Project description
Sicilian archaeology and cultural heritage during World War II
The Second World War threatened the archaeological and cultural heritage of the countries involved in military operations. Bombing and ground operations in Sicily affected archaeological and cultural sites. The EU-funded SICILYWAR project will reconstruct and study the acts and conflict between different factors: military forces, national authorities, archaeologists and local communities. It will study the way the authorities treated archaeological discoveries that emerged in military constructions; the interrelations between authorities, scientists and local communities; the comparison of the role Sicilian archaeology played in the protection of cultural heritage with other similar European contexts (in Belgium, France, United Kingdom, et al). The research will benefit various disciplines including archaeologists, historians, art historians and social studies scholars.
Objective
This multidisciplinary, innovative project investigates antiquities in the Second World War context in Sicily (1940–45). The island’s cultural and archaeological heritage was under major threat from Allied bombing, landing and military occupation. The project pursues to reconstruct contexts and social networks involving the national and military authorities, archaeologists and local communities, acting and ‘clashing’ in a state of war and emergency. In particular, our research aims:
a) to investigate how national, local civilian and military authorities dealt with the discoveries of archaeological finds in the area from construction of military structures by the Regio Esercito Italiano and Allied forces to the protection of antiquities;
b) to reveal how the war impacted on the cities and their populations and to reconstruct contexts and social networks involving the national and military authorities, archaeologists and local communities, acting and ‘clashing’ in a state of war and emergency;
c) to contextualise Sicilian archaeology in the wider European stage, comparing Sicily with other European contexts, where advancing war operations imposed exceptional measures to protect culture heritage (e.g. Belgium, France, UK, etc.).
In terms of methodology, all archival and archaeological data will be assessed to obtain a full historical reconstruction of events, conveyed into a GIS and published through a book and two papers. Targeted surveys would be also beneficial to trace evidence and remains of bunkers and camps at some Sicilian sites.
Our inquiry, which fully fits into the remarkable methodological pluralism of Ghent, is strongly interdisciplinary, because it embraces various subjects. They merge together in a fuller historical reconstruction and will therefore benefit historians, archaeologists, art historians and social studies experts, who are jointly interested in inspecting novel data on Sicilian antiquities, local communities and war contexts in the 1940s
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF-EF-ST - Standard EFCoordinator
9000 Gent
Belgium