THE UN cultural agency UNESCO has added 11 new heritage sites covering a swath of civilization from 10,000-year-old agriculture in Papua New Guinea to 20th-century social housing in Berlin.

UNESCO added eight new listings Monday including sites in the Straits of Malacca, Papua New Guinea and San Marino. Three others in Mauritius, Saudi Arabia and China were added Sunday, and Germany maintained world heritages for Dresden's Elbe Valley landscape despite controversial construction plans.

The most modern site ever accepted for the world heritage list is a group of six Berlin housing developments, bundled as a single UNESCO bid. They were built between 1913 and 1934, using a horseshoe layout associated with architects including Walter Gropius, and introduced the then-new trend of social housing, while their clear forms influenced construction methods for the rest of the century.

The Berlin housing brings Germany's total to 33 heritage sites on the prestigious list, though construction now underway on a controversial bridge in the Elbe Valley could reduce Germany's total by one if no compromise is found by 2009.

In the photograph: Images from China

Photograph: Getty Images