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2. Why has some very early material heritage not survived?
Answers
Answer:
Only a few weeks ago, the UK government vouched to ratify the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. Meanwhile, the British Council's Stephen Stenning provides some answers about why we should care about preserving the world's cultural heritage.
What is cultural heritage?
The word ‘culture’ is sometimes used to refer to the highest intellectual endeavours and the pursuit of perfection and beauty. As the poet and critic Matthew Arnold put it, culture is 'the best that has been thought and known in the world'. We now more commonly think of culture as being about beliefs, customs, language and arts of a particular society, group, place, or time and the symbols and expression of shared values, traditions and customs.
Cultural heritage is typically understood to be built heritage, monuments related to culture such as museums, religious buildings, ancient structures and sites. However, we should also include the slightly less material things, i.e., stories, poems, plays, recipes, customs, fashions, designs, music, songs and ceremonies of a place, as cultural heritage. These are vital expressions of a culture and just as important.
Why should we protect cultural heritage?
Societies have long sought to protect and preserve their cultural heritage, for reasons ranging from education to historical research to the desire to reinforce a sense of identity. In times of war and conflict, cultural identity and cultural heritage become all the more important. Buildings, monuments and symbols of culture that speak of shared roots acquire an increased significance. Accordingly, they can become targets of violent and oppressive action that seeks to destroy the symbols valued by enemies or the iconography associated with alternative faiths and traditions.
What are the main recent examples of this type of destruction?
Two examples immediately spring to mind. The first is Palmyra, the world heritage site and ancient city in the Syrian desert, which has this year fallen into the hands of ‘Daesh’/ ‘Islamic State’ (henceforth: ISIL). The other is the Taliban’s destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan in 2001.
To date, ISIL seem to be using the site of Palmyra as a shield, knowing that others will not want to risk damaging it, but they have blown up a number of tombs on or near the site.
The Buddhas of Bamiyan were the world’s two largest Buddhas, standing well over 150 feet high. The Taliban used tank and anti-aircraft fire to destroy the 1,700-year-old sandstone structures. Additionally, and in response to an edict from the then Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, holes were drilled into the torsos and dynamite inserted in order to complete the destruction. His foreign minister, Mullah Wakil, was quoted as saying: 'We do admit the relics were the cultural heritage of Afghanistan, but the part that contradicts our beliefs we would not like to have them anymore [sic].'
In the last few months, we've seen footage of ISIL fighters taking sledgehammers to 3,000-year-old statues in Mosul museum and using explosives to destroy the ancient city of Nimrud in Iraq. Beyond that, and the damage done as a result of conflict to other heritage sites such as the Ziggurat of Ur (also in Iraq), the threat to cultural heritage continues.