"CONCEPT ON CULTURAL HERITAGE IN CONFLICTS AND CRISES. A component for peace and security in European Union’s external action" (Council of the EU, 2021).
"Cultural heritage is by nature politically sensitive, highly complex with a high degree of
symbolic significance, emotionally charged and with a risk of political manipulation concerning its history, ownership and use".
"Because of the strong connection between culture and peoples’ identities, the intentional destruction and misappropriation of cultural heritage and the violation of cultural rights are aggravating factors in conflicts and crises. They represent major obstacles to dialogue, peace and reconciliation".
➡️ An article from 2022: "Babylon is coming back to life, with its famed Ishtar Gate to be restored by this summer" by Hadani Ditmars.
"The new initiative is part of the WMF’s 15-year commitment to conservation efforts as part of its Future of Babylon project, initiated in 2008. Collaborating with the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH) until 2015, the WMF performed extensive surveys and documentation and developed conservation plans. The organisation also assisted with a Unesco World Heritage nomination for Babylon that culminated in its inscription in July 2019 and helped with the conservation and stabilisation of the Lion of Babylon. The projects at the Ishtar Gate and Ninmakh Temple, launched in 2016 and 2019 respectively, will be the beneficiaries of the US embassy funding".
Churches, monuments & museums are submerged....Archaeological sites dating back to the Scythians—a nomadic people...in the 8th century BC—& a Greek settlement from around 400 BC have been damaged or irretrievably destroyed
"The damage affects culturally & historically significant properties from different centuries. In terms of archaeological sites, Ukraine is one of the first places of discovery in the world"
A handsomely carved 3rd century AD grey schist of Avalokiteshvara #Bodhisattva identified by the seated #Buddha Amitabha in his turban headdress from the #AncientIndian region of #Gandhara now in #Afghanistan#Pakistan is coming up for auction by Bonhams #Paris on 12th June 2023, estimate €100,000-150,000.
The conservation of religious heritage still in use poses a number of very complex problems: "Conservation of Living Religious Heritage" (Nicholas Stanley-Price Robert Killick Herb Stovel, 2003).
"Sometimes the conservator’s instincts (to preserve material fabric and to minimize change) run counter to the religious community’s interest in continuity and renewal. The traditional desire of resident
monks to renew painted surfaces can sometimes conflict with official conservation policy, as has happened at the World Heritage site of Dambulla in Sri Lanka. At Anthony Island on Canada’s West Coast, also a World Heritage site and home to the last surviving in situ cluster of Haida Indian totem poles, the choice of ‘continuity’ as the primary conservation goal has meant allowing poles to decay, while resisting calls from conservators to have them removed to museum environments".
Delighted to announce I’ll be chairing a #history panel on #Eritrea with the Histories at Risk Network.
This event is FREE & online. It will explore Eritrean history and heritage from ancient Red Sea trade routes to the legacy of Italian colonisation and discuss the safeguarding of Eritrea’s historical and cultural heritage.
A very interesting website is FA Failed Architecture. See, for example, the article "Mortal Cities and Forgotten Monuments" by
Arna Mackic.
"Currently these cities, once repositories of memories, have become dishonest and opaque as politicians try to keep the different ethnic groups divided via architecture. As the legibility of the history and the identities have disappeared, communication between inhabitants and the city has ceased to exist. History, symbols and memories are currently being erased in these cities by adding unfitting symbols or by removing meaningful symbols in public spaces. This has resulted in an abundance of fragmented, imaginary, self-proclaimed and self-imposed memories".
The relationship between false memories, the construction of historical narratives and the creation of heritage (among other topics) has been studied by Lowenthal in his fascinating "The Past is a Foreign Country".
"National efforts to fashion praiseworthy pasts resembled individual needs to construct viable life histories".
"And the fictional past has another advantage: because it is contrived, it must make sense. Contrariwise, history must in part baffle".
"Everyone revises the past to make it theirs. Retooling the past to our needs and desires, we merge into it, conform it with ourselves, and ourselves with it, matching our self-images and aspirations".
Welsh Slate, who operate the Penrhyn slate mine in north Wales, have been given consent to destroy this multicellular dry stone sheepfold dating from perhaps the 18th/19th century.
Official historians say it's "not of national importance".
Big holes in the ground for short-term profiting seem to be much more important, apparently.
Please re-toot if you disagree, and that the feature should be saved.