Limited time for proper blogging this week, as the University of South Wales excavations are about to get underway. It’s been a frantic few weeks, trying to juggle work commitments, not to mention the thesis, and preparing the excavation. However, it looks like we’ve made it and are ready to go into battle tomorrow morning. The sites, three of them, have been as cleared as much as they are going to be, and the tools are all on site, all that remains is for a team (which seems to contract and then expand again on a daily basis – we lost two at lunch today, but had replaced them by late afternoon) to turn up on Monday morning, and for excavations to commence. Most blog based activities will shift to Excavate2013 for the next couple of weeks or so, but I felt I couldn’t let this week go by without some mention of the catastrophe in north Wales. Few in the heritage sector in Wales will have failed to hear about the awful news regarding Offa’s Dyke. This hugely significant archaeological feature, remarkable for its preservation rate as much as anything else, was the subject of irreparable damage during the week. All sorts of rumours have been flying around regarding the circumstances of the destruction. But be this deliberate vandalism, or unbelievable ignorance, either way, this should be regarding as a heritage disaster for Wales. We are frequently quick to point the finger at nations around the world where such incidents occur. Pyramid destruction in Peru and the desecration of Aboriginal sites in Australia have been among the more significant stories to be shared around the world of late, now Wales can join the community of host nations to see prized examples of national heritage become critically undermined. Yet, for all the attention given to the story on the day through social media outlets, it is perhaps more ominous how the story has subsequently been covered. The Western Mail, national newspaper of Wales that it claims to be, relegated the Offa’s Dyke debacle to page 23 on Saturday, the very last page of ‘proper news’. Having had such success with successive Wales History Months, it might have been expected that the newspaper would have given the story some greater sense of prominence. Yet Paxman’s beard and the weak grasp had by UKIP for the Welsh language, were among some of more tawdry offerings to be consider more newsworthy than the perhaps cynical damage inflicted upon what is theoretically one of the most important tourist attractions in the country. Put simply, the coverage has not been good enough. For a nation that makes strong claims for the significance of its heritage resources, much more noise must be made about this. The damage to the segment of Offa’s Dyke is shameful and should be an embarrassment to us all, for we are collectively responsible for this heritage, including raising awareness of it. We can only hope that such an act never happens again, but unless a national outcry is heard, this will happen again, and again.
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'Rohan at the Louvre' - surreal and terrifying.
I’ve been quite ill this week, very annoying given that the current ‘to-do’ list includes turning around a 4000 word article in the space of a week, finalising preparations for an excavation which begins in just over a week, wading through a pile of marking freshly delivered to my inbox on Friday, oh, and not forgetting the whole ‘finish the PhD’ thing. I also seem to be spread over four separate twitter accounts, which is proving to be not just time consuming, but incredibly confusing. So, all in all, a bad week for producing an insightful blog on the heritage sector. No, instead I thought I would be kind to myself this week, and look over my ongoing research into museums in graphic novels. This has been an indulgent, wonderfully fun, and surprisingly enlightening subject to explore. Surprising still was finding a conference, Monstrous Antiquities, which might just be suitable for a paper to be presented at based on this work, always a bonus (abstract is almost ready to go - yet another thing being worked on this week). In some respects this research project has gotten out of hand. What started as a bit of an aside exploring the DC character of Hawkman and his collection of artefacts held in the fictional Stonechat Museum, has now exploded into a myriad of museum scenarios, all of which is probably going to be too much to include in one article – a good problem to have though. While this project has allowed me to revisit some favoured publications, and delve more than once into the murky waters of ebay in search of some rare edition featuring museums, it has also provided me with the opportunity to fully explore the series of graphic novels co-published by the Louvre Museum. This run of novels has been supported by the Louvre for several years now, and is based around artists being invited into the museum to explore the collections in, structure and workings of the museum. The range of interpretations has been varied. ‘Rohan at the Louvre’ is by far the most bizarre offering, with museum staff being executed by a malevolent painting one by one – a narrative I found intriguing, if not entirely useful to my research. One entry that I would certainly recommend is Marc-Antoine Mathieu’s The Museum Vaults. Excerpts from the Journal of an Expert. The Museum Vaults is probably the one entry in the Louvre graphic novel series to really explore the inner workings of the museum. Here, the Louvre is a behemoth of a structure, utterly impossible to fully explore during the course of a single lifetime. In the exploration of the museum by the titled ‘expert’, reference is made to collecting and conservation of objects. But then perhaps more mundane roles within the museum are each in turn given their own position of significance. A framer is given a moment to extol the significance of his position, while an inspired sequence provides an insight into the training of museum guardians, where the art of ‘tss tssing’ members of the public from touching paintings is meticulously practiced. A certain structured madness is on display in this imagining of the museum, and having worked in several, it is easy to think back on occasions where these extreme imaginings might not be so far removed from reality. Without wanting to spoil the narrative for anyone looking to follow this up, the novel does point toward the all consuming nature of experiencing a museum of such stature. Can we ever hope to see everything in a museum during a single lifetime? Can we ever hope to understand everything in a museum in a single lifetime? Possibly not, but The Museum Vaults makes a good case in favour of this being a worthwhile, if not impossible pursuit. So the research goes on, and I wonder if I have taken on something which will prove to be utterly impossible in one lifetime. Only time will tell I suppose on that one. Spend a little time working through government policy papers, local authority strategies, or museum association publications, and a generally consistent message can be identified – heritage matters. There is a great deal of noise that accompanies any discussion on the value of cultural heritage. Be it for tourism, economic development, or the increased considerations for social wellbeing, on paper at least, we are unified in our celebration of and commitment to our heritage. However we do not appear to be so consistent in our protection of that heritage. Sadly and increasingly frequently, stories come in reporting the damage to, or total loss of cultural heritage sites. Many will remember the loss of a Peruvian pyramid in June/July 2013, a tragic developer led destruction of an archaeological site. What awaits to be seen in Peru is what punishment will be meted out to those responsible, following criminal charges being brought against the perpetrators. Another week goes by, and now another story of destruction reaches us, this time from Australia. Again, development led work, mining in this instance, has seen a sacred Aboriginal site at Bootu Creek damaged and severely undermined. What is interesting in the case of Bootu Creek is that this is the first instance of a company (in Australia) being prosecuted for such a culture-heritage crime. In one regard we might be inclined to celebrate, embracing the fact that the perpetrators of damage to a heritage site have finally been made to pay. But have they? A fine totalling the equivalent of £88,000 somehow seems inadequate for the desecration and partial destruction of a heritage site. The inadequacies of the fine are put into much sharper contrast when considering that the company fined, OM Manganese, as part of OM Holdings, contributed to pre tax profits of $8 million in 2013. Will OM Holdings really care about the loss of $150,000, when the costs can be offset by far more substantial financial profits? Will this fine act as a discouragement, or instead is this case study one which suggests that if companies are caught damaging heritage sites, that the financial implications offer no real disincentive to pursue such activities? In a Welsh context, this is a potentially pressing matter. Having been involved in the consultation process on the proposed Heritage Bill for Wales, the issue of enhanced protection of historic sites came up on a number of occasions, and it is heartening in some respects to see the issue of fines being discussed in the consultation document. Cited as a negative within current historic environment protection policy is the current weakness of fines imposed on developers for damaging historic buildings and sites. Point 35 of the document specifically stresses that an element of the consultation will fall on the exploration of ways in which fines might be put to more effective use to deter unauthorised works in the historic environment. As with the Australian example, we should be encouraged that this issue is being addressed by the Welsh Government. Yet the consultation process allows us to make recommendations as to the nature and severity of fines imposed on ignorant and unscrupulous developers. Token fines will deter nothing. Yet we cannot say with conviction that severe fines will do anything else. However we are simply yet to see the impacts of severe fines used in Wales, and there is a very real opportunity to put in place the deterrents that might better safeguard our historic landscapes. This is opportunity we would do well not to miss. Consultation on the Heritage Bill is open now and will remain so through to the 11th of October. If you feel that the historic environment in Wales is worth protecting, get involved. |
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