Reading a difficult landscape from the air. A methodological case-study from a WWII airfield in South Italy

Cantoro, Gianluca; Pelgrom, Jeremia; Stek, Tesse D.

doi:10.1016/j.culher.2015.09.009

Cited by 4 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…The battle for Spanish skies during the Civil War is no exception as the temporary structures developed in the airfields were even more ephemeral than what can be found within World War Two contexts such as the Battle of Britain (Ramsey, 2000) or the allied bombing campaign in Europe (Cantoro, et al, 2017). The preservation of the few permanent structures built in the Republican airfields has also been degraded by a range of factors including a) the attempt of Franco's dictatorship to erase any memory of the Republican army, b) a social unwillingness to confront the traumatic experiences of the conflict and c) the political actors of the late 20st century who were more interested in rapid urban development than the preservation of cultural heritage (Iñíguez, 2008).…”

Section: A Transdisciplinary Framework For Conflict Heritagementioning

confidence: 99%

Forgotten Pilots, Airfields and Aircraft: A Transdisciplinary Approach to the Memory of the Republican Air Force During the Spanish Civil War (1936–39)

et al. 2019

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As the adage goes, "History is written by the winners" and the Spanish Civil War (1936War ( -1939 is a example of how difficult it is to revert this process. Franco's regime developed a range of narratives focused on a) the justification of the military rebellion against the democratically elected Second Republic government, b) the "damnatio memoriae" of the Republican armed forces and c) the development of a collective guilt about the war. The transition from fascist dictatorship to democracy did not contest Francoist official discourse and forged a "pact of oblivion" based on the idea that Spanish society should look into the future and forget about the conflict at all levels: from personal memories to cultural heritage. One of the victims of this process of targeted forgetfulness was the Republican Air Force because it was an uncomfortable thorn on Francoist narratives. If the Republic was immersed in chaos and its army non-existent then how did it manage to contest the skies against the most modern German and Italian aircraft? This work describes the activities developed by a long-term public archaeology project designed to rediscover the memory of the people that formed the Republican Air Force. This multifaceted initiative explored the materiality of air warfare through a combination of battlefield archaeology, educational research, museum exhibitions and community engagement. The results presented here are an example of how community-based archaeology projects can promote new critical narratives and rediscover silenced voices even after decades of heavily-biased official history.

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Section: A Transdisciplinary Framework For Conflict Heritagementioning

confidence: 99%

Forgotten Pilots, Airfields and Aircraft: A Transdisciplinary Approach to the Memory of the Republican Air Force During the Spanish Civil War (1936–39)

et al. 2019

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“…A major task was to build a suitable airfield in the clayish soils of the north Potenza Province, where the Allies decided to dislocate part of their air force. The remains of the airfield built by using PSP are still visible today thanks to aerial and satellite photography (Cantoro et al, 2017). We can see how PSP was used and how it became a common background in any military setting as it was depicted in many pictures taken at the airfield, including crews and aircrafts as part of a single and indivisible unit.…”

Section: Psp-cancelli DI Venosamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…After 74 years, the PSP-cancelli di Venosa have truly become part of the town's urban furnishing with some people still recalling their parents collecting the metal planks from a forgotten military camp on the way from Venosa to Boreano (Cantoro et al 2017). In this sense, it is possible to observe a change in the significance of these artefacts due to their static and durable nature in the minds of the Venosa inhabitants.…”

Section: Psp-cancelli DI Venosamentioning

confidence: 99%

From war material culture to popular heritage, and beyond

Sánchez

2018

Ex Novo

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Using object biography and Behavioral Archaeology as main theoretical frameworks this paper will examine how the pierced steel planks (PSP), also called Marston mat, become cancelli di Venosa (Venosa’s doors) within the social context where they happen to be located – in the immediate surroundings of Venosa airfield in this casestudy – where several actions occur such as reclamation, re-crafting, functional change, etc. These objects’ biography is, however, not restricted to this study area since they were used widely in the Second World War thus the paper aims to assess their geographical and chronological evolution. Furthermore, I will focus on the modern day utilization of the PSP-cancelli di Venosa and their promotion to the category of local heritage, a phenomenon often termed as heritagization, and their agency in the reproduction of war ideology and imperialistic narratives in Twentieth century popular culture.

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“…At the heart of this approach lays the conceptualisation of the "landscape as the last witness" for interpreting, experiencing and managing the heritage of modern conflict. Building on research within the fields of conflict archaeology and heritage management (Cantoro et al, 2017;Nocerino et al, 2018) and discussion in historical and contemporary archaeology (Clarke et al, 2017;Deetz, 2013), we argue that visible and buried traces of the war (in the form of archaeological features and sites) preserved in the landscape today are amongst the most powerful touchstones that can be used by local heritage practitioners and museum experts to recount the full history of conflicts like, but not limited to, WWI in less selective ways.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards an inclusive curation of WWI heritage: integrating historical aerial photographs, digital museum applications and landscape markers in “Flanders Fields” (Belgium)

Stichelbaut

Plets

Reeves

2020

JCHMSD

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PurposeOver a century of state-sponsored construction of monuments, historic mythmaking and nationalist framings of WWI has ensured that it has become notoriously difficult to present the heritage of the Great War in an inclusive and non-selective way. In this paper the authors present a strategy and technology-driven solutions to overcome the selective heritage curation of modern conflict.Design/methodology/approachBuilding on a suite of tools, applications and cultural heritage management plans developed by the In Flanders Fields Museum (IFFM), this paper explores the challenges of preserving and curating conflict heritage. The authors investigate the philosophy, cultural heritage management strategies and exhibitions used to curate the heritage of the Ypres Salient (Belgium).FindingsThe paper argues that historical aerial photographs integrated in multimedia exhibits present themselves as a fascinating source bringing the landscape within the walls of the museum. Mobile augmented reality (AR) applications developed by the museum go one step beyond and bring museum techniques to the landscape.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper presents a strategy to present, manage and curate the entirety of conflict heritage from the modern period. Faced with growing politicisation and memorialisation of modern conflict, it is extremely important that inclusive heritage management and curation is insured. The reflections on different curatorial techniques used by the IFFM can contribute globally towards a better heritage engagement.Practical implicationsAn innovative and meaningful framework enables a more historically nuanced visitor experience to key heritage sites throughout the Ypres Salient.Social implicationsEnsuring a non-selective heritage experience is especially pressing today. Over the past century canonised and national narratives have prescribed our understanding of the First World War across Europe and beyond.Originality/valueAdopting a critical stance towards the proliferation in AR apps and applying theories from anthropology and phenomenology has been developed combining AR with arboreal landscape relics.

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Reading a difficult landscape from the air. A methodological case-study from a WWII airfield in South Italy

Cited by 4 publications

References 9 publications

Forgotten Pilots, Airfields and Aircraft: A Transdisciplinary Approach to the Memory of the Republican Air Force During the Spanish Civil War (1936–39)

Forgotten Pilots, Airfields and Aircraft: A Transdisciplinary Approach to the Memory of the Republican Air Force During the Spanish Civil War (1936–39)

From war material culture to popular heritage, and beyond

Towards an inclusive curation of WWI heritage: integrating historical aerial photographs, digital museum applications and landscape markers in “Flanders Fields” (Belgium)

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