Cultural Heritage and Legacies of Colonialism is the topic of the upcoming season of a podcast series produced by the project Peopling the Past project.
Peopling the Past is a Digital Humanities initiative that hosts free, open-access resources for teaching and learning “about real people in the ancient world and the people who study them.” The resources provided include a blog, teaching tools, a series of podcasts, and videos. So far, the project’s podcast series has been developed in three seasons, covering subjects such as under-explored aspects of the Greek world (Season 1), the Roman world (Season 2), and Women in the Ancient Mediterranean (Season 3).
This season, produced by Peopling the Past’s video editor Christine Johnston (Associate Prof. of Ancient Mediterranean History at Westen Washington University), is dedicated to some of the big questions facing archaeologists and historians today: How has archaeology impacted the communities archaeologists work in? What can archaeologists do better moving forward? How might they rethink the museum for the 21st century? And what is the future of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies? Thus, the broadcasted discussions will focus on cultural heritage and the dangers threatening it today, the ethics of museums and collecting practices, and the legacies of colonialism in the study of antiquity.
Over eleven episodes, archaeologists, museum curators, and cultural heritage specialists will talk about archaeology, heritage, and the challenges they face. The guests this season address three main themes: cultural heritage, looting, and the antiquities trade; museums, collecting and display practices, and repatriation; colonial practices and legacies in ancient Mediterranean studies.
Throughout this season, the audience is invited to explore the impact that archaeology and looting have had on communities across the Mediterranean, West Asia, and North Africa. This includes topics like the treatment of local dig workers, the impact of excavations on landscapes and local communities, the theft and removal of material culture and ancestral human remains, the treatment of displaced heritage in museums, and the issues threatening cultural heritage today through war and violence, including deliberate heritage destruction and scholasticide.
The season’s first podcast is already available at https://peoplingthepast.