Smarthistory – ARCHES (At-Risk Cultural Heritage Series)

Is our history in danger? Every day important cultural objects are lost forever.

Inverse-Face Beaker, 10th–11th century, Sicán (Lambayeque), Peru, gold, 20 x 18.1 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Art is taken in war as a symbol of victory, but even during times of peace, art can represent the wealth and sophistication of the nation that controls it, or of its private owner.

Visitors view the Rosetta Stone in the British Museum (photo: Dr. Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

What can ruins tell us, and what should we do with them?

Iktinos and Kallikrates, The Parthenon, 447–432 B.C.E., Athens (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

View of the porch with free-standing columns, and a pilaster visible on the flank, Temple of Baalshamin, 1st century C.E. (Palmyra—in modern Syria) (photo: Juan Llanos, CC BY-ND 2.0)

The Severan Tondo, c. 200 C.E., 30.5 cm, tempera on wood (Altes Museum, Staatliche Museen, Berlin)

Major threats to cultural heritage come in two forms: destruction during military conflict and the looting of sites and collections. Both in antiquity and in contemporary times, we often see these destructive activities going hand in hand, but we also see a greater recognition that cultural remains should be protected.

Cliff Palace, Ancestral Puebloan, 450–1300 C.E., sandstone, Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Synagogue, Gafsa, Tunisia (photo: courtesy of Chrystie Sherman)

Archaeologists dig to reveal the past. They meticulously preserve information that pieces together human history, but they also make choices about which histories they focus on in the sites they excavate. In contrast, looters dig for treasure and destroy context. But what about the collections that pre-date modern archaeology—the objects that have no recorded findspot—where the only real evidence we have comes from the object itself?

Discarded pots from a looting episode at the Early Bronze Age cemetery at Fifa, Jordan, photo: Austin C. Hill, courtesy of the Follow the Pots Project (with permission)

From the ancient cities of Babylon and Palmyra to the tourist mecca of Venice, cultural heritage is endangered by forces such as rising sea levels, cruise tourism, and radical jihadists.

Djingareyber Mosque, built 1327, Timbuktu, Mali. Two tombs at this mosque were attacked by Islamic extremists in 2012. (photo: Johannes Zielcke, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

There are things each of us can do to protect cultural heritage. Learn how.

Deputy Director Abdoulaye Cisse shows a burnt manuscript at the Institut des Hautes Etudes et de Recherche Islamiques Ahmed Baba in Timbuktu, Mali, December 5, 2013 (photo: MINUSMA/Marco Dormino)

Lamassu (winged human-headed bulls possibly lamassu or shedu) from the citadel of Sargon II, Dur Sharrukin (now Khorsabad, Iraq), c. 720–705 B.C.E. (Neo-Assyrian), gypseous alabaster, 4.20 x 4.36 x 0.97 m (Musée du Louvre, Paris)

ARCHES (At-Risk Cultural Heritage Series)

A beginner's guide

Whose art? Museums and repatriation

Ruins, reconstruction, and renewal

Place and identity

The many forms of iconoclasm

Destruction, looting, and trafficking

Documenting and protecting cultural heritage

The role of archaeology

Cultural heritage endangered round the world

What you can do now

Backstories: additional endangered objects and sites