Let Heritage Die!

Abstract

This paper is a case study of the trams now kept at Depot No. 5 at Legnicka 65 in Wroc?aw, Poland. The site provides a context for exploring two core issues around archaeological approaches to the contemporary past. The first is how materiality and immateriality are deeply interwoven in the context of modern heritage sites, with the overlap providing the grounds for discussion on the material theology of modern ruins. The second is the consequences of seeing modern ruins as heritage sites worth preserving for future generations. The conclusion of this paper is that if heritage is to be saved, it should be saved first of all from its saviours.

Ruiny, wszędzie ruiny: Czarnobyl i archeologiczny wymiar dziedzictwa niedawnej przeszłości

“…Tutaj wręcz urbex jawi się jako metoda badawcza, jako sposób myślenia i doświadczania dziedzictwa (np. Pétursdóttir 2012a;2012b;Kobiałka 2014). Idąc dalej tym tokiem myślenia, urbex może być traktowany jako przejaw "archeologicznej wyobraźni", jako sposób kontaktu i myślenia o niedawnej przeszłości.…”

‘Where the F… is Vuotso?’: heritage of Second World War forced movement and destruction in a Sámi reindeer herding community in Finnish Lapland

“…Nowadays, Vuotso villagers want deliberately to discourage and prevent outsiders from intervening or removing things from their landscape, since '-they belong where they are' (M1) and '-witnessed what happened here -' (F2), reminiscent of some recent developments in archaeological theories about things, bringing materialities, and the direct engagements with them, into the foreground and giving them place (e.g. Olsen 2013;Pétursdóttir 2013;Kobiałka 2014;Olsen and Witmore 2014;Figenschau 2016). The outwardly nonchalant attitude of the locals towards the material remains is elucidated through the relationality of the traditional Finnish and Sámi worldviews, which escape the dichotomous 'western' categorisations of, for instance, nature and culture (Lähteenmäki 1999, 210;Ingold 2000;Thomas, Seitsonen, and Herva 2016).…”

The Great War and Its Landscapes Between Memory and Oblivion: the Case of Prisoners of War Camps in Tuchola and Czersk, Poland

“…Nonetheless, one should avoid a typical archaeological complaint and call for urgent action to preserve for the future a unique heritage of the First World War. We propose to acknowledge that destruction and oblivion are inherent parts of landscapes and heritage in general (Holtorf 2015;Kobiałka 2014;Moshenska 2015). Thus, we should not only counteract these processes, but also analyze and document their creative and productive aspects in the making of the landscape.…”

“…Accordingly, past and present landscapes are shaped both by remembrance and oblivion, by creation and destruction. The same has to be said about heritage: destruction and oblivion (sometimes) add a unique value to things and sites from the past (see also Holtorf 2015;Kobiałka 2014). Rusted objects, broken things, dirty and forgotten artifacts of the Great War allow us to experience another dimension of heritage, a dimension that is much more material and closer to the intimate being of things.…”