Charles University in Prague Faculty of Arts Department of World History Seminar of General and Comparative History UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITES: WAYS OF PRESENTING & INTERPRETING THE PAST As seen in: Kutná Hora, Hiroshima and Villa Romana del Casale SVĚTOVÉ DĚDICTVÍ UNESCO: ZPŮSOBY PREZENTACE A INTERPRETACE MINULOSTI Na příkladech: Kutná Hora, Hirošima a Villa Romana del Casale Linda Kovářová PhD thesis Field of study: History Tutor: Prof. Luďa Klusáková 2017 ‘I state that I have written this PhD thesis autonomously with the use of indicated and properly cited sources and literature and that this thesis has not been used within the framework of any other university study programme or for the purpose of obtaining another title.’ 2 Acknowledgement I would like to express a sincere gratitude to my mentor Professor Luďa Klusáková for supervising this thesis, for her methodological advice and valued remarks as well as for her insistent support and motivation during my studies. 3 ABSTRACT This thesis deals with a specific group of historical sites called World Heritage, which are registered on the UNESCO World Heritage List. It characterizes the basic elements of the UNESCO World Heritage idea as a cultural and social process, which engages in acts of remembering that work to create ways to understand, present and interpret the past within the present social frameworks. The thesis brings to the attention a range of viewpoints about the nature of heritage in general and the UNESCO World Heritage in specific that have emerged in the relatively new area of academic interdisciplinary heritage studies. For the purposes of exploring different aspects of the World Heritage phenomenon, following themes of heritage discourse have been developed: remembering and making public use of the past, the UNESCO approach and the ways of presenting and interpreting the past. In order to give a sense of what World Heritage looks like on the ground this thesis details some aspects of three different World Heritage sites. To study such matters in the physical world a strategy of undertaking case studies of three specific UNESCO sites and employing the methods of direct observation and a fieldwork were chosen. Closer examinations of the Czech medieval town of Kutná Hora, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Japan and the archaeological site of the Roman Villa del Casale in Sicily as individual UNESCO sites shed light on the matter of presenting and interpreting the past within the UNESCO commemorative narrative framework of the human past. These three case study investigations show three singular ways of approaching the past and of being a UNESCO site. Key words: heritage, presenting and interpreting the past, UNESCO, World Heritage, UNESCO World Heritage sites ABSTRAKT Tato dizertační práce se zabývá specifickou skupinou historických míst nazývaných světové dědictví, která jsou zapsaná na Seznamu světového dědictví UNESCO. Práce charakterizuje základní prvky myšlenky světového dědictví UNESCO jakožto kulturního a společenského procesu, jehož součástí jsou akty vzpomínání vedoucí k různým možnostem chápání, prezentování a interpretování minulosti v rámci aktuálních společenských rámců. Práce poukazuje na řadu hledisek o povaze památek obecně, jako i konkrétně o povaze světového dědictví UNESCO, které se stalo předmětem zájmu relativně nové mezioborové akademické disciplíny, která se zabývá studiem kulturního dědictví, a pro kterou se vžil v angličtině termín ‘heritage studies‘. Za účelem prozkoumání různých aspektů fenoménu světového dědictví byla rozpracována tato témata: vzpomínání a veřejné využívání minulosti, UNESCO přístup a způsoby prezentace a interpretace minulosti. Proto, aby bylo možné zachytit jak koncept světového dědictví vypadá v praxi, věnuje se práce popisu určitých aspektů tří různých míst světového dědictví. Pro studium těchto záležitostí ve fyzickém světě byly s využitím metod přímého pozorování a terénního výzkumu vypracovány případové studie tří specifických míst UNESCO. Při bližším pohledu na jednotlivé vybrané památky UNESCO – české středověké město Kutnou Horu, pamětní park míru v Hirošime v Japonsku a archeologické naleziště Villa Romana del Casale na Sicílii je možné sledovat způsoby prezentace a interpretace minulosti v rámci UNESCO vzpomínkového narativu minulosti lidstva. Tyto tři případové studie ukazují tři různé způsoby zacházení s minulostí a bytí UNESCO památkou. Klíčová slova: dědictví, prezentace a interpretace minulosti, UNESCO, světové dědictví, památky zapsané na seznamu světového dědictví UNESCO 4 CONTENTS Acknowledgements 3 Abstract 4 List of abbreviations 9 1 Introduction 10 Heritage in postmodern times 10 UNESCO World Heritage concept 13 1.1 Research questions and settings 16 1.2 Definitions, sources and methods 17 Memory concepts 17 Case studies: fieldwork and comparison 18 Sources: critical discourse analysis 20 1.3 Chapter overview 21 PART ONE: THEORIZING HERITAGE 23 2 Heritage context 24 2.1 Remembering the past 26 Interplay of history, memory and identity 27 Halbwachs on collective memory 31 Nora on Places of Memory 33 Assman on Cultural and Communicative Memory 34 Yoneyama on Memoryscape 35 2.2 Heritage Practice 36 Heritage idea and heritage values 37 Heritage interpretation 38 Heritage preservation 42 Historical developments of heritage preservation and practice 43 2.3 Heritage Uses 45 Tourism 47 5 3 UNESCO approach 50 3.1 Strategy development 54 Heritage activity before the World Heritage Convention 54 World Heritage Convention and additions 56 3.2 Institutional framework and policy 63 World Heritage Committee 63 Nomination process 64 Protection and management system 67 World Heritage List 68 3.3 Defining World Heritage 69 World Heritage criteria 71 PART TWO: PRACTICING HERITAGE 74 4 Kutná Hora in the Czech Republic 75 4.1 Contexts 77 Cultural, historical and geographical specifications 77 Heritage perception and institutional framework 78 Joining UNESCO 81 4.2 The site 82 Urban heritage 85 Inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage List 93 4.3 Past interpretations 95 UNESCO presentation of the site 96 Professional history frame 97 In situ presentations 100 Performed past: Royal Silvering of Kutná Hora 106 5 Hiroshima in Japan 110 5.1 Contexts 112 Cultural, historical and geographical specifications 113 Heritage perception and institutional framework 115 Joining UNESCO 118 5.2 The site 119 Memorial heritage 121 Inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage List 133 6 5.3 Past interpretations 137 UNESCO presentation of the site 138 Professional history frame 140 In situ presentations 145 Commemorative practice: Hiroshima Peace Memorial Day 153 6 Villa Romana del Casale in Sicily 156 6.1 Contexts 157 Cultural, historical and geographical specifications 158 Heritage perception and institutional framework 160 Joining UNESCO 161 6.2 The site 164 Archaeological heritage 166 Inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage List 174 6.3 Past interpretations 177 UNESCO presentation of the site 178 Professional history frame 179 In situ presentations 182 7 Conclusions 188 7.1 Comparative analysis 188 Heritage type 189 Geographical and cultural settings 190 Location and visiting pattern 191 Historic time, remembered past and the purpose of remembering 193 7.2 Strategies for presenting and interpreting the past 194 Creating memoryscape 197 Commemorative practice 197 Developing catchwords 198 7.3 UNESCO impacts 198 Top-down&bottom-up organization of presentation and interpretation 199 Creating World Heritage category 201 Bibliography 203 UNESCO sources 203 Kutná Hora case study sources 205 Hiroshima case study sources 207 Villa Romana del Casale case study sources 211 Books, articles, dissertations and papers 214 7 Appendixes 221 Appendix 1: UNESCO World Heritage selection criteria (1978-2004) 221 Appendix 2: UNESCO World Heritage new selection criteria (since 2005) 222 Appendix 3: UNESCO World Heritage sites in the Czech Republic 223 Appendix 4: UNESCO World Heritage sites in Japan 224 Appendix 5: UNESCO World Heritage sites in Sicily 225 Appendix 6: UNESCO World Heritage sites in Italy 226 Appendix 7: List of figures 228 8 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ICCROM International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property ICH Intangible Cultural Heritage ICOMOS International Council on Monuments and Sites IUCN World Conservation Union OUV Outstanding universal value UN United Nations UNESCO United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization WH World Heritage WHC World Heritage Committee WHCIA World Heritage Center Internet Archive WHL World Heritage List 9 1 INTRODUCTION At the beginning of this research there was an interest in historical monuments and heritage in general, above all in those termed World Heritage and registered on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Heritage sites were understood to be places of some sort of a testimony to the past. Inspired by the collective memory thesis of Maurice Halbwachs and the places of memory concept of Pierre Nora, heritage sites are to be perceived as sources of remembering the past, where the past itself was grounded, concreted, expressed, produced, presented and interpreted. Special concern was given to the ways of presenting and interpreting the past at such sites. UNESCO was seen as a manipulator of the past, in that it was not simply preserving, conserving and restoring the heritage and its past but also it was seen to be re-creating it. Desiring to study such matters in a physical world the research proceeded to a case study approach by examining,