Heritage & Close

Description
Saving lives or saving stones? Cultural heritage is a fundamental part of peoples’ identity – including traditions, language, clothing, music, art, and buildings. The destruction of cultural pr...operty in war zones, whether deliberate or accidental, is also destruction of aspects of people’s identity and sense of belonging, and is of pressing concern. The recent and on-going conflicts in the Middle East have featured both the deliberate, symbolic destruction of cultural artefacts and sites by ISIS, such as the destruction of the Temple of Bel, and the incidental damaging of such sites during combat, for example the damage to the site of Ancient Babylon by the US military. Dr Sean Cordell discusses Heritage in War, an AHRC-funded project on protecting cultural heritage, combining aesthetics, value theory and the ethics of war.