This volume arose from an EAC symposium in Târgovişte, Romania, held in March 2008, and includes seventeen papers from fourteen countries, including a number only relatively recently emerged from oppressive political regimes. The papers were written by leading professionals from national heritage bodies and museums from Iceland to Romania, from the Canton of Bern to Sweden; illustrated throughout in colour with photographs of some of the most important archaeological sites and landscapes in Europe.
Details of the symposium are provided in the foreword, and while the importance of the subject matter cannot be disputed, it is worthwhile noting the main themes. The symposium focused upon recent advances in the approaches (intellectual and legal) behind the principles of selection and subsequent designation of elements of the historic environment, including monuments, buildings and landscapes. Practice varies significantly across Europe and continues to evolve; therefore the subject was seen as one worthy of being brought to the EAC, to discuss the philosophy and practicalities of identifying sites worthy of legal protection and the appropriate levels or forms of protection. The volume provides a frankly fascinating window on how everyone else protects their heritage.
The bulk of the volume is given over to papers outlining current national legislative systems, the creation of inventories, GIS and other databases within individual countries. It is not possible to comment on all these here, but some key points and papers may be highlighted. A major theme of the symposium was the discrepancy between individual sites and historic landscapes. The possibilities of protecting landscapes wholesale rather than only the individual monuments is a difficult area. Christian Mayer introduces some ideas about how our examination and classification of individual elements within landscapes in effect ‘create’ that landscape by identifying the special features and values beyond mere topography and geomorphology. He goes from establishing that in these terms landscape is intangible and thus difficult to protect, to creating a method based on the Austrian national database for applying numerical coding and weighting to individual aspects within a landscape. This can therefore be used to quantify the significance of landscapes across regions, countries or even pan-Europe.
A number of papers were presented from former Communist states, where treatment of the past has often been selective, particularly with reference to Church and Monarchy. Irina Saprykina outlined the history of approach in Russia, where protective measures for sites were in place as far back as the Tsarist regime, but even in the mid-twentieth century, cultural and historical sites were identified and protected under a national programme. This is now being devolved to local authorities and certain disadvantages are foreseen here. Dana Mihai and Mircea Angelescu outline a new system for mapping the official list of historic monuments across Romania to enable better strategic planning for protection and simple accessibility to the information contained within the list.
The importance of spatial analysis as a tool is picked out by a number of the authors, and, interestingly, the importance of planners is underscored, rather than simply focusing on the role of the heritage professionals. This is very clear in discussion of integrated heritage protection in Slovenia (Djurić et al) and spatial planning in Sweden (Norman and Sohienius).
In additional to the nationally based papers, the final chapter provides an extremely useful and fascinating insight into the mechanisms for listing and protection for twenty countries across Europe. This was compiled to show the similarities and differences in the way individual legislation and consenting mechanisms vary. It also highlights the wide range of terminology employed, for instance scheduling, listing, registration, monuments, sites, buildings and landscapes. The chapter demonstrates clearly the progress that has been made in enshrining the protection of the cultural heritage in law, and, sadly, the progress that still needs to be achieved. More cheerful, though, are the indications that all these countries have a public educational programme and are committed to compiling information (and making it publicly accessible) about their protected sites. The marine environment is missing from the volume, which is understandable owing to the relatively recent developments that make underwater archaeology possible, but the increases in exploitation and development of the marine environment mean this subject urgently needs addressing.
Given the pressure on many countries in the current financial climate to focus on the economy, and on jobs and development, threatening the political profile and physical fabric of our heritage, this is a timely and useful volume.
