This volume brings together 18 papers presented at the 2017 CIfA Conference in Newcastle Upon Tyne in sessions on soft power, conflict and global archaeology. The editors are to be congratulated in assembling a handsome and wide-ranging volume in such a short time. It provides a series of case studies from around the world where archaeologists have worked in difficult circumstances.
Michael Dawson’s introduction explains the origin of the book and provides a valuable theoretical overview of the role of professional in dealing with the practical and ethical challenges of conflicts, disasters and climate change, drawing out the links between the papers. He positions CIfA, with its regulatory role, as part of the Authorised Heritage Discourse. Peter Hinton sets out CIfA’s potential role as providing an internationally applicable model of professional practice, and Peter Stone covers the development and adoption of a model of Cultural Property Protection in armed conflicts.
The remainder of the papers are reports on individual projects, including the EAMENA project which is seeking to develop a database for the rapid identification of heritage sites in areas including Syria, using satellite imagery as a starting point.
Running throughout the book are comments implying that states who have designated their most important sites have been unable to address disaster response and have left their undesignated heritage undervalued and unprotected.
The UNESCO World Heritage List also comes up several times, most controversially in the content of Dresden, Germany, which was removed from the list after the council approved the construction of the new Waldschlösschen road bridge across the River Elba. Buschmann discusses the concept of heritage in the context of the wholesale destruction of 1945 and the subsequent mixture of new building, pastiche and authentic restoration which has recreated the character if not the actuality of its old form; she implies that the UNESCO decision was poorly thought through.
McQuillan, writing on Northern Ireland and the archaeology of the Troubles, notes that heritage is inherently political, and argues that some monuments from the conflict should be retained to represent it. In the circumstances it is hard to see what Authorised Heritage Discourse would prove universally acceptable.
The ethical approach to conservation, restoration and rebuilding is touched on by several authors; in most cases the political need to reproduce an iconic lost monument seems to take precedence over other considerations, a consequence of the tourism value or message they provide. Such pressure is perhaps inevitable once heritage‘ utility as an instrument of power is recognised; the UK’s use of heritage projects as Soft Power is one hopes more benign.
The papers are well-written and illustrated with fine colour photographs. As a book to dip into it is very worthwhile.
I noted a reference to ‘Nissan huts’ that had slipped past the editors: will Peter Nissen ever get his due?