1st Edition
The Routledge Handbook of Heritage Destruction
The Routledge Handbook of Heritage Destruction presents a comprehensive view on the destruction of cultural heritage and offers insights into this multifaceted, interdisciplinary phenomenon; the methods scholars have used to study it; and the results these various methods have produced.
By juxtaposing theoretical and legal frameworks and conceptual contexts alongside a wide distribution of geographical and temporal case studies, this book throws light upon the risks, and the realizations, of art and heritage destruction. Exploring the variety of forces that drive the destruction of heritage, the volume also contains contributions that consider what forms heritage destruction takes and in which contexts and circumstances it manifests. Contributors, including local scholars, also consider how these drivers and contexts change, and what effect this has on heritage destruction, and how we conceptualise it. Overall, the book establishes the importance of the need to study the destruction of art and cultural heritage within a wider framework that encompasses not only theory but also legal, military, social, and ontological issues.
The Routledge Handbook of Heritage Destruction will contribute to the development of a more complete understanding and analysis of heritage destruction. The Handbook will be useful to academics, students, and professionals with interest in heritage, conservation and preservation, history and art history, archaeology, anthropology, philosophy, and law.
1. A path well worn? Approaches for the old problem of heritage destruction
José Antonio González Zarandona, Emma Cunliffe, and Melathi Saldin
Part 1 Understanding Destruction
2. Heritage Destruction in Conflict
Claire Smith
3. Talking about Heritage Destruction in Market Countries
Erin L. Thompson
4. Destruction of Cultural Heritage in Peacetime and International Law
Lucas Lixinski
5. Development of the Law of Armed Conflict as Applied to Cultural Heritage
Patty Gerstenblith
6. Heritage Destruction and Human Rights
Federico Lenzerini
7. Heritage Destruction and Genocide: Legal Resistance, Conceptual Resiliency
Elisa Novic
8. Methods, Motivations, and Actors: A Risk-based Approach to Heritage Destruction and Protection
Emma Cunliffe
Part 2 Interpretations of Destruction
9. Heritage Destruction, Natural Disasters, and the Environment: Geological Disasters
Tom Dawson
10. Heritage Destruction, Natural Disasters, and the Environment: Atmospheric Disasters
Tom Dawson
11. Flooded Heritage: The Impact of Dams on Archaeological Sites
Nicolò Marchetti and Federico Zaina
12. On Destruction in Art and Film
Stacy Boldrick
13. Between Heritage and the Readymade—the Imminent Aesthetic of Ai Weiwei
José Antonio González Zarandona
14. Heritage Predation and the Pursuit of Politics
Mehiyar Kathem
15. Post-conflict Recovery Challenges: Affect and Heritage in Post-conflict Cyprus and Italy
Olga Demetriou and Elena Miltiadis
16. Media Narratives, Heritage Destruction, and Universal Heritage: A Case Study of Palmyra
Christopher W. Jones
17. Collateral Damage: The Negative Side Effects of Protecting Cultural Heritage in Conflict Related Situations
Frederik Rosén
18. Turning Destruction into an Opportunity: Understanding the Construction of Timbuktu’s ‘success story’ by UNESCO
Mathilde Leloup
19. Heritage Destruction from a Humanitarian Perspective
Jennifer Price-Jones
Part 3 Expressions of Destruction
20. Cultural Property Destruction and Damage in Two World Wars
Nigel Pollard
21. Heritage Destruction and its Impact in Scandinavia and the Baltic Region during the Second World War
Mattias Legnér
22. Case Study: The Wars of Yugoslav Succession
Helen Walasek
23. Cambodia: Gods Threatened by the Art Market and Warfare
Angela S. Chiu, Helena M. Arose, and Ben B. Evans
24. Destruction of Cultural Heritage in Times of Conflict: The Case of Syria
Nour Munawar
25. Iraq: Creative Destruction and Cultural Heritage in the Warscape
Zainab Bahrani
26. Iraqi and Syrian Responses to Heritage Destruction under the Islamic State: Genocide, Displacement, Reconstruction, and Return
Benjamin Isakhan and James Barry
27. Heritage Destruction in the Caucasus with a Specific Focus on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict
Ali Mozaffari and James Barry
28. Weaponised Heritage: Urbicide by Construction and Destruction in Nablus, Palestine
Nurhan Abujidi
29. What is Happening to Egyptian Heritage? The Case of Privately-owned Buildings
Mohamed Kenawi
30. Destruction, Development, and Heritage in Melbourne: SX Towers, Southern Cross Hotel, Eastern Market
James Lesh and David Nichols
31. Case Study: The destruction of Australian Aboriginal Heritage and its Implications for Indigenous Peoples Globally
Jillian Huntley and Lynley A. Wallis
32. Destruction of Heritage in Latin America
María Isabel Hernández Llosas
Part 4 Transformations
33. Reconsidering Heritage Destruction and Sustainable Development in a Long-Term Perspective
Cornelius Holtorf and Troels Myrup Kristensen
Biography
José Antonio González Zarandona holds a PhD in Art History, Archaeology and Heritage Studies from the University of Melbourne. He has held fellowships from the British Academy and Columbia University. His latest book is Murujuga: Rock Art, Heritage and Landscape Iconoclasm (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020). Antonio researches the intersections between heritage, art, and media. He has published widely on heritage destruction and iconoclasm in Australia, Iraq, Syria, Myanmar, Mexico, videogames, and Google.
Emma Cunliffe holds a PhD in Archaeology from Durham University, where she studied site damage in Syria. She is a Senior Research Associate in the UNESCO Chair in Cultural Property Protection and Peace at Newcastle University (UK), most recently co-editing Safeguarding Cultural Property in the 1954 Hague Convention. All Possible Steps? (Boydell Press, 2022). She is also part of the Secretariat for Blue Shield International, an NGO dedicated to heritage protection in conflict and disaster and the Secretary for the UK National Committee. She teaches cultural property protection for students, heritage professionals, and armed forces, and provides expertise on military exercises.
Melathi Saldin is a Lecturer in Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies at Deakin University, Australia. She has a PhD in Heritage Studies (Deakin University), a BA (Hons), and an MPhil in Archaeology (University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka). Melathi’s research looks at the politicisation of heritage and archaeology across Asia and the potential of heritage for resilience building in communities recovering from war and other forms of social upheaval. She is Co-Chair of the Sri Lanka ICOMOS National Scientific Committee on Intangible Cultural Heritage.
