Managing,Valuing, and Protecting Heritage Resources in the Twenty-First Century: Peatland Archaeology,the Ecosystem Services Framework,and the Kyoto Protocol

Abstract

This paper argues that the development of the Ecosystem Services framework, which has recently emerged as an internationally recognized framework for valuing ‘the ‘natural capital’ of ecosystems, presents a number of opportunities for heritage management and the archaeological record, arguing that the inclusion of archaeological and palaeoenvironmental ‘value’ within this framework presents an opportunity to incorporate heritage alongside a range of other critical ‘services’. It presents a short case study focusing on the problems facing the preservation of peatland archaeological sites and deposits in situ alongside developments within peatland conservation and restoration initiatives partly driven by the ability of healthy, functioning peatlands to sequester carbon and hence mitigate climate change. It is argued that this drive towards peatland re-wetting may bring both positive benefits and opportunities for heritage management but also presents a number of practical issues, which now require active engagement from the archaeological community.     

Assessing Umm el-Jimal’s Potential for Heritage Tourism

The quality of Jordan’s archaeological heritage resource for tourism is widely acknowledged, but heritage authorities have hardly begun to explore and develop their tourism potential. Nonetheless, the tourism industry in Jordan is a leading activity for the economy countrywide. Jordan’s tourism and heritage management have undergone quiet and basic improvement in recent years. This paper seeks to assess the heritage tourism potential of the archaeological site of Umm el-Jimal. It addresses the question of what potentials and values the site possesses, and what obstacles heritage and tourism management need to tackle to enable its development. To achieve this, current heritage practice in the management of the archaeological site of Umm el-Jimal is investigated. The methodology employed by the researchers comprised an assortment of research techniques including meetings, consultations, interviews, surveys, observation, alongside a literature review on various related topics and heritage management studies. The analysis of the study revealed that Umm el-Jimal has substantial heritage tourism potential and diversified values that have not yet been utilized due to the presence of a variety of hindering factors. Primarily, these are lack of tourist facilities, a backlog of heritage conservation and insufficient methods of interpretation and presentation. Combined, these factors hold back heritage tourism development of the site. Finally, it is recommended that the collaboration between the different interested parties at both public and private levels with the diverse stakeholders such as local people, private sector is imperative to make use of the heritage tourism potential of the site and alleviate the obstacles to successful development.     

Presenting the San Hunter-Gatherer Past to the Public: A View from the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Park,South Africa

Abstract

The uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Park (UDP) was declared a World Heritage Site in 2000 on the basis of its magnificent scenery, biodiversity, and archaeological richness, comprising a rich corpus of rock paintings and occupation deposits relating to the San hunter-gatherers. The desire to encourage heritage tourism to the UDP following the declaration, along with the wish to present a more positive picture of the San hunter-gatherers, led to the development of the Kamberg (in 2002) and Didima Rock Art Centres (in 2003). These centres, together with the Main Caves visitor attraction, which had been redeveloped in 1998, distinguish the UDP as the premier region in South Africa for the interpretation of the San past. Cognizant of the critical role that public interpretation plays in the management of archaeological resources, this paper investigates which aspects of the archaeological record have been stressed and which have been overlooked, the relationship between the interpretations and the findings of UDP archaeological research since the 1970s, and whether these findings enhance the significance and value of the resources and thereby promote their management. It is shown that the overall interpretive emphasis is on rock art and that information derived from Later Stone Age hunter-gatherer excavations since the 1970s have been neglected. Furthermore, it is revealed that the display of Early and Middle Stone Age material at Didima is inconsistent with regional archaeological findings and that there is a neglect of local archaeological remains. It is concluded that the development of any further attractions should be based on an interpretive plan which considers the interpretive requirements of the region as a whole.     

Heritage and gastronomy: The pursuits of the ‘new tourist’

Abstract

The main thrust of this text is to acknowledge the relationship between gastronomy and heritage as a key motivator for travel. Gastronomy, as a central part of culture, and its influence on other aspects of culture has received scant recognition from the academic world generated by tourism. Gastronomy, heritage and tourism are old friends; the relationship between them is mutually parasitic. Gastronomy's role as a cultural force in developing and sustaining heritage tourism is addressed, as is its increasing role as a catalyst in enhancing the quality of the tourist experience. Today's consumers’ search for an individual lifestyle is changing tourism and the ‘new tourist’ is using the holiday for acquiring insight into other cultures. Recent research and current market trends are examined to reveal the increasing significance of gastronomy to holiday choice. It is argued that gastronomy brings culture and cultures together. Place and setting enhance the food experience and arguably vice‐versa. Heritage and gastronomy combined make for an excellent marriage of tourist resources. The text argues that this combination is both used and viewed by the tourist. As such the tourist becomes engaged in cultural heritage to a deeper level.     

As the Sand Settles: Education and Archaeological Tourism on Underwater Cultural Heritage

Underwater cultural heritage sites draw thousands of diving tourists lured by the excitement of shipwrecks and the beauty of the marine environment. Through scientific research and interpretation, archaeologists have the opportunity to educate these visitors about the history of the sites and, perhaps more importantly, about the need for preservation. Effective interpretation leads to appreciation of underwater cultural heritage sites as links to our past, rather than simply as mines of ‘treasure’ to be salvaged for personal gain or sites of interest to be consumed by tourists. This paper describes a selection of interpreted maritime sites from the continental US (with specific reference to Florida), the Caribbean, and the Pacific to show how archaeological tourism, specifically shipwreck preserves and heritage trails, can begin to change mindsets, engage emotions, and inform visitors. It also discusses ways in which we can improve upon assessment, monitoring, and long-term preservation strategies after the trails are created and the sand has settled.     

Affective spaces,sensuous engagements: in quest of a synaesthetic approach to ‘dark memorials’

Although relatively recent, the concepts of ‘dark tourism’, ‘difficult heritage tourism’ and ‘Holocaust tourism’ have already been approached from historical, cultural, sociological, anthropological and managerial perspectives. The article offers a philosophical inquiry of ‘dark attractions’, inspired by Deleuze and Guattari’s work on aesthetics, with an aim of divorcing the term ‘dark tourism’ from its typically negative valance. It makes use of a synaesthetic understanding of experience and relies on an enlarged idea of perception conceptualised as a dynamic continuity between bodily/affective and intellectual cognitive faculties that are activated in the vibrant interaction with the architectural landscape of the ‘dark site’. The emphasis on immediate perception necessarily implies formulation of a concept of ‘affective aesthetics’ which refers to bodily process, a vital movement that triggers the subject’s passionate becoming-other, where ‘becoming’ stands for an intensive flow of affective (micro)perceptions. Such an approach sheds a different light on ‘Holocaust tourism’ and the ‘pleasures’ associated therewith, especially because it provides an explanation to a situation (common at many Holocaust memorials) when visitors are pleased, or positively affected, with representation/image/expression of sadness/atrocity. The synaesthetic operations of ‘dark attractions’ will be briefly illustrated with an example of the Holocaust memory site in Be??ec, Poland.     

Disciplining Memory: Heritage Tourism and the Temporalisation of the Built Environment in Rural France

This article presents an ethnographic case study of the relationship between the development of heritage tourism, and the role of material culture in memory practices in rural Southern France. Drawing on anthropological fieldwork in the village of Monadières, it provides an analysis of how artefacts in the locality's built environment have been renovated and revalued in a climate of historical change. This was the consequence of varied acts of commemoration by both independent individuals and the local council in which heritage tourism development was not necessarily the end‐goal. Nevertheless, these acts were implicated in the council's ‘disciplinary programme’ to produce a local infrastructure for heritage tourism. The article therefore explores how this industry co‐habits with and colonises modern memory practices at a micro‐level. To this end it adapts analytical tools from the anthropology of time, which enable an integrative analysis of these differing ‘temporalisations’ of the past.     

Caught between nationalism and internationalism: replicating histories of Antarctica in Hobart

In December 2013, a replica of ‘Mawson’s Hut’ (a historic structure in Antarctica) joined a growing list of polar tourist attractions in the Australian city of Hobart, Tasmania. Initially promoted as the city’s ‘latest tourist hotspot,’ the ‘replica museum’ quickly took its place in Hobart’s newly redeveloped waterfront, reinforcing the city’s identity as an ‘Antarctic Gateway’. The hut forms part of a heritage cluster, an urban assemblage that weaves together the local and national, the past and present, the familiar and remote. In this article, we examine the replica hut in relation to the complex temporal and spatial relations that give it meaning, and to which it gives meaning. Our focus is the hut as a point of convergence between memory, material culture and the histories – and possible futures – of nationalism and internationalism. We argue that the replica hut, as a key site of Hobart’s Antarctic heritage tourism industry, reproduces and prioritises domestic readings of exploration and colonisation over a reading of Antarctic engagement as a transnational endeavour. However, like other ‘gateway city’ heritage sites, it has the potential for aligning with a larger trend in international heritage conservation and heritage diplomacy, that of prioritising narratives of the past that weave together transnational connections and associations.     

From Masada to the Little Bighorn: The role of archaeological site interpretation in the shaping of national myths

Abstract

This paper describes the changing commemoration, political meaning and archaeological presentation of Masada and the Little Bighorn National Battlefield in an attempt to understand the role that each has played in the crystallization of national consciousness. In examining official efforts to preserve the site of ‘Custer's Last Stand’ – from its establishment as a US military cemetery in the late nineteenth century through recent archaeological exploration by the National Park Service – the paper analyses the theme of heroic death of ‘the few against the many’ as symbolic legitimation of frontier conquest. In tracing the history of the commemoration of Masada – from its initial identification by Edward Robinson in 1838, through its adoption as a Zionist symbol in the 1930s, to the large-scale excavations of the 1960s – the paper discusses archaeological attempts to verify Josephus' account of the mass suicide of the Jewish rebels and the site's use as a symbolic legitimation of territorial sovereignty. Finally, changes in the ‘official’ interpretations of the two sites (and emergence of dissenting viewpoints) are placed in political and intellectual context. This cross-cultural comparison is the basis for general observations on the role of archaeology, patriotic mythology and tourism in the development of modern nation states.     

Representation as work in ‘America's most historic city’

This paper examines how the practices of heritage tourism reproduce identities in and of Fredericksburg, Virginia. In particular, we focus on the everyday practices of tourism workers who are essential in the representation and reproduction of this heritage space. In so doing, we want to move away from research in geography that theorizes representation and embodiment as distinct realms of experience and inquiry. Instead, we argue that representation is work and within this very material process, city workers weave memory with history as they guide visitors through ‘America’s Most Historic City'. Through an examination of three of Fredericksburg's tourism work environments we show how representations succeed in reproducing heritage tourism spaces precisely because representation is work.     

Commemorative events at destination memorials – a dark (heritage) tourism context

In the past, sites and events related to war and atrocities were viewed in the wider context of heritage tourism. The term ‘dark’ was added with the aim of recognising heritage sites closely related to death and suffering. Given that commemorative events as part of dark heritage are not prevalent in heritage and tourism literature, there is a need to understand the behaviour of visitors involved in visiting these sites or attending this type of event, which presents a special challenge. Public commemorations, especially those that mark particularly disturbing occurrences, such as ‘The Great School Hour’ – an event which is presented in the artistic form of a ‘school class’ – are unique form of tourist activity that has not been thoroughly investigated previously. Thus, the aim of the study is to explore the influence of the main motivators on revisit intention and willingness to recommend for those who attended the commemorative event ‘The Great School Hour’ in Kragujevac, Serbia, with a particular focus on younger people. The results suggest that learning, emotional response and uniqueness have a significant positive effect on revisit intention, while emotional response and uniqueness have a significant positive effect on willingness to recommend.     

The long shadow of apartheid: a critical assessment of heritage transformation in South Africa 25 years on

ABSTRACT

Based on insights gained from two decades of research on South African heritage and monuments, this paper critically reflects on the status quo of heritage transformation in South Africa 25 years after the end of apartheid. It assesses new directions in national heritage policy and government strategy in relation to recent developments around post-apartheid heritage and the popular demand for a removal of ‘colonial statues’, which gained impetus from the #Rhodes Must Fall campaign. It is argued that the government’s approach to heritage transformation and most notably its treatment of white minority heritage, dominated by the ‘juxtaposition model’, has had limited success. The paper illustrates how heritage and the memory of the past are entangled with socio-political and economic realities in the present, which in turn is overshadowed by the long-term effects of apartheid and impacted by global or transnational considerations, such as foreign investment and tourism.     

Conceptualising the subjective authenticity of intangible cultural heritage

Authenticity is a significant concept in the heritage field. However, the connotations of authenticity and its relevance to Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) need further consideration. This paper ascertains the function of authenticity in the heritage field and reconceptualises authenticity so as to relate it to ICH. The subjectivities of ICH practitioners, as well as their subjective perspectives and experiences are privileged in this research, in line with the general aims of Critical Heritage Studies. Drawing on the idea of ‘existential authenticity’, which was developed in tourism studies, this paper presents a concept of ‘subjective authenticity’ with which to describe the ability of ICH practitioners to convey the dynamic, subjective and developing ICH values in both intrapersonal and interpersonal embodiments. Using case studies of ICH from Lijiang, China, the idea of subjective authenticity is evidenced and illustrated. Meanwhile, the materialist or ‘objective’ authenticity that exists in the Chinese Authorised Heritage Discourse is critiqued as inappropriate. Theoretically, this paper investigates people’s subjectivities and experiences in the process of ICH value-making, as well as identity-making. The results contribute not only to the establishment of an inclusive concept of authenticity in heritage studies, but also to the theorisation of existential authenticity in tourism studies.     

Heritage builds communities: The application of heritage resources to the problems of social exclusion

Abstract

The concept of ‘social exclusion’ has become central to the UK government's political philosophy. The need to combat the causes and deal with the symptoms of ‘social exclusion’ has become vital to many policy initiatives. The use of heritage resources to help deal with social problems has been practised since the early years of the 19th century and can provide a community with a focus, identity and pride as well as making a contribution to regional economies. This paper traces the use of heritage resources in community regeneration programmes and demonstrates their lack of objectives and unplanned nature. A holistic multi‐agency approach is advocated to tackle social exclusion, with heritage playing a central role. Finally, the paper calls for research which will clarify the contribution that heritage resources can make and identify a framework within which heritage can realise its potential to build communities.     

Floating culture: the unrecorded antiquities of England and Wales

In England and Wales there exists a corpus of unprovenanced and unrecorded antiquities; a corpus adrift from archaeological context and now ebbing and flowing across the antiquities market and which could be described as ‘floating culture’. This corpus includes illicit antiquities and also antiquities found legitimately but not recorded and subsequently sold with or without the landowner’s knowledge. The definition of floating culture as ‘traces of the human past not fixed on one position, place or level’ presents a way of conceptualising what is, in essence, a transnational issue. This paper explores floating culture and suggests that the impact of non-reporting of antiquities remains a significant ethical and legal challenge both for heritage protection policy and the antiquities market in the U.K. and beyond. Attention is given to the Code of Practice for Responsible Metal Detecting in England and Wales, and to the landowner-finder search agreement as potential ways of mitigating the flow of unrecorded antiquities of uncertain legal status. While neither document is enforceable, both have potential to improve the protection of the archaeological record. Many of the themes conceptualised by ‘floating culture’ are relevant to the wider discussion on heritage protection and the global trade in illicit antiquities.     

Take the Right Decision Everybody

Abstract

The archaeological deposits in medieval towns are among the most important and distinctive heritage monuments in Norway. At the same time they are among the more challenging phenomena confronting heritage management authorities, municipal planners, and property owners/developers alike, especially in relation to building and infrastructure projects. The modern settlement has developed on top of medieval and younger deposits which means that not only are they an irreplaceable depository of historical information, but they also form a significant part of the modern town’s physical foundation.

Since 2002 the Directorate for Cultural Heritage in Norway (Riksantikvaren) has been funding systematic monitoring of archaeological deposits of the World Heritage Site Bryggen in Bergen. The monitoring programme consists of several approaches: archaeological assessment of the deposits state of preservation, biochemical investigation of preservation conditions within the deposits, hydrogeological mapping of the water table, water flow, and other given parameters.

Continuous systematic monitoring by using testable, replicable methods and measures, data, and results acquire increased quality and validity. These in turn provide the cultural heritage management with a toolbox for making correct decisions and thereby allow the government’s preservation targets to be attained. But, most important, it guarantees the preservation of the ‘underground archives’ and at the same time allows the urban centres to develop.

This paper presents the knowledge developed through monitoring the Bryggen site as a basis for an official Norwegian standard covering archaeological, biochemical, and hydrogeological deposit investigations.     

Malta: Reclaiming the Naval Heritage?

This paper responds to three current concerns: military geographies, naval heritage in waterfront revitalisation and heritage tourism with particular reference to small‐island states. Malta is of cardinal interest in all these respects. Formerly the premier overseas naval base of the British Empire, it possesses abundant military heritage resources which derive from a culturally composite historical depth as well as from a territory‐wide geographical breadth. Paradoxically, the reclamation of its pre‐eminent naval heritage has been slow by the standards of peers elsewhere, notably Bermuda. The paper examines the reasons for this, what naval heritage reclamation has been undertaken, what is proposed, why this matters to Malta’s tourism economy and what wider significance this naval heritage has for the cultural/economic landscape. Malta is particularly significant in that it both substantially epitomises evolving postcolonial trajectories and uniquely reflects a pan‐European historical identity, befitting its recent accession to the EU.     

Distancing and Rapproching: Local Communities and Monuments in the Aegean Sea — A Case Study from the Island of Naxos

Abstract

This paper argues that the distancing of the Greek public from its archaeological heritage and the omnipresence of superficial, touristic narratives is an issue not efficiently addressed by the relevant dialectics of cultural heritage management. In order to understand the roots and dynamics of this phenomenon, its theoretical and practical manifestations are approached, mainly in the context of the communities of the Aegean. Within this context and drawing from the author’s experience of working for the Greek non-profit organization of MONUMENTA on the island of Naxos, this paper examines the aims and methodologies of the programme ‘Local Communities and Monuments’; a public outreach programme with objectives to examine the bonds between local communities and the cultural heritage that surrounds them and raise awareness.     

Value systems and the archaeological resource

The paper deals with the various values held by people for the heritage, specifically the archaeological heritage. Attention is directed away from economic values towards sociological interpretations – sets of assumptions, beliefs and knowledge‐sets which may be termed ‘value systems’. Such value systems underpin and inform individual and collective attitudes and, by implication, approaches to the physical and experiential environment. After examining the nature of value systems and gradients, the paper identifies three main value gradients with reference to the archaeological resource. These may be characterised as: use value, based on present requirements, option value, based on future possibilities, and existence value, which acknowledges value ‘because it is there’.