The Routledge Handbook of Heritage Destruction

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.

About the Author

José Antonio González Zarandona holds a PhD in Art History, Archaeology and Heritage Studies from the University of Melbourne. He has held fellowships from the British Academy and Columbia University. His latest book is Murujuga: Rock Art, Heritage and Landscape Iconoclasm (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020). Antonio researches the intersections between heritage, art, and media. He has published widely on heritage destruction and iconoclasm in Australia, Iraq, Syria, Myanmar, Mexico, videogames, and Google.

Emma Cunliffe holds a PhD in Archaeology from Durham University, where she studied site damage in Syria. She is a Senior Research Associate in the UNESCO Chair in Cultural Property Protection and Peace at Newcastle University (UK), most recently co-editing Safeguarding Cultural Property in the 1954 Hague Convention. All Possible Steps? (Boydell Press, 2022). She is also part of the Secretariat for Blue Shield International, an NGO dedicated to heritage protection in conflict and disaster and the Secretary for the UK National Committee. She teaches cultural property protection for students, heritage professionals, and armed forces, and provides expertise on military exercises.

Melathi Saldin is a Lecturer in Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies at Deakin University, Australia. She has a PhD in Heritage Studies (Deakin University), a BA (Hons), and an MPhil in Archaeology (University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka). Melathi’s research looks at the politicisation of heritage and archaeology across Asia and the potential of heritage for resilience building in communities recovering from war and other forms of social upheaval. She is Co-Chair of the Sri Lanka ICOMOS National Scientific Committee on Intangible Cultural Heritage.