During the second post-war period (1945-1960s), the Italian Communist party was a hub of intellec­tuals, and as such influenced the development of Italian archaeology as well. Marxist ideology indeed was perceived as means to enfranchise the discipline from the old academia. Focusing on of the so-called “Roman school” of archaeology, this paper analyzes the influence of communist and Marxist ideologies on the discipline’s development. In particular we will present two prominent and charismatic archaeologists Renato Peroni and Andrea Carandini. It is argued that while the Marxist research trajectories were characterized by an initial innovative and driving force that revolutionized Italian archaeology, the collapse of the Italian Communist Party and the resulting downfall of its intellectual tradition determined the exhaustion of the discipline’s innovative potential.

An introduction to Ex Novo.

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On the 23rd of August 2015 Daesh blew up the 2,000-year-old Baal-Shamin temple in the world-famous Greco-Roman site of Palmyra. This event triggered a profound emotional reaction in society at large, and the ruins soon became an iconic symbol of world heritage in danger. The appalling images of the ruins of Baal Shamin reinforced the perception, especially among western observers, that protecting cultural and natural heritage is yet another duty in the fight against terrorism. A similar international outcry occurred in 2001, when the Buddhas of Bamiyan fell to Taliban dynamite in Afghanistan, and when Iraqi museums and sites were ransacked and looted providing two of the most recent and vivid examples of destroyed heritage in the so-called War on Terror which was launched by the U.S. government after 9/11. Following the destruction at Baal-Shamin, UNESCO declared that the deliberate destruction of Syria's cultural heritage was a war crime, and put into motion several projects and actions aimed at preserving endangered Syrian archaeological heritage. At the same time, alongside income gained from the sale of drug and weapons, the trafficking of antiquities from Syria and Iraq worldwide provided a major source of revenue for Daesh.