Destruction of Heritage

The idea that there exists a certain type of heritage, known as ‘’World Heritage’’, possessing a symbolic value, not only for a national or local group but for the whole humanity and, thus, its protection and preservation is a worldwide obligation, is a quite recent concept that made its appearance in the 20th century. A major landmark towards the protection of World Heritage was UNESCO’s 1972 Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. However, sometimes, there exist conflicting values that can lead to the destruction (and even the elimination), instead of the preservation of material culture. That is exactly what happened in 2001, when the Taliban regime of Afghanistan destroyed the famous Buddhas of Bamiyan, two giant statues of the fifth century, situated in the Hindu Kush mountains, that were considered to be the largest Buddha statues in the world. Their destruction came as a huge shock, not only for the local people of Afghanistan, but for the entire global community.

Henry Holiday to Lewis Carroll's "The Hunting of the Snark" (1876, final chapter The Vanishing) and "The Image Breakers" (1566?) by Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder. In my viaw, both images are related to violence: Destruction of heretics and iconoclastic destruction of religious symbols.

2015-04-18: Pictorial quotes of shapes from the source image already can be seen in Holiday's drawing for the illustration to chapter 8 in Carroll's Snark.

2015-04-19: Only lay-out changes.

The paper first introduces the cosmic symbolism of Shiva and his iconic representation “Linga”. This is followed with historical description of the Vishvanatha Shiva (Vishveshvara), as to how over time since its first reference in the 9th century BCE till date the temple has face destructions, demolition by the bigoted Muslim invaders and the Muslim rulers. The first original site of Vishveshvara is an issue of historical investigation. According to archaeological sources, the first image of Avimukteshvara (later called Devadeva or Vishveshvara/ Vishvanatha) depicted in a seal dated to the ca 9th--10th century BCE, was found in the north-eastern part of the city, i.e., Rajghat. However, the first trace of the temple was recorded in the early CE 6th century, during the reign of Vainya Gupta. The Vishvanatha temple again came to light in the 10th century (the 2nd site, at present Bibi Razia Mosque) that continued till CE 1194. During her reign Bibi Razia (1236-1240) had built a mosque on the deserted site of Vishvanatha temple, which had been earlier demolished by Aibak in ca 1194. By the end of 13th century, the Vishveshvara temple was built in the compound of Avimukteshvara, and continued till the next destruction under the control of Sharqi kings of Jaunpur (1436-1458). In 1490 Sikandar Lodi completely demolished it, and the prominence of Avimukteshvara was lost. Only after a gap of about ninety years, in ca 1585-90 with the support of Todar Mala (Raghunath Pandit), one of the senior courtiers of Akbar, and under patronage of king Man Singh of Jaipur, the great scholar and writer Narayana Bhatta (1514-1595) had re-built it again, most likely on the structural plan of the previous temple of the 13th century. In 1669, even this temple was demolished by the order of the bigot Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.
Only a century later on 25th August 1777 by the patronage of Queen Ahilyabai Holkar (1725-1795) of Indore, the present temple of Vishvanatha was completed; and this temple typifies the revivalist idiom that spread across north India during the course of the 18th century. By the 19th century the whole area surrounding the Vishvanatha temple became sanctuary of gods and godlings attached to Lord Shiva and his family. On the 8th March 2019, projected as ‘dream project’ of the prime minister Narendra Modi under Smart City and Heritage-Making programme, started and already 285 houses and shops were razed to the ground, of course most of them rehabilitated. On the vacant land a huge complex of 50,000 sq metres Vishvanatha Dham ‘Tirtha Kshetra’ Corridor is developed, and is inaugurated by the Hon’ble PM on 13 December 2021.
Keywords: Vishvanatha, Shiva, Linga, Muslim invaders, Ahilyabai, Aurangzeb, archetypal plan.

The last few decades have witnessed the emergence of an unprecedented interest in the archaeology of the contemporary past. Here, building on that scholarship, I present a diachronic analysis of a fire that partially destroyed a late nineteenth- or early twentieth-century house in the city of Arica, Chile. Combining historical, archaeological, and ethnographic methods, I produce the frame for a biographic storytelling that lets the house tell about its life and take center stage in the fabrication of notions like morality and belonging, attesting to the production of social space. I contend that the house and its materiality have historically played a decisive role in the production of the mechanisms of dispossession and the displacement of its inhabitants through a negative portrayal. I conclude with some thoughts about how archaeology's privileged viewpoint of contextual historical scrutiny provides nuanced insights about the repercussions of current phenomena of gentrification and heritage making.

On 2 August 2019, the eve of the 5th anniversary of the attacks on Sinjar by the Islamic State (IS), RASHID International, Yazda and the Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa Project (EAMENA) released the results of their investigation into cultural heritage destruction during the genocide against the Yazidis, in a report entitled ‘Destroying the Soul of the Yazidis: Cultural Heritage Destruction during the Islamic State’s Genocide against the Yazidis’.
Out of the total of 68 sites reported destroyed we consider 16 sites in the Bahzani/Bashiqa area and 8 in the Sinjar area to which access was possible and which could be documented.
Discussions of the genocide committed against the Yazidi people by IS from 2014 onwards have generally focused on murder, slavery and sexual exploitation. In this report we analyze the destruction of Yazidi tangible and intangible cultural heritage as a significant facet of the Islamic State’s policy of ethnic cleansing and genocide. Evidence of destruction is collected and presented in context with other criminal acts.

Il contributo nasce dalla convinzione che, all’interno di un incontro sull’architettura e il restauro, sia importante inserire un momento di riflessione e discussione su un tema oggi cogente: quello della tutela e della salvaguardia del patrimonio culturale e architettonico, cosiddetto ‘a rischio’. Anche se la comunita internazionale sembra avere ormai raggiunto piena consapevolezza sul fatto che qualsiasi bene culturale sia proprieta di tutta l’umanità e che, in quanto tale, debba essere necessariamente conservato, ci si trova spesso difronte ad alcune categorie di ‘ricchezze’, mobili o immobili, in gravi condizioni d’isolamento, fatiscenza, degrado, dovute al disinteresse locale, all’indigenza economica e sociale di alcuni Paesi oltre che all’impossibilita, e forse alla noncuranza, degli organismi internazionali a intervenire in determinati contesti geografici, culturali e confessionali. Protagonisti che, invece, dovrebbero lavorare per un obiettivo comune e sostenere, attraverso iniziative legislative, politiche di tutela, processi di valorizzazione e gestione, la totale protezione del patrimonio culturale e del ‘valore’ dei luoghi. Assistiamo a situazioni di abbandoni per negligenza, di traffici illeciti, di disastrosi eventi naturali (terremoti, inondazioni ecc.) ma anche, e questo emerge dalle ultime cronache internazionali, di conflittualità religiose che distruggono qualsiasi testimonianza tangibile non riferibile alla loro cultura. Il testo intende, quindi, focalizzare l’attenzione, attraverso l’esperienza diretta, sulle problematiche che determinano tali eventi, oltre che stimolare proposte di tutela e restauro di tale patrimonio. Una “internazionalizzazione” del patrimonio culturale mondiale dovrebbe, dunque, essere messa in atto attraverso metodi e strumenti comuni, sulla cooperazione e solidarietà tra Pesi interessati e organi addetti alla tutela internazionale.

With contributions by Richard Carlton, Amra Hadžimuhamedović, Valery Perry and Tina Wik.

The massive intentional destruction of cultural heritage during the 1992–1995 Bosnian War targeting a historically diverse identity provoked global condemnation and became a seminal marker in the discourse on cultural heritage. It prompted an urgent reassessment of how cultural property could be protected in times of conflict and led to a more definitive recognition in international humanitarian law that destruction of a people’s cultural heritage was an aspect of genocide. Yet surprisingly little has been published on the subject.

This wide-ranging book provides the first comprehensive overview and critical analysis of the destruction of Bosnia-Herzegovina’s cultural heritage and its far-reaching impact. Scrutinizing the responses of external actors (including IGOs like UNESCO and the Council of Europe, national governments and NGOs) to the destruction as it took place and after, it looks also at the role restoration of cultural heritage played in postwar refugee return.

The volume interrogates what intervention the international community took to protect Bosnia’s heritage during the war and where assistance to restore was directed after the conflict ended, analyzing how external agendas impinged on heritage reconstruction to the detriment of the broader peace process. It examines issues like the treatment of war crimes involving cultural property in the prosecutions of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and implementation of Annex 8 of the Dayton Peace Agreement, a unique attempt to address the devastation to Bosnia’s cultural heritage.

With its numerous case studies and plentiful illustrations, this important volume brings together practitioners with long-term experience of working in the field of cultural heritage in Bosnia-Herzegovina, considering questions which have moved to the foreground with the inclusion of cultural heritage preservation as a vital element of post-conflict and development aid and in discussions of the right to culture in human rights discourse.

Issues discussed include: overview and analysis of the destruction, including case studies; international responses to the destruction; Annex 8 of the Dayton Peace Agreement and the Commission to Preserve National Monuments of Bosnia-Herzegovina; documenting the destruction; fieldwork assessing cultural heritage destruction; post-war responses (local and international) in respect of restoration including: lack of restoration,  politicization of restoration, restoration as justice and a human right, mobilization of the dispossessed, mobilization of the international community; the destruction of cultural heritage during the Bosnian conflict as a war crime and the role it played in human rights discourse, looking at cases of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the Human Rights Chamber for Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Contents:

Helen Walasek: Introduction
Helen Walasek: 'Destruction of the Cultural Heritage in Bosnia-Herzegovina: An Overview'
Richard Carlton & Helen Walasek: 'Documenting the Destruction'
Valery Perry: 'Cultural Heritage Protection in post-Conflict Bosnia-Herzegovina: Annex 8 of the Dayton Peace Agreement'
Richard Carlton & Helen Walasek: 'Topography of Destruction: post-Conflict Fieldwork Assessing the Cultural Heritage in Bosnia-Herzegovina'
Helen Walasek: 'Domains of Restoration: Actors and Agendas in post-Conflict Bosnia-Herzegovina'
Amra Hadžimuhamedović: 'The Built Heritage in the Post-War Reconstruction of Stolac'
Tina Wik: 'Restoring War-damaged Built Cultural heritage in Bosnia-Herzegovina: An International Perspective'
Helen Walasek: 'Cultural Heritage, War Crimes and Human Rights'
Helen Walasek: 'A Brief Introduction to the Cultural Heritage of Bosnia-Herzegovina'

With 126 illustrations, map, glossary and bibliography.

Pre-publication Reviews:

‘As culture is increasingly targeted in conflicts, Walasek reminds us of an episode from which vital lessons should have been drawn. Her forensic analysis of the failure of the international community to understand whose heritage was destroyed during the Bosnian conflict and why, is essential for informing future efforts to preserve both heritage and human rights.’
      Robert Bevan, author of The Destruction of Memory: Architecture at War

'Based on impressive expertise and prodigious research, this ground-breaking study of cultural destruction and reconstruction in Bosnia-Hercegovina represents a tour de force. Helen Walasek and her collaborators have produced a book that no serious student of the Bosnian war and its aftermath should be without.'
      Marko Attila Hoare, Kingston University, UK, author of 'How Bosnia Armed' and 'The Bosnian Muslims in the Second World War'

'Walasek's unique collaboration with other leading experts in cultural heritage uses a plethora of Bosnian case studies to forge an extensive, superbly detailed account of the kaleidoscopic effects of cultural destruction. This account pulls no punches politically but systematically stresses the critical role of cultural heritage in sustaining pluralism and diversity, its deep-rooted connection to justice and human rights in peace building contexts.'
      Gregory Kent, University of Roehampton, UK, author of 'Framing War and Genocide: British policy and media reaction to the war in Bosnia'

‘The concept of cultural genocide is often warily received, even now, but this tremendous and unforgettable book will establish its validity forever in the public mind. This is a detailed and compellingly readable account of the fearsome cultural destruction of the Bosnian war, as communities tried not only to expel and exterminate their rivals but to destroy the physical evidence that they had ever existed. But Helen Walasek and her colleagues also indict the unforgiveable reluctance of the international community to recognise what was happening, intervene or name the guilty.’
      Neal Ascherson, Institute of Archaeology, University College London, UK, author of 'Black Sea' and 'The Struggles for Poland'

Since the invasion of Iraq by coalition forces in 2003, the Iraqi people have not only suffered a devastating death toll and witnessed the erosion of every aspect of their civil infrastructure, they have also endured an extraordinary period of cultural and historical destruction. This began during the battle phase of the war, which saw untold degrees of “collateral damage” done to sensitive historic and cultural sites across the nation. This was followed, in the very earliest days of the now more than seven year occupation, by a period of looting and arson in which many cultural and historical sites were destroyed. Key institutions such as the Iraq National Museum (INM) and the Iraq National Library and Archive (INLA) were targeted, as well as other sites like the Bayt Al-Hikma and the Al-Awfaq libraries, Iraq’s Museum of Modern Art, an Abbasid-era palace, an Ottoman-era mosque and the Hashemite Parliament House. In addition, many Iraqi civilians and foreigners have become involved in highly co-ordinated black market operations that systematically loot sensitive archaeological sites across Iraq and smuggle the antiquities out of the country and on to the highly lucrative international black market. The ongoing hostility between varying factions within Iraq has also had ruinous consequences for Iraq’s cultural heritage with artefacts, symbols and monuments so often caught in the crossfire or deliberately targeted by opposing ethno-religious sectarian groups. None of this tragic tale will come as a surprise to members of TAARII and regular readers of this publication, many of whom are involved in documenting and analysing the ongoing cultural and historical destruction of Iraq. By now a whole host of scholarly studies exists on this topic including the work of leading Iraqi and international scholars, archaeologists, historians, cultural and heritage workers, diplomats, government officials and military officers.  What is curiously absent from the existing literature on the cultural and historical destruction of Iraq, however, is the contemporaneous program to symbolically De-Baathify the nation in which key monuments, state buildings, murals and statues have been decimated or destroyed. Indeed, while the consequences of what might be called the “bureaucratic” or “militaristic” dimensions of Iraq’s De-Baathification have been discussed in much of the literature, the symbolic dimension of De-Baathification and its consequences for national identity and social cohesion has remained an under studied and underappreciated factor.

On 2 August 2019, the eve of the 5th anniversary of the attacks on Sinjar by the Islamic State (IS), RASHID International, Yazda and the Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa Project (EAMENA) released the results of their investigation into cultural heritage destruction during the genocide against the Yazidis, in a report entitled <strong>'Destroying the Soul of the Yazidis: Cultural Heritage Destruction during the Islamic State's Genocide against the Yazidis'</strong>. Out of the total of 68 sites reported destroyed we consider 16 sites in the Bahzani/Bashiqa area and 8 in the Sinjar area to which access was possible and which could be documented. Discussions of the genocide committed against the Yazidi people by IS from 2014 onwards have generally focused on murder, slavery and sexual exploitation. In this report we analyze the destruction of Yazidi tangible and intangible cultural heritage as a significant facet of the Islamic State&#3...

On 2 August 2019, the eve of the 5th anniversary of the attacks on Sinjar by the Islamic State (IS), RASHID International, Yazda and the Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa Project (EAMENA) released the results of their investigation into cultural heritage destruction during the genocide against the Yazidis, in a report entitled <strong>'Destroying the Soul of the Yazidis: Cultural Heritage Destruction during the Islamic State's Genocide against the Yazidis'</strong>. Out of the total of 68 sites reported destroyed we consider 16 sites in the Bahzani/Bashiqa area and 8 in the Sinjar area to which access was possible and which could be documented. Discussions of the genocide committed against the Yazidi people by IS from 2014 onwards have generally focused on murder, slavery and sexual exploitation. In this report we analyze the destruction of Yazidi tangible and intangible cultural heritage as a significant facet of the Islamic State&#3...

This PowerPoint presentation covers the following topics:  the creation of millions of fraudulent genealogical documents in Myanmar (Burma) at the direction and requirement of the government in order to obtain identity documents; the destruction of the Royal Library at Alexandria, Egypt; General Sherman's destruction of courthouses and documents during the Civil War, and the similar destruction of courthouses and records by units of the Confederate States Army; other courthouse fires around the country; the theft of a courthouse in Baldwin County, Alabama; the destruction of much of the genealogy of Ireland by the IRA at the Four Courts building in Dublin; and the greatest genealogical criminal of all time.

The text refers to the relationship between violence and the emergence of contemporary monuments in Poland. This violence will be presented in four areas located at commemo- ration events and monuments’ modes of existence.
The first is to show violence directed against the initiators of the monument, or their de- scendants, who cultivate the memory of the relevant pages of the history of a particular nation (associated with suffering: war, occupation, camps, concentration camps, Katyn, Volyn etc.).
There is an opposite situation in which the monument tells the story of the victory – im- plicitly, the defeat of the enemy and the violence inflicted by him. The easiest way to indicate the presence of such characters is through the example of equestrian statues, de- picting sovereigns and victorious commanders and those returning to the landscape of Polish cities. Among works of art of this kind there are also objects which recall the memory of some ambiguous pages of history or attitudes (i.e. relations between Poles and Jews, monuments of unborn children).
The third field is associated with those features of monuments that cause its formation in a way that it is combined with actions against someone, creating a fait accompli and forced applause. Apart from the propaganda message and association with the category of sym- bolic violence, disputes concerning contemporary monuments also show the relationship between violence and monuments. In the recent years, particularly strong tension has emerged regarding monuments which are to commemorate the airplane crash in Smolensk.
The last aspect concerns the violence faced by the monuments themselves which are dev- astated, destroyed, removed from the pedestals through a lack of ideological acceptance.

On 2 August 2019, the eve of the 5th anniversary of the attacks on Sinjar by the Islamic State (IS), RASHID International, Yazda and the Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa Project (EAMENA) released the results of their investigation into cultural heritage destruction during the genocide against the Yazidis, in a report entitled <strong>'Destroying the Soul of the Yazidis: Cultural Heritage Destruction during the Islamic State's Genocide against the Yazidis'</strong>. Out of the total of 68 sites reported destroyed we consider 16 sites in the Bahzani/Bashiqa area and 8 in the Sinjar area to which access was possible and which could be documented. Discussions of the genocide committed against the Yazidi people by IS from 2014 onwards have generally focused on murder, slavery and sexual exploitation. In this report we analyze the destruction of Yazidi tangible and intangible cultural heritage as a significant facet of the Islamic State&#3...