Curating Intangible Online Heritage: The Case of the Antonine Wall and Roman Scotland
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Edinburgh
Department Name: College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sci
Abstract
This project will study the plural, intangible values attributed to the Antonine Wall and other Roman places in Scotland by different individuals and groups who engage with them online. Heritage has been defined as any processes or outcomes of interacting with objects, places and practices from the past, and of assigning cultural and social meanings to them in the present (Smith 2006; Harrison 2013). These interactions can fluidly unfold across both online and offline spaces, including by collecting, experiencing and sharing heritage resources on social media and other public platforms independently from the engagement activities, infrastructures and tools created by heritage organisations for public interpretation purposes (Bonacchi and Krzyzanska 2019). Yet, these more 'independent' online interactions with the past and their values to people are substantially under-investigated and, even more so, is their relation with the values placed on heritage resources through offline engagements and public uses.
Previous studies have ascertained the importance and contested nature of heritage and memory mediation on online spaces to social movements, activism and political decision-making related to issues ranging widely from the Brexit referendum to far-right sympathisers' claims of racial purity (e.g. Stevens 2015; Bonacchi, Altaweel and Krzyzanska 2018). These kinds of heritage mediation have real world social-political impacts, which are, however, often understood sometime after their effects become known. In the UK, Roman pasts feature heavily within these mediations, and are entangled with sets of dualities including multiculturalism and cultural homogeneity, local and global, civilisation and barbarism, freedom and occupation, colonialism and resistance, which have been central to public discourse in recent years (Hingley, Bonacchi and Sharpe 2018). This is the motivation to focus on the Roman heritage of Scotland. The Antonine Wall, in particular, offers an ideal case study because of its local and global significance, contrasting social relevance and the topical themes to which it connects (e.g. frontiers and borders, mobility, encounter). This 41-mile-long, complex linear monument, running from the Forth to Clyde estuaries, was constructed, occupied and abandoned in the mid-2nd century AD. It is one of six World Heritage (WH) Sites in Scotland and runs through some of the most deprived areas in the country, as evidenced in the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD). It is part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire (FRE) transboundary WH property together with Hadrian's Wall and the Upper German-Raetian Limes. It is proposed to be managed in future through a 'cluster' model with additional FRE properties of the Danube, Lower German and Dacian Limes.
Previous studies have ascertained the importance and contested nature of heritage and memory mediation on online spaces to social movements, activism and political decision-making related to issues ranging widely from the Brexit referendum to far-right sympathisers' claims of racial purity (e.g. Stevens 2015; Bonacchi, Altaweel and Krzyzanska 2018). These kinds of heritage mediation have real world social-political impacts, which are, however, often understood sometime after their effects become known. In the UK, Roman pasts feature heavily within these mediations, and are entangled with sets of dualities including multiculturalism and cultural homogeneity, local and global, civilisation and barbarism, freedom and occupation, colonialism and resistance, which have been central to public discourse in recent years (Hingley, Bonacchi and Sharpe 2018). This is the motivation to focus on the Roman heritage of Scotland. The Antonine Wall, in particular, offers an ideal case study because of its local and global significance, contrasting social relevance and the topical themes to which it connects (e.g. frontiers and borders, mobility, encounter). This 41-mile-long, complex linear monument, running from the Forth to Clyde estuaries, was constructed, occupied and abandoned in the mid-2nd century AD. It is one of six World Heritage (WH) Sites in Scotland and runs through some of the most deprived areas in the country, as evidenced in the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD). It is part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire (FRE) transboundary WH property together with Hadrian's Wall and the Upper German-Raetian Limes. It is proposed to be managed in future through a 'cluster' model with additional FRE properties of the Danube, Lower German and Dacian Limes.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Chiara Bonacchi (Primary Supervisor) | |
| Alexander Hiscock (Student) |