on": "2026-09-30",
  "edition": 1,
  "truth_type": "unknown",
  "verdict": "Dream claims within a restoration dispute and the site's reconstruction chronology are documented. Their supernatural origin and accuracy remain unverified.",
  "sections": [
    {
      "title": "The mystery and the documented account",
      "text": "Pauline Harding's 2023 study describes interviews with the Kasubi restoration team. A site manager reportedly consulted a young medium who claimed instructions through dreams and visions from Ssekabaka Kintu. Harding questions the historical fit of this attribution and mentions a rejected proposal to cover the thatched roof with tiles. This is an attributed account of reconstruction debate, not a verified message from a deceased ruler. UNESCO separately records the 2010 fire, reconstruction completed in summer 2023, and removal from the World Heritage in Danger list on 12 September 2023.",
      "refs": [
        "S1",
        "S2"
      ]
    },
    {
      "title": "The question worth investigating",
      "text": "Which proposed details came from dreams, and how were they evaluated against surviving plans, craft knowledge and earlier descriptions?",
      "refs": []
    },
    {
      "title": "Evidence, provenance and uncertainty",
      "text": "The medium's experience is reported through the researcher and restoration interviews. No independent recording of a dream or complete decision archive was examined. Harding's interpretation of authority is an analytical argument. UNESCO's conservation decision does not authenticate dream instructions.",
      "refs": [
        "S1",
        "S2"
      ]
    },
    {
      "title": "Inspector’s assessment",
      "text": "Dream claims within a restoration dispute and the site's reconstruction chronology are documented. Their supernatural origin and accuracy remain unverified.",
      "refs": []
    },
    {
      "title": "Next research and discriminating evidence",
      "text": "Compare attributed instructions with dated building records and consented interviews. Examine accepted and rejected proposals equally, including how traditional craftspeople assessed them.",
      "refs": []
    }
  ],
  "timeline": [
    {
      "date": "2010",
      "text": "A fire devastates the tombs and the site enters the Danger list.",
      "refs": [
        "S2"
      ]
    },
    {
      "date": "2023",
      "text": "Harding publishes her study of spiritual heritage and restoration claims.",
      "refs": [
        "S1"
      ]
    },
    {
      "date": "12 September 2023",
      "text": "UNESCO removes the restored property from the Danger list.",
      "refs": [
        "S2"
      ]
    },
    {
      "date": "30 September 2026",
      "text": "Eklipsis compiles this English documentary investigation from the named sources. No field visit or new eyewitness interview is claimed.",
      "refs": []
    }
  ],
  "claims": [
    {
      "text": "Harding reports dream instructions and a rejected roof-tiling proposal in restoration discussions.",
      "status": "Documented in the named record",
      "refs": [
        "S1"
      ]
    },
    {
      "text": "The restoration record proves that Kintu supplied historically accurate plans through dreams.",
      "status": "Not established by the selected evidence",
      "refs": [
        "S1",
        "S2"
      ]
    },
    {
      "text": "Dream claims within a restoration dispute and the site's reconstruction chronology are documented. Their supernatural origin and accuracy remain unverified.",
      "status": "Editorial assessment; stated limits apply",
      "refs": []
    }
  ],
  "hypotheses": [
    {
      "title": "Spiritual guidance as understood by participants",
      "status": "Attributed belief",
      "support": "The study records a medium's claim of instructions.",
      "limits": "Reported belief does not authenticate the source of a dream.",
      "test": "Compare the exact attributed proposals with records predating the reconstruction."
    },
    {
      "title": "Authority and interpretation amid lost knowledge",
      "status": "Researcher's analytical explanation",
      "support": "Harding discusses historical mismatch and contested proposals.",
      "limits": "This does not establish dishonesty or explain an individual's experience.",
      "test": "Compare decisions, craft testimony and the proposal chronology."
    }
  ],
  "tasks": [
    {
      "title": "Trace the earliest accessible record",
      "body": "For Kasubi: can dreams recover lost building knowledge?, record author or storyteller, collection date, language, translation, page and exact scope. Distinguish evidence of a story being told from evidence of its events. Note which full documents remain unavailable."
    },
    {
      "title": "Investigate the central question",
      "body": "Compare attributed instructions with dated building records and consented interviews. Examine accepted and rejected proposals equally, including how traditional craftspeople assessed them."
    },
    {
      "title": "Compare explanations without merging evidence",
      "body": "Compare the exact attributed proposals with records predating the reconstruction. Compare decisions, craft testimony and the proposal chronology. Preserve contradictions and unsuccessful searches; proposed work remains unperformed."
    }
  ]
}