ARCH678L

This course explores destruction of historic monuments and sites, and how they are remembered and renewed as societies struggle to recover and rebuild. We begin by looking at recent destruction and defense of heritage in the Middle East. We then explore theories of the monument and memory, and their significance in a globalized world. We test and expand these theories through case studies from different historical moments. Examples include Byzantine and Protestant iconoclasm; exorcism/erasure of prior religions and regimes (conversion of religious buildings; rituals of damnatio memoriae); uses and meanings of spolia; theft, restitution, and repatriation of antiquities. Throughout the course, we focus on people: how they experience war and displacement, and how memory and forgetting help them rebuild.