Nota Pantzou, Museum of Ai Stratis, Athens

In light of globalisation, many theorists have foreseen the imminent end of both nationalism and cultural intimacy. Some scholars claim that these forces are resulting in a growing homogenisation, whereas others suggest that identity formation will become increasingly fragmented. Nevertheless, presently nationalism appears to be a continued driving force and the role of cultural heritage in identity politics appears to be augmenting. By exploring the ideological and practical aspects of UNESCO’s World Heritage Convention through its materialisation: the World Heritage Sites (WHS), the intention is to address the interplay between the global, national and the local realms in an effort to examine the multiple values of the remnants of the past, the ever-evolving character of national imagination and the transcending nature of local conceptions of the ‘self’ and the past. Despite UNESCO envisioning WHS as representative examples of ‘humanity’s shared past, I argue that on both local and national level, WHS are imbued with several layers of meaning, operate as landmarks of diverse identities, and occasionally serve conflicting purposes. By integrating the local realm in the dialectic, the intention is to juxtapose local readings of identity and heritage with national narratives and global concepts and investigate their discursive and practical (in)compatibility.

The case study explored in this paper is drawn from the Balkans, a region that has become a centre of academic and public interest - particularly after the conflicts of the past two decades – in fuelling the burgeoning discussion on nationalism and politics of the past. The WHS of Butrint (Albania) offers the raw material for a thorough analysis of archaeology’s role in the politics of identity in a global context. It further allows an exploration from a national and local perspective- by stressing the multiplicity of meanings and values of the past and the new apparatuses of imagination.