Short description:

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.

Long description:

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.

Table of Contents:

1. A path well worn? Approaches for the old problem of heritage destruction; Part 1 Understanding Destruction -- 2. Heritage Destruction in Conflict; 3. Talking about Heritage Destruction in Market Countries; 4. Destruction of Cultural Heritage in Peacetime and International Law; 5. Development of the Law of Armed Conflict as Applied to Cultural Heritage; 6. Heritage Destruction and Human Rights; 7. Heritage Destruction and Genocide: Legal Resistance, Conceptual Resiliency; 8. Methods, Motivations, and Actors: A Risk-based Approach to Heritage Destruction and Protection; Part 2 Interpretations of Destruction ? 9. Heritage Destruction, Natural Disasters, and the Environment: Geological Disasters; 10. Heritage Destruction, Natural Disasters, and the Environment: Atmospheric Disasters; 11. Flooded Heritage: The Impact of Dams on Archaeological Sites; 12. On Destruction in Art and Film; 13. Between Heritage and the Readymade?the Imminent Aesthetic of Ai Weiwei; 14. Heritage Predation and the Pursuit of Politics; 15. Post-conflict Recovery Challenges: Affect and Heritage in Post-conflict Cyprus and Italy; 16. Media Narratives, Heritage Destruction, and Universal Heritage: A Case Study of Palmyra; 17. Collateral Damage: The Negative Side Effects of Protecting Cultural Heritage in Conflict Related Situations; 18. Turning Destruction into an Opportunity: Understanding the Construction of Timbuktu?s ?success story? by UNESCO; 19. Heritage Destruction from a Humanitarian Perspective; Part 3 Expressions of Destruction -- 20. Cultural Property Destruction and Damage in Two World Wars; 21. Heritage Destruction and its Impact in Scandinavia and the Baltic Region during the Second World War; 22. Case Study: The Wars of Yugoslav Succession; 23. Cambodia: Gods Threatened by the Art Market and Warfare; 24. Destruction of Cultural Heritage in Times of Conflict: The Case of Syria; 25. Iraq: Creative Destruction and Cultural Heritage in the Warscape; 26. Iraqi and Syrian Responses to Heritage Destruction under the Islamic State: Genocide, Displacement, Reconstruction, and Return; 27. Heritage Destruction in the Caucasus with a Specific Focus on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict; 28. Weaponised Heritage: Urbicide by Construction and Destruction in Nablus, Palestine; 29. What is Happening to Egyptian Heritage? The Case of Privately-owned Buildings; 30. Destruction, Development, and Heritage in Melbourne: SX Towers, Southern Cross Hotel, Eastern Market; 31. Case Study: The destruction of Australian Aboriginal Heritage and its Implications for Indigenous Peoples Globally; 32. Destruction of Heritage in Latin America; Part 4 Transformations ? 33. Reconsidering Heritage Destruction and Sustainable Development in a Long-Term Perspective.?