Neglected ruins of Pompeii declared a 'disgrace to Italy'

From the Society of Antiquaties SALON site:

"Pompeii, which was declared ‘a disgrace’ by Italy’s President, Giorgio Napolitano, following the collapse on 6 November of the Schola Armaturarum Juventus Pompeiani (‘the House of the Gladiators’), destroying the frescos of gladiators that gave the building its name. Corriere della Serra said the state of Pompeii symbolised ‘the sloppiness and inefficiencies of a country that has lost its good sense’.

The collapse has drawn attention to the scale of the task facing Pompeii’s custodians, the Soprintendenza Archeologica di Napoli e Pompei (SANP) and the Italian culture ministry. Our Fellow Andrew Wallace-Hadrill told the media that: ‘It is quite possible to spend tens of millions [on maintenance] and still not protect the site. It’s not that we have Roman houses in a pristine state, nor were they ever built or intended to last for ever. Ultimately these [structures] are so unique that we’re trying to get more out of them than they were ever designed to do.’

In its report on the collapse, the Guardian said that the Berlusconi government has made deep cuts to state spending on heritage spending, cutting maintenance budgets for the nation as a whole from €30m to €19m. Added to this is the habit of visitors of taking bits of Pompeii home as a souvenir. Faced with these problems, says Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, ‘it is insulting to suggest that Pompeii is being neglected by its custodians: these people are doing the best that they can in a difficult situation because they love the site’.

Italy’s Culture Minister, Sandro Bondi, has responded to the situation by announcing the establishment of a new foundation to assess the state of decay and deciding what action to take. Critics are concerned that Bondi favours the restoration of a select number of prestige buildings, rather than what they believe is necessary, which is a programme of continuous small-scale maintenance across the whole of Pompeii, as has been practised successfully at nearby Herculaneum, where the Soprintendenza, the Packard Humanities Institute, an American philanthropic foundation, and the British School at Rome have been working together on the largest private heritage sponsorship scheme in Italy.

Sarah Court, a British archaeologist working on the Herculaneum conservation project, says the aim is not to fix the odd ‘dodgy’ mosaic but to deal with the root cause. At Herculaneum that means tackling site drainage with the strategic placement of guttering and the use of pumps to remove rain and groundwater from the site. ‘Because nobody lives there any more’, she says, ‘there is nobody to do the necessary DIY on a regular basis.'"

European landscape research

The European Science Foundation’s new Science Policy Briefing paper on current landscape research and future themes and directions 'is an important document that portrays landscape research as a wide-ranging field of study, crossing many disciplinary boundaries. Being published in a series that largely includes policy on the “hard sciences”, which are the ones that tend to get political and funding priority, is important symbolically for putting landscape research (and therefore large areas of archaeology) into the mainstream of the European science agenda. Whether it will be influential depends on how people use it; it will not release funding, but it is a very useful tool, which needs to be taken up and used, while it is new and visible.’

Global Heritage Fund Report: Saving Our Vanishing Heritage: Safeguarding Endangered Cultural Heritage Sites in the Developing World

The complex inter-relationship between heritage and tourism is the focus of a new report from the Global Heritage Fund (GHF), which suggests that c 80% of global tourism is heritage and culture related. While richer nations debate the question of just how far to go in the direction of ‘entertainment’ in order to grow that tourism income, poorer nations are seeing their heritage eroding for want of investment in basic protection and conservation. Heritage could play a central role in meeting the UN’s aim of eradicating global poverty, the report argues, if this position were reversed, and investment in heritage conservation became a core component of international development strategy.

The report assesses the condition of some 500 of the planet’s most threatened and significant cultural sites. It finds that nearly 200 are ‘At Risk’ or ‘Under Threat’ and that twelve are ‘On the Verge’ of irreparable loss and destruction, including the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh, the ancient Greek and medieval port town of Famagusta, in eastern Cyprus, the ancient Greek city of Chersonesos, in Ukraine, and the historic city of Intramuros and Fort Santiago in Manila, the capital of the Philippines. Even in their less than pristine state, these 500 global heritage sites earned US$24.7 billion in 2009 from domestic and international tourism and the investment of relatively small sums by government aid programmes in conservation could help drive tourist income up to US$100 billion per year, bringing jobs, skills, regional growth, tourist revenue and foreign exchange earnings to some of the world’s poorest countries. In other words, heritage sites ‘offer the promise of being economic engines for their regions and communities if restored and managed responsibly’.

Ian Hodder, one of GHF’s founders, describes heritage sites as ‘important economic assets for sustainable development’ as well as ‘the basis for scientific and aesthetic inquiry’, and he joins the other authors of the report in calling for the establishment of a ‘Global Fund for Heritage’. Jeff Morgan, Executive Director of GHF, says that ‘funding for preservation remains anaemic … and is a fraction of what is needed’. The UNESCO World Heritage Center, for example, has less than US$30 million annually to provide training and support for World Heritage Sites, while the US government’s voluntary contribution to the UNESCO World Heritage Fund was just US$694,100 in 2009.

What is needed, the report argues, is a multi-billion dollar fund made up of contributions from governments, foundations and corporations that will be used for emergency intervention, training and conservation, specifically focused on the lowest-income countries and regions of the world, which can be achieved if leaders in industry and civil society can be persuaded to take more of an interest in heritage as catalyst for sustainable development.

You can download the whole report, along with supporting documents, from:
http://www.globalheritagefund.org/vanishing

ICOMOS publication ‘International Principles of Preservation’ – embargoed!

I thought I’d bring a recent spat at ICOMOS to your attention.

The most recent publication in the Monuments & Sites series, International Principles of Preservation (report XX) by Michael Petzet, published in December 2009, has just been embargoed by ICOMOS itself. They claimed that it had not “undergone the usual editorial review nor any formal consultation with ICOMOS” and that it “represent a personal view of the preservation world, and as such should be published by the author in his own name and without direct ICOMOS involvement.”

You can read the full disclaimer at:
http://www.international.icomos.org/Disclaimer_Website-Mon-&-Sites-XX.pdf

Michael Petzet, president of the German National Committee of ICOMOS, is not best pleased with this. At a recent conference Conservation Turn - Return to Conservation: Challenges and Chances in a Changing World (Prague, 5 to 9 May 2010) Petzet gave a paper entitled Conservation or Managing Change? (The full paper, in English, can be downloaded from German ICOMOS).

In this he states:

“In my paper I dare quote from the introductory part of a publication called International Principles of Preservation (vol. XX of the Monuments and Sites series), which because of a few harmless remarks was interpreted as an attack on Australia. For that reason, the President of ICOMOS Australia, Dr. Susan McIntyre-Tamway, threatening to otherwise suspend payment of the membership fees to the headquarters in Paris, put this publication (under strange circumstances) was placed – so to speak – on an index of forbidden books.”

In the paper Michael takes a stance against the degradation of conservation ethics and values. In particular, he criticises the approaches set out by Mr Gustavo Araoz (President of the ICOMOS International) in a discussion paper entitled Protecting heritage places under the new heritage paradigm & defining its tolerance for change, presented at an ICOMOS advisory committee meeting in La Valletta, Malta in October 2009. Prezet states that these guidelines “ignore fundamental experiences in theory and practice of conservation”. He explores a number of issues, including intangible values (and their artificial separation from tangible ones), problems with the Burra definition of place, the lack of desirability for the use of concepts such as the “tolerance for change”, etc. Michael's closing statements give you a flavour for the debate:

“Therefore, instead of an a priori “tolerance for change” based on whatever standards, which would condemn our colleagues working in conservation practice merely to act as supernumeraries (only watching change?), we should stick to our fundamental principles and fight for cultural heritage in a dramatically changing world. And in order to cope with this “leadership challenge for ICOMOS” we don’t need any fashionable paradigm shifts. Instead, what we need is serious work in conservation.”

Interesting discussions must follow! Sadly, ICOMOS have pulled the Aroz paper from their own website (it was published in Issue 51 of their electronic news in November 2009 – this has now disappeared – see ICOMOS publications - what a shame). However, a copy of the text was posted on the Prague conference website as part of the invitation – just scroll down their web page to find it.

There is some good ground for discussion here – maybe we can organise a meet over the summer to explore?!

PS We don’t yet have a copy of the book in the Institute library, but one is on order! You can’t buy it through ICOMOS anymore, but Amazon still sells it.

A theme of interest at the 7th ICAANE taking place in London these days

Theme Organiser: Dr Michael Seymour

Location: B.P Lecture Theatre, Clore Centre, The British Museum.

This theme invites comparative and case-specific contributions on issues in the management of cultural heritage. Papers relating to heritage in conflict and post-conflict states, archaeology and the construction of identity, the value and treatment of archaeology and heritage in education and tourism, and the roles of state and non-governmental organisations are all encouraged. Within this theme we also welcome contributions on ancient and pre-modern approaches to the past. Papers here might include ancient libraries, collections and restorations, from the creation of ancient museums to restoration in modern times.

For the timetable of the sessions as well as for abstracts of the papers presented, please go to:
http://7icaane.org/cultural.html

Experiencing Landscapes: capturing the cultural services and experiential qualities of landscape

Natural England "commissioned extensive qualitative social research to provide baseline evidence of the cultural services and experiential qualities that landscapes provide. It is generally recognised that England’s landscapes provide a range of ‘services’ which contribute to people’s quality of life, including spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, reflection, recreation and aesthetic enjoyment.

A key aim was to understand whether such services correlate to particular landscape characteristics or particular landscape features. The detailed objectives for the study were to:

• Establish and refine evidence from national/regional public surveys and research through more focused work with the public in a selection of England’s National Character Areas.

• Make judgements about whether and how the findings correlate to particular landscape characteristics and relate to particular landscape features.

• Make recommendations on whether the outcomes could provide a sufficiently representative baseline that could be used either at national, regional or a National Character Area scale.

• Provide qualitative material that will aid in the updating of National Character Area descriptions and associated strategic objectives for the future."

The report is available to download as a pdf from Natural England.

There is also an interesting piece in Landscape Character Network Newsletter Issue 33 Autumn 2009 (pdf).

Salzburg Declaration on the Conservation and Preservation of Cultural Heritage

59 cultural heritage leaders from 32 countries, including representatives of Africa, the Middle East, South America, and Asia, unanimously passed the Salzburg Declaration on the Conservation and Preservation of Cultural Heritage.

The declaration came during the Connecting to the World's Collections: Making the Case for Conservation and Preservation of our Cultural Heritage Seminar held October 28 - November 1, 2009.

The seminar built on the findings of the The Institute of Museum and Library Services Connecting to Collections: A Call to Action, putting them into a global context. It combined presentations by experts in conservation and preservation throughout the world with small working groups tasked with making practical recommendations for future action on specific topics, including:

• emergency preparedness
• education and training
• public awareness
• new preservation approaches
• assessment and planning.

One evening was devoted to what is quaintly (bizarrely!) called a 'fireside chat' on Conservation in the developing world, with a panel of participants from Benin, Iraq, Mexico, Singapore, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Links:
Salzburg Declaration (pdf)
The Institute of Museum and Library Services section on the Salzburg global seminar including videos of some of the speeches.

ONLINE SEARCH ENGINE - MAKING OUR CITIES SUSTAINABLE

A new customized search engine has been created to open up results from the UK research programme on Sustainable Urban Environments (SUE).

This single gateway allows access to over £38 million worth of government-funded research. It will "enable practitioners, policy-makers and the third sector to search for the precise research, tools and evidence that they need in making decisions about cities, investment for communities, planning, buildings, transport, regeneration and other aspects of urban sustainability."

The SUE Search engine is part of the Urban Sustainability Exchange, which is being developed to provide a gateway to all SUE research.

Getting to policy impact

Getting to policy impact: Lessons from 20 years of bridging science and policy with sustainability knowledge

Interesting study published by the Stockholm Environment Institute.It looks at the role and impact that SEI has had in a number of different policy arenas in the past decade.

"Organizations such as SEI, that has an important audience in the public policy sphere from subnational to global levels, should be evaluated on the basis of what types of public policy impacts the knowledge it generates is having at different levels of governance. However, such evaluations are inherently tricky. Despite its strong presence in nearly all research funding descriptions, ‘policy impact’ is an ambiguous term, and there is very little consensus about what it really means or how to measure it.

The report also includes ten suggestions on how SEI and similar organizations can better serve its mandate to ‘bridge science and policy’ by bringing sustainability knowledge into the policy domain."

Available as a pdf via SEI website.

Heritage at heart

Interesting short article by Dave Chetwyn "Heritage at heart (draft PPS15 on the historic environment)", in Planning No 1836 18 Sep 2009, 17

Explores the initial response of stakeholders to the publication of the draft planning policy statement on the historic environment (PPS15). Highlights the key features of the draft PPS15 and what the government hopes will be achieved by the new guidance. Looks at the debate over the effectiveness of the changes and especially the possible negative impact of the implicit separation of heritage management from the wider place-making context. Highlights concerns within the built environment professions about the draft's lack of recognition of the role of historic buildings in the social regeneration of towns and cities and in the creation of sustainable communities.