Destructive Exploitation and care of Cultural Objects and Professional/Public Education for sustainable heritage management (DECOPE)

I am delighted to announce that, from today and for the next two years, I’m going to be an Associate Researcher on a project that’s investigating care for and exploitation of heritage during Russia’s war on Ukraine, which is being funded by the Joint Programming Initiative on Cultural Heritage and Global Change – Cultural Heritage, Society and Ethics (JPI CH CHSE).

Russia’s destruction of Ukraine’s cultural property is proof of its intent to commit genocide.

Russia’s state media-spread, government official-reinforced programme/manual/handbook of “de-Nazification [денацификация]”, “de-Ukrainisation/de-Ukrainianisation [деукраинизацией]” and “de-Europeanisation [деевропеизация]” in Ukraine is a programme of genocide. And ‘genocide’ of Ukrainians has been the explicit, publicly-expressed desire of Russian ultranationalist ‘Kremlin ideologist Alexander Dugin’, since 2014 (at the latest).

open-source evidence of damage to and destruction of cultural heritage, natural heritage and other civilian objects through Russia’s war in and occupation of Ukraine

These are a few pieces of open-source evidence, primarily summaries of findings of investigations by the International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR) and Truth Hounds, which are part of a study that I’m doing with an archaeologist in Ukraine.

fuelling of an illicit market and financing of political violence in Syria, feeding of propaganda around the world

In the course of expanding a study (into two studies) of the practice of “rescue”-by-purchase of looted antiquities, I traced out a case, that I mentioned before in the context of fake conflict antiquities, that intertwined destruction and looting in Syria; behaviour of law enforcement agencies in source and transit countries and businesses in market countries; the politics and economics of the war in Syria; and propaganda within Syria, across the region and around the world.

Ukraine: resolution of the seminar on archaeology in occupied territories and in zones of armed conflict

At the seminar on archaeology in occupied territories and in zones of armed conflict, a Principal Researcher at the Institute of Archaeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and the head of the Association of Archaeologists of Ukraine, Yakiv Gershkovych or Yakov Gershkovich (Яків Гершкович) presented the resolution of the seminar.

the need for archaeological research in the area of the refurbishment of the state border between Ukraine and Russia (‘Wall’ project)

At the seminar on archaeology in occupied territories and in zones of armed conflict, the Deputy Head of the Department of Culture, Nationalities and Religions of the Luhansk Oblast State Administration, Yu. V. Vybornov or Yu. V. Vibornov (Ю. В. Виборнов) explained the need for archaeological research in the area of the refurbishment of the state border between Ukraine and Russia (‘Wall’ project).

international law and ‘bloody antiquities’: new challenges and perspectives in light of Ukraine

At the seminar on archaeology in occupied territories and in zones of armed conflict, a Senior Researcher at the V. M. Koretsky Institute of State and Law of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Alexander Malyshev or Oleksandr Malyshev (Олександр Малишев) considered international law and ‘bloody antiquities’: New challenges and perspectives.

Ukraine: Crimean archaeology in conditions of occupation

At the seminar on archaeology in occupied territories and in zones of armed conflict, a Research Fellow at the Institute of Archaeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Vyacheslav Baranov (Вячеслав Баранов) considered Crimean archaeology in conditions of occupation.

in the line of fire: cultural heritage in hybrid warfare – occupation, destruction, trafficking, espionage and propaganda

At the seminar on archaeology in occupied territories and in zones of armed conflict, I (Сем Харді) explored cultural heritage in hybrid warfare – occupation, destruction, trafficking, espionage and propaganda.

the situation of archaeological heritage in the area of hostilities (Lugansk region [Ukraine])

At the seminar on archaeology in occupied territories and in zones of armed conflict, a Research Fellow at the Institute of Archaeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Serhii Telizhenko or Sergey Telizhenko (Сергій Теліженко) revealed the situation of archaeological heritage in the area of hostilities (Lugansk region).