Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T13:13:27.120Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A four-tier approach to the protection of cultural property in the event of armed conflict

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Peter G. Stone
Peter G. Stone*
Affiliation:
*International Centre for Cultural and Heritage Studies, School of Arts and Cultures, Newcastle University, 18–20 Windsor Terrace, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK (Email: peter.stone@ncl.ac.uk)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This vitally important article sets out the obstacles and opportunities for the protection of archaeological sites and historic buildings in zones of armed conflict. Readers will not need to be told that modern munitions are devastating and sometimes wayward, nor that cultural heritage once destroyed cannot simply be rebuilt. The author makes a vivid case for the role of respect for the past in mitigating hostility and so winning the peace as well as aiding the victory, and guides us through the forest of players. Agencies so numerous, so obscure and so often ineffective might prompt the response ‘a plague on all your acronyms’. All the more important, then, that the author and his associates continue their campaign and are supported by everyone who believes that cultural property has a value that lies beyond sectional interests.

Keywords

cultural propertyheritagewarconflict
Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 87 , Issue 335 , March 2013 , pp. 166 - 177
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

AAA-CEAUSSIC. 2009. Final report on the Army's Human Terrain System proof of concept program. Available at: http://www.aaanet.org/cmtes/commissions/ceaussic/upload/ceaussichtsfinalreport.pdf (accessed 27 March 2012).Google Scholar
Aga Khan Development Network. n.d. Available at: http://www.akdn.org/afghanistan newsletters.asp (accessed 5 March 2012).Google Scholar
Albarella, U. 2009a. Archaeologists in conflict: empathising with which victims? Heritage Management 2: 105–14.Google Scholar
Albarella, U. 2009b. A response to Malin-Boyce and Trimble. Heritage Management 2: 117–18.Google Scholar
Barakat, S., Wilson, C., Simčić, V. S. & Kojaković, M.. 2001. Challenges and dilemmas facing the reconstruction of war-damaged cultural heritage: the case study of Počitelj, Bosnia-Herzegovina, in Layton, R., Stone, P. G. & Thomas, J. (ed.) The destruction and conservation of cultural property: 161–81. London & New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bernbeck, R. 2008a. Structural violence in archaeology. Archaeologies 4: 390–413.Google Scholar
Bernbeck, R. 2008b. Who has, and who should have power over the past and its remains? Paper presented at Culture Wars: Heritage and Armed Conflict in the 21st Century, Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Cambridge, 11-13 December 2008.Google Scholar
Bevan, R. 2006. The destruction of memory: architecture at war. London: Reaktion.Google Scholar
Blue Shield. 2011. Heritage mission in Egypt. Available at: http://blueshield.de/Aegypt2011.html (accessed 5 March 2012).Google Scholar
Bogdanos, M. 2008. Thieves of Baghdad, in Stone, P. G. & Farchakh Bajjaly, J. (ed.) The destruction of cultural heritage in Iraq: 109–34. Woodbridge: Boydell.Google Scholar
Boylan, P. J. 2002. The concept of cultural protection in times of armed conflict: from the Crusades to the new millennium, in Brodie, N. & Walker Tubb, K. (ed.) Illicit antiquities: the theft of culture and the extinction of archaeology: 42–108. London & New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Brown, M. 2010. Good training and good practice: protection of the cultural heritage on the UK defence training estate, in Rush, L. (ed.) Archaeology, cultural property and the military: 60–72. Woodbridge: Boydell.Google Scholar
Chapman, J. 1994. Destruction of a common heritage: the archaeology of war in Croatia, Bosnia and Hercegovina. Antiquity 68: 120–26.Google Scholar
Chiefs of Staff. 2005. Legal support to joint operations (Joint Warfare Publication 3-46). Swindon: Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre, Ministry of Defence.Google Scholar
Clarke, H. 2010. Operation Heritage, in Rush, L. (ed.) Archaeology, cultural property and the military: 138–44. Woodbridge: Boydell.Google Scholar
Corn, G. 2005. “Snipers in the minaret-what is the rule?” The law of war and the protection of cultural property: a complex equation. The Army Lawyer July 2005: 28–40.Google Scholar
Curtis, J. 2008. The role of the British Museum in the protection of the Iraqi cultural heritage, in Stone, P. G. & Farchakh Bajjaly, J. (ed.) The destruction of cultural heritage in Iraq: 201–12. Woodbridge: Boydell.Google Scholar
Curtis, J. 2011. Relations between archaeologists and the military in the case of Iraq, in Stone, P. G. (ed.) Cultural heritage, ethics and the military: 214–17. Woodbridge: Boydell.Google Scholar
Curtis, J., Raheed, Q. H., Clarke, H., Al Hamdani, A. M., Stone, E., Van Ess, M., Collins, P. & Ali, M.. 2008. An assessment of archaeological sites in June 2008: an Iraqi-British project. Available at: http://www.britishmuseum.org/aboutus/museumactivity/middle east/iraq project/overview of site surveys.aspx (accessed 2 May 2012).Google Scholar
DCMS. 2004. UK to ratify convention safeguarding cultural heritage in war-time. Available at: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/ http://www.culture.gov.uk/Referencelibrary/Press notices/archive 2004/dcms053 04.htm (accessed 6 November 2012).Google Scholar
DCMS. 2008. Draft Cultural Property (Armed Conflicts) Bill. Norwich: Stationery Office.Google Scholar
DCSU. 2011. Defence Cultural Specialist Unit: information booklet. Report prepared for Media Services, RAF Henlow.Google Scholar
Emberling, G. 2008. Archaeologists and the military in Iraq, 2003-2008: compromise or contribution? Archaeologies 4: 445–59.Google Scholar
Foster, B. R., Foster, K. P. & Gerstenblith, P.. 2005. Iraq beyond the headlines: history, archaeology, and war. Hackensack (NJ): World Scientific.Google Scholar
Gerstenblith, P. 2009. Archaeology in the context of war: legal frameworks for protecting cultural heritage during armed conflict. Archaeologies 5: 18–31.Google Scholar
Hamilakis, Y. 2003. Iraq, stewardship and ‘the record’: an ethical crisis for archaeology. Public Archaeology 3: 104–11.Google Scholar
Hamilakis, Y. 2009. The ‘war on terror’ and the military-archaeology complex: Iraq, ethics, and neo-colonialism. Archaeologies 5: 39–65.Google Scholar
Hamilakis, Y. & Dukes, P. (ed.) 2007. Archaeology and capitalism: from ethics to politics. Walnut Creek (CA): Left Coast.Google Scholar
Hammes, T. X. 2004. The sling and the stone: on war in the 21st century. St Paul (MN): Zenith.Google Scholar
Hensel, H. M. 2007. The protection of cultural objects during armed conflicts, in Hensel, H. M. (ed.) The law of armed conflict: constraints on the contemporary use of military force: 39–104. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
ICBS. 2003. Statement by the International Committee of the Blue Shield on the impact of a war on cultural heritage in Iraq. Available at http://archives.icom.museum/icbs-press/iraq-07-03-03.html (accessed 5 March 2012).Google Scholar
ICCROM. 2012. First aid to cultural heritage in times of conflict. Available at: (http://www.iccrom.org/eng/01train en/announceen/201209courseCHconflicten.shtml (accessed 5 May 2012).Google Scholar
Jackobsen, P. V. 2008. NATO's comprehensive approach to crisis response operations: a work in slow progress. Copenhagen: Danish Institute for International Studies.Google Scholar
Kila, J. D. 2012. Heritage under siege: military implementation of cultural property protection following the 1954 Hague Convention. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Miles, M. 2011. Still in the aftermath of Waterloo: a brief history of decisions about restitution, in Stone, P. G. (ed.) Cultural heritage, ethics and the military: 29–42. Woodbridge: Boydell.Google Scholar
Nicholas, L. 1995. The rape of Europa: the fate of Europe's treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War. New York: Vintage.Google Scholar
Polk, M. & Schuster, A. M. H.. 2005. The looting of the Iraq Museum, Baghdad. New York: Abrams.Google Scholar
Pollock, S. 2008. Archaeology as a means for peace or a source of violence. Archaeologies 4: 356–67.Google Scholar
Rose, B. 2007. Talking to the troops about the archaeology of Iraq and Afghanistan, in Rhodes, R. F. (ed.) The acquisition and exhibition of classical antiquities: 139–54. Notre Dame (IN): Notre Dame University Press.Google Scholar
Rothfield, L. 2009. The rape of Mesopotamia: behind the looting of the Iraq Museum. Chicago (IL): University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Rush, L. (ed.) 2010. Archaeology, cultural property, and the military. Woodbridge: Boydell.Google Scholar
Shearer, I., Curtis, J., Price, J., Rowlands, M., Rush, L. & Teijgeler, R.. 2011. Relations between archaeologists and the military in the case of Iraq, in Stone, P. G. (ed.) Cultural heritage, ethics and the military: 192–214. Woodbridge: Boydell.Google Scholar
Starzmann, M. T. 2008. Cultural imperialism and heritage politics in the event of armed conflict: prospects for an ‘activist archaeology’. Archaeologies 4: 368–89.Google Scholar
Stone, P. G. 2005. The identification and protection of cultural heritage during the Iraq conflict: a peculiarly English tale. Antiquity 79: 933–43.Google Scholar
Stone, P. G. (ed.) 2011. Cultural heritage, ethics and the military. Woodbridge: Boydell.Google Scholar
Stone, P. G. & Farchakh Bajjaly, J. (ed.) 2008. The destruction of cultural heritage in Iraq. Woodbridge: Boydell.Google Scholar
Teijgeler, R. 2008. Embedded archaeology: an exercise in self-reflection, in Stone, P. G. & Farchakh Bajjaly, J. (ed.) The destruction of cultural heritage in Iraq: 173–82. Woodbridge: Boydell.Google Scholar
Teijgeler, R. 2011. Archaeologist under pressure: neutral or cooperative in wartime, in Stone, P. G. (ed.) Cultural heritage, ethics and the military: 86–112. Woodbridge: Boydell.Google Scholar
Toman, J. 1996. The protection of cultural property in the event of armed conflict. Paris: UNESCO.Google Scholar
UK National Commission for UNESCO. 2010. Written submission to the Iraq Inquiry: the problems faced by British forces with respect to safeguarding the cultural heritage in Iraq. Available at: http://www.unesco.org.uk/uploads/Iraq% 20Inquiry%20Evidence%20from%20UKNC% 20and%20others%2017%20Feb%202010.pdf (accessed 16 October 2012).Google Scholar
Walshe, D., Osgood, R. & Brown, M.. 2012. Archaeology as rehabilitation. British Archaeology 122: 38–43.Google Scholar
Woolley, L. 1947. A record of the work done by the military authorities for the protection of the treasures of art and history in war areas. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Yahya, A. H. 2008. Managing heritage in a war zone. Archaeologies 4: 495–505.Google Scholar
Zeidler, J. & Rush, L.. 2010. In-theatre soldier training through cultural heritage playing cards: a US Department of Defence example, in Rush, L. (ed.) Archaeology, cultural property and the military: 73–85. Woodbridge: Boydell.Google Scholar