EX NOVO –Journal of Archaeology, Call for Papers Issue nr.2 (2017), Who Owns the Past? Archaeological Heritage between Idealization and Destruction (original) (raw)
Related papers
Near Eastern Archaeology 78.3 (2015) 170-177, 2015
One highly prominent aspect of ISIS’s program of destruction in Syria and Iraq that has come to the media attention recently is their program of cultural heritage destruction that took the form of smashing artifacts in archaeological museums, iconoclastic breaking and bulldozing of archaeological sites, dynamiting of shrines, tombs, and other holy sites of local communities, and burning of libraries and archives. In this paper, I focus on ISIS’s destruction of archaeological heritage. I argue that this destruction can be seen as a form of place-based violence that aims to annihilate the local sense of belonging, and the collective sense of memory among local communities to whom the heritage belongs. Therefore, heritage destruction can be seen as part and parcel of this scorched-earth strategy described above. I also argue that the Islamic State coordinates and choreographs these destructions as mediatic spectacles of violence aimed at objects and sites of heritage, and these spectacles take place as re-enactments or historical performances that are continuously and carefully communicated to us through ISIS’s own image-making and dissemination apparatus that increasingly utilizes the most advanced technologies of visualization and communication. I will also pose questions about the relatively weak responses from the archaeological community around the world that rarely went beyond the stereotypical expression of “dismay” to ISIS’s heritage destruction. At the same time, I will try to answer the why and how of ISIS’s dislike of archaeological heritage in the context of late capitalism.
The Destruction of Antiquity in Syria and Iraq: We Ought to Care about a Viable Solution
The safety of historic artifacts has been in decline and one of the most evident examples of this statement would be the unprecedented destruction of archeological sites, museums, and artifacts within Middle Eastern countries— specifically in Syria and Iraq. There are three generally recurring concerns that archeologists, governments, and journalists indicate as the underlying issues of artifact preservation: the first concern is that looting is rampant as a consequence of terrorist activities and civil war, the second concern is that the desired function of governments and preservation organizations ought to be lessening destruction, and the third concern is that the final fate of the antiquities ought to include an adequate punishment for the criminals. All of these points are being discussed by interested parties in an effort to come up with a long term solution that will benefit the people as well as the history. In this paper we will explore the fundamentalist ideals which fuel the desecration of antiquity, the historic relevance of a variety of damaged or destroyed sites, and we will assert that a long term solution that involves targeting the illegal trade of antiquities, the economic foundation of ISIS, and the withdrawal of aggressive foreign military forces. A fundamentalist terrorist is a person or group that uses a narrow view of a religious conviction to validate atrocious acts, and they use terror as a tool to facilitate an agenda of radical social and political change. 1 A terrorist will use the fear generated to indicate that no one is safe from them or their ability to take action. ISIS is a terrorist group who, like all other fundamentalist terrorists, exploit terror for their own benefit. In addition to the loss of life and displacement of the local populations, ISIS has taken to destroying ancient artifacts, sites, and books in an effort to eliminate from the world what they perceive as idolatrous religions. These artifacts offer perspective on our collective human history and they have contributed greatly to our understanding of both the ancient and the recent past. History primarily relies upon written records and documents to interpret the broad strokes of previous lives and events, and archaeology provides another source of information for these time periods and allows us to perceive a time before written language to understand how earlier humans 1 Karima Bennoune, interview by Michael Enright. Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here. CBC Radio. July 17 th , 2015.
HUM 101. The Politics of Archaeology and Heritage in the Middle East (Engaged Humanities Seminar)
Our understanding of the past is profoundly impacted by the politics of the present. Since the 19th century, archaeological projects in the Middle East have always been entangled with local politics. In this course, we will explore the use and abuse of archaeology among the modern nation states in the Middle East since the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century. What do ancient pharaohs mean to modern Egyptians? Who suggested that Hittites of ancient Anatolia were the ancestors of Turks? Why do modern Assyrian Christians still celebrate ancient festivals like the Akitu? How do archaeological projects in Israel-Palestine attempt to verify Biblical texts? Why did Saddam Hussein consider himself the last Babylonian king? Discussing the formation of modern nation states and their secular modernity, we will study the integration of imagined ancient pasts and cultural heritage in the making of national identities and state ideologies. We will interrogate how the pervasive force of archaeology became nationalistic obsession since the late 19th century. The seminar is also intended to capture current debates on cultural heritage in the Middle East. Such debates have intensified recently with the civil conflicts and political unrest in countries like Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan. The looting of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad, the bombing of Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan, ISIS’s destruction of archaeological artifacts and sites in Iraq and Syria, extensive looting of archaeological sites across the Middle East and the illegal antiquities trade are topics of interest for this course. How can we address this extensive destruction of world heritage that are increasingly becoming targeted in our times of crisis?
Looting the past. Syria’s cultural heritage under attack: another Iraq?
2012
Historic monuments bombed during the fighting between rebels and Syrian army, archaeological sites occupied by military bases or threatened by illicit excavations and museums left vulnerable to looting and devastation. In a journey through the disasters of the ongoing civil war, Paolo Brusasco narrates the pillage of Syria’s glorious past and the shattering of its historical memory. So called the “crossroad of ancient cultures”, the country’s history reflects the main steps of the evolution of mankind, from the introduction of early agriculture to the emergence of urban societies. By comparing Syria’s cultural devastation to the Iraqi example, the author tries to show how in both cases monuments and historical sites are appropriated on all sides because of their symbolic value and political relevance. A final section is devoted to the social study of ancient Syrian houses in order to keep alive the memory of Syria’s cultural heritage. Contents Introduction. The “Arab Spring”: a “Dark Autumn” for archaeology? Section 1. Syria’ s cultural heritage under attack 1. The destruction of Syria’ s cultural heritage 2. Looting the memory and militarizing the past 3. The looting of archaeological sites 4. Damage from neglect and development pressure Conclusions Section 2. The sociology of the ancient Syrian house and the south Mesopotamian model Introduction 1. Why study Syrian houses? 2. The Syrian house and the south Mesopotamian model Conclusions Bibliography Index List of figures Author Paolo Brusasco teaches Archaeology and Art History of the Ancient Near East at the University of Genova, Italy. Former Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge (UK), he has supervised several excavations in Iraq, Syria, Italy and other Mediterranean countries. Among his publications are: The Archaeology of Verbal and Nonverbal Meaning. Mesopotamian domestic architecture and its textual dimension (Archaeopress, Oxford, 2007), La Mesopotamia prima dell’Islam (Bruno Mondadori, Milano, 2008), Babilonia. All’origine del mito (Raffaello Cortina, Milano, 2012).
"War and Recovery" in The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Archaeology
The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Archaeology, 2020
This chapter examines history and scholarship on the theme of war and recovery in Islamic lands from the end of the 19th to the early 21st century. It argues that the dominant universalist model of archaeological heritage preservation, wherein heritage is envisioned as a property-based model belonging "to all humankind," has in fact been an important motivation for the destruction of heritage in wartime and in the alienation of local communities from their heritage following reconstruction. Archaeologists, as researchers on the past who can assist in shaping the narratives of the present, should instead work to understand local models of heritage and support communities traumatized by war to rebuild in ways that serve local needs first. Often, postwar reconstruction has only multi plied the trauma of people in the aftermath of conflict. However, if sites damaged by war are rebuilt in an inclusive manner, reconstruction has the potential to be a genuinely healing act of resistance to the violence perpetrated during wartime.