Book reviews

Abstract

This paper explores the decision-making process for heritage management at the monastic community of Mount Athos, a World Heritage Site in Northern Greece, in relation to the concept of living religious heritage and the pursuit to balance the heritage values of both the experts (heritage professionals) and the non-experts. The function and impact of a specific heritage agency — KEDAK (Centre for the Preservation of Athonite Heritage) — designed to establish the decision-making power of the Athonite monasteries will be critically discussed. A range of interesting compromising solutions and some challenges and problems raised by the function of this agency will serve as the background for examining the extent to which different perceptions on heritage management can coexist, particularly when heritage professionals find themselves on the bottom of a top-down decision-making process.     

The Byzantine wall paintings from the Protaton Church on Mount Athos,Greece: tradition and science

The present work is a study of the wall painting complex in the Protaton Church (1295) on Mount Athos, Greece. These paintings, high in artistic value, are themselves a monument—representative of the Macedonian iconographic style. What follows is historic data set against the results of analytical investigations: the fruit of extensive research aimed at determining precise details about the applied painting techniques for the wall paintings. Hitherto it has been held that what was traditionally defined as “Byzantine fresco” was executed only on wet plaster with limewater as the sole binding medium. Now, however, through the application of instrumental analytical investigations, it is possible to demonstrate that a mixed technique involving both al fresco and al secco was employed. Furthermore, it was determined, on the basis of results from gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC/MS), that egg together with a modest amount of animal glue were the organic binding media used for the Protaton art work. It is certain that the scenes were initially begun on wet plaster. During or even after drying the painting was completed using the aforementioned protein binding media, thanks to which a more resistant cohesion to the painted layers was secured.     

From Byzantine to post-Byzantine art: the painting technique of St Stephen's wall paintings at Meteora,Greece

The old katholikon of St Stephen's monastery at the Meteora (site of the most important complex of monasteries in Greece after Mount Athos) is decorated with wall paintings that date from the beginning of 17th century. In terms of style, the artistic ensemble is altogether characteristic of the period. The painting technique has been examined by means of μRaman and μFTIR spectroscopies, gas chromatography–mass spectroscopy (GC/MS), optical microscopy (OM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM).     

Geo-strategy and the persistence of antiquity: surveying mythical hydrographies in the eastern Mediterranean, 1784–1869

This paper explores late eighteenth-century and nineteenth-century mappings of three strategic sites in the Eastern Mediterranean, each with a notable ancient history: the Straits of the Dardanelles, and the isthmuses of Suez and Mount Athos. Considering mapping as a culturally and historically situated cognitive practice, the paper focuses on the rhetorical use of Classical antiquity (the Persian Wars) in the geopolitical discourse of that period and in the legitimization of great hydraulic projects, like the Suez Canal. At the same time, it also seeks to re-evaluate Mediterranean straits and isthmuses in their geographical specificity, as physical and imaginative ‘gateways’ to the Orient, as ‘connecting points’ and boundaries between the Self and the Other.     

世界遗产申报对居民地方感的影响——以湖南崀山为例

地方感已成为旅游研究的新热点,国内外关于旅游者、旅游地居民的地方感实证研究不断涌现,但关于重大外部事件对居民地方感的影响研究较少.本文以湖南崀山为例,通过设计量表以测量世界遗产申报作为外部事件对社区居民地方感的影响,通过发放问卷和访谈等方式进行实地调研.研究发现,世界遗产申报使居民对崀山有了全新认识,并对地方认同、地方依赖、自然环境感知和社会文化感知等4个方面产生了较大影响.虽然不同利益群体的居民对待申遗和旅游业的态度不同,但总体上世界遗产申报强化了居民的地方感,提高了其对当地旅游发展的期望和支持度.     

Evaluating the governance of structural funds programmes: The case of community economic development in South Yorkshire

Methods for evaluating regional and urban policies have become increasingly sophisticated in recent years. However, this paper argues that the evaluation of Structural Funds programmes has systematically underplayed the effect of governance on both programme design and implementation. This paper uses the role of voluntary and community sector organizations in promoting community economic development initiatives within the European Union's Structural Funds programmes in South Yorkshire as a case study. An argument is made for extending evaluation methods, especially theory-based evaluation, through using multi-level governance as a “theory of change”. A key finding is that to explain how programmes work, evaluators need to consider formal partnership and management arrangements, their traditional focus, but also wider governance structures and the importance of informal policy networks. Such a focus allows for a consideration of issues such as resource mobilization and power.     

Identification of materials in post-Byzantine textiles from Mount Athos

Numerous textiles of inestimable historical significance have been preserved in the monasteries of Mount Athos for several centuries. However, our knowledge regarding the materials used in these objects is very limited. In the present study, microsamples extracted from ecclesiastical textiles (16th – 19th c.) of the monastery of Xeropotamou (Mount Athos) are investigated using Optical Microscopy (OM), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), High Performance Liquid Chromatography coupled to a Photodiode Array Detector (HPLC-PDA) and Scanning Electron Microscopy equipped with an Energy Dispersive X-ray spectrometer (SEM-EDX). The first goal of the study is to identify the colouring materials of the historical samples, which were of silk nature (OM). The presence of Prussian blue is revealed using FTIR and organic colourants such as cochineal, dyer’s broom (Genista tinctoria L.), fuchsin, indigo carmine, old fustic (Chlorophora tinctoria L.), soluble redwood (Caesalpinia trees), weld (Reseda luteola L.), young fustic (Cotinus coggygria Scop.) and indigoid dyestuff source(s) are identified using HPLC-PDA. Dyestuff extraction from silk substrates is achieved using the TFA method, which preserves the contained glycosides. Thus, the report provides further evidence to support the efficacy of the TFA method to extract various organic colourants from historical silk samples (second goal). Finally, metal threads included in some historical samples are studied using OM and SEM-EDX. The latter is employed to analyse the composition of the metal surfaces. Silver (Ag) and gold (Au) are detected on the surfaces of the majority of the samples. Two samples were manufactured only with Ag.     

一种用于纺织品保护领域的便携式绕网设备

为提供一种用于纺织品保护的便携式绕网机,以绕网机为研究对象,通过查阅文献,梳理了绕网机的发展源流与技术特征,按照传动方式分类可分为手动绕网机、电动绕网机,按照机械结构可分为立式绕网机、卧式绕网机。早期绕网机受技术条件制约,机械结构复杂,编织精度低、质量较重,不便于携带,制约了其使用环境。本研究采用三维建模技术对其绕网机的结构进行设计,结合机械力学原理,对机械材料进行优化配置,设计一种具有操作简便、编织精度高、运行稳定、移动携带便捷等优点绕网设备,以应对复杂条件下纺织品文物保护的需要。     

Les Grecs Pontiques: Diaspora,Identité, Territoires.

Abstract

In recent years there have been significant advances in our understanding of the Byzantine rural economy. While work on such problems as the legal status of the peasantry, the fiscal procedures by which the state extracted revenues from the peasantry and the nature of the fiscal concessions which the state made to landowners remains central to our understanding of the Byzantine social structure, greater attention has been paid recently to the history of settlements, agricultural production and the influence of the climate and environment on the rural economy. Recent work has been greatly facilitated by two developments, the publication of more material from the archives of Mount Athos and the upsurge in intensive surveys and other archaeological work which is already providing us with information about regions for which our documentary material is either inadequate or non-existant. This paper will not attempt a comprehensive discussion of all recent work on the subject, but will focus on some of the most significant problems affecting our understanding of the Byzantine rural economy.     

Designing protective structures at archaeological sites Criteria and environtnental design tnethodology for a proposed structure at Lot's Basilica,Jordan

Abstract

This paper sheds light on the need to assess the efficacy and performance of protective structures at archaeological sites according to design criteria derived from various elements in heritage management processes. The paper also focuses on the use of architectural design methodologies that essentially correspond to physical conservation requirements at archaeological sites. The paper, in effect, introduces climatic approaches to the design of protective structures at archaeological sites. It further illustrates the value of computer-based environmental simulation and modeling tools in the design phase of projects. Despite their limitations, these tools help guide design processes, and generally indicate future conservation effectiveness and performance of protective enclosed structures at archaeological sites.     

From verifiable authenticity to verisimilar interventions: Xintiandi,Fuxing SOHO,and the alternatives to built heritage conservation in Shanghai

ABSTRACT

The introduction of contemporary architecture into historic urban environments creates an open heritage discussion that includes the underlying relationship between development and conservation. This discussion requires theoretical clarification, as heritage conservation is frequently mistaken for other architectural design approaches that, even though they may operate within the historic environment as their primary source, do not comply with the complex definition of heritage authenticity used today. This article aimed to contribute to this debate, offering a characterization of such architectural design strategies operating through principles of verisimilitude that target authentication for tourists and the creative classes in a global city like Shanghai. Comparative studies of Xintiandi (Ben Woods, 2001) and Fuxing SOHO (Von Gerkan, Marg und Partner, 2015) provided an insight into the concepts of historic re-creation and abstract inheritance, currently used as ways of interpreting the historic residential typology of the Shanghai lilong according to the economic and political aims of the entrepreneurial model of governance. This allowed a critical evaluation of the growing attention paid to heritage in Shanghai in the last 25 years, and whether the substitution of the principle of authenticity for authentication has solved the contradictions between urban conservation and development in contemporary China.     

Lights and shadows over the Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape: ‘managing change’ in Ballarat and Cuenca through a radical approach focused on values and authenticity

The 2011 Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) is the most recent incorporation to the global process of heritage production that was triggered by the 1972 World Heritage Convention. Five years since the publication of the Recommendation, it is clear that, despite UNESCO’s efforts, opportunities for the implementation of the HUL on a global level have been scarce. An increasing awareness regarding public participation has provided an additional opportunity for the HUL, due to an enhanced understanding of an ideal urban heritage management that, avant la lettre, disregards traditional up-down decision-making processes. Our paper provides a critical evaluation of the positive and negative aspects which have arisen from the implementation of HUL Recommendation with regards to charters and theory. We have also taken into consideration the risks that are concomitant to its ambitious holistic approach, as well as the ambiguities with regards to the definition of landscape on which the HUL is based. This paper also identifies the opportunities that a renewed focus on heritage values and authenticity management, as reflected in the cases of Cuenca (Ecuador) and Ballarat (Australia), may offer for the successful implementation of the HUL approach.     

From bricks and mortar to social heritage: planning space for diversities in the AHD

This article investigates the authorised heritage discourse (AHD) through the lens of conservation planning practice. The AHD is characterised as an exclusionary discourse that privileges the physical nature of ‘heritage’, defined scientifically by ‘experts’. Set within the context of wider international trends towards more inclusive heritage practices, the article advances understanding of the contemporary AHD. Using local heritage designation as an investigatory platform, a thesis is developed to explain professional representations of heritage operating in this setting. In doing so, a pervasive, yet nuanced AHD is exposed. At the same time, a complex variety of contextual factors that constrain radical readjustment of the AHD are also uncovered. These include struggles over the subjectivity and operationalisation of social and cultural heritage values in rational planning environments. The conclusions drawn from this research challenge and subtly refine the AHD, and crucially, propose that wider trends in the heritage discourse cannot be adequately implemented within the current legal apparatus and mind-set of traditional rational planning. The article suggests that further research is required to understand how the multiple and diverse layers of heritage meanings can be emplaced and legitimised within planning settings.     

Incidental heritage: difficult intangible heritages as collateral damage

Within the context of ‘negative’ and ‘intangible heritage,’ this paper explores Burström and Gelderblom’s proposition of ‘difficult heritage,’ with respect to Bückeberg, the site of the Third Reich Harvest Festival, as a site where collective moments of cultural shame occur. The paper then considers homelessness within this theoretical framework to ask whether those aspects of our inherited and contemporary culture, which are difficult and culturally shameful, are able to be accommodated within the framework of intangible heritage. It proposes homelessness as difficult intangible heritage which is produced as ‘collateral damage,’ an indirect byproduct of other pro-active cultural processes and community values.     

Two Cambridge Orientalists on Athos

Abstract

This essay considers the accounts of Athos by Joseph Dacre Carlyle, who visited Athos in 1801, and by John Palmer who was there four years later. The men were successive holders of the chair of Arabic at Cambridge. The study examines some of their impressions of Athos and compares their experiences with the well-known account of Philip Hunt who was Carlyle's travelling companion. Appendices give tables of the numbers of monks in the Athonite houses; Palmer's expenses; and a brief discussion of some related documents.     

Preserving Medieval Farm Mounds in a Large Stormwater Retention Area

The Netherlands has denoted large areas as stormwater retention areas. These areas function as temporary storage locations for stormwater when rivers cannot cope with the amount of water. A large area, the Onlanden — 2,500 hectares — was developed as such a storage area between 2008 and 2013. This peat area contains up to 300 medieval housing areas. These ‘peatmounds’, named after the current visible small mound, were explicitly mentioned as a preservation goal in the project. The preservation of the peatmounds during and after the project has been guaranteed by a combination of protective measures, research, and monitoring actions. At first a risk evaluation was performed, followed by a monitoring project focusing on the preservation of the organic part of the mounds. This evaluation showed that the rewetting of the mounds might improve the overall preservation. A total of fifteen monitoring stations were a-selectively distributed over the total area, covering the four main types of land use. The measured parameters at these stations focus on the desiccation/rewetting effects. The second threat, as determined in the risk evaluation, is the growth of deep penetrating plants. These roots might disturb the archaeological profile. Preventive coverage with plastic and up to a metre of soil could prevent root growth into the archaeology. An experimental coverage showed the effectiveness of this technique, but also the risks. This paper focuses on the lessons that can be learned from this six-year project, the monitoring results, and clearly shows the benefits of a combined approach in large-scale projects.     

(Troubling) spaces of mountains and men: New Zealand's Mount Cook and Hermitage Lodge

In this paper we trace one pervasive expression of hegemonic New Zealand national identity that developed around the sport of mountaineering from the 1880s, culminating in Sir Edmund Hillary's historic first climb of Mount Everest in 1953. The image of the masculine mountaineering hero, developed on and around New Zealand's highest peak, Mount Cook, is, however, inherently unstable, and we focus on two sites of potential disruption. First, we examine the experiences of white mountaineering women on Mount Cook. These women both embraced the masculinist identity of hero and destabilized it. Women's mountaineering points to the active and complex construction (rather than simple reproduction) of imperialisms, nationalisms and masculinities. Second, we examine the role played by the Hermitage Lodge situated at the base of Mount Cook. Narratives about mountaineering too often ignore the huts, lodges, the places of staying behind. The roles performed by women (and some men) who never had the opportunity and/or the desire to climb but instead 'kept the home fires burning' and supported the efforts of others can be examined as a way of productively challenging the entrenchment of national identity around the masculine mountaineering hero.     

Application of veratraldehyde as a temporary consolidant for relics at underwater cultural heritage sites

Because it is often difficult to preserve fragile relics in situ at underwater cultural heritage sites, it is sometimes necessary for relics to be extracted and moved to a controlled environment on land for protection and study. This paper discusses the feasibility of using the volatile organic compound veratraldehyde as a temporary consolidant for underwater fragile relics extraction. The results show that different materials (iron, tile, sand, wood) under water can be bonded together and extracted when using veratraldehyde. The fact that veratraldehyde is difficult to spread on the surface of underwater objects is a problem that can be solved by adding a layer of strong hydrophobic polypropylene (PP) fibres onto the object, serving as a ‘package' for the relics. Under laboratory conditions, we used veratraldehyde and PP fibres to extract broken tiles from underwater sand onto an exhibition stand. The broken tiles, in both condition and distribution, were safely and completely retained as the veratraldehyde was slowly removed by the soaking process. This work fills a gap in knowledge about temporary consolidant materials in underwater archaeology, and provides a new method for extracting underwater fragile cultural relics without damaging them.     

Petrographic Characterization and Provenance Determination of the Crystalline Marbles Used in the Roman City of Banasa (Morocco): New Data on the Import of Iberian Marble in Roman North Africa

This paper reports the results of an archaeometric study of the crystalline marbles used in the Roman city of Banasa (Morocco). On‐site surveys allowed a detailed inspection of the monuments of the ancient city and sampling of the different marble lithotypes used for architectural purposes and sculptures. The inventory was completed by the study of both the grey‐and‐white streaked or spotted marble items stored in the warehouse of the archaeological site and of those currently exhibited at the National Archaeological Museum of Rabat. Provenance determination of 28 samples was carried out by means of a multi‐method approach combining mineralogical–petrographic data and C–O stable isotope analyses as the first step, and cathodoluminescence microscopy as a complementary technique to verify possible unusual alternative origins of some marbles. The analytical results obtained were compared with both the most reliable international databases and the few available studies dealing with the use of marble in other Roman towns in Morocco (e.g., Volubilis, Thamusida and Sala‐Chellah). They point to a variety of classical marble sources such as Carrara, Mount Penteli, Paros, Marmara and probably Mount Filfila (Algeria), and prove a significant import of Iberian lithotypes.