Undergraduate dissertation prize won by Carlota Balcells
Published: 6 December 2021
Congratulations to Carlota for being award this CBRL prize
We are delighted to announce that our recent graduate, Carlota Balcells Guàrdia, has been jointly awarded the CBRL (Council for British Research in the Levant) undergraduate dissertation prize for her work on:
Why Does Heritage Destruction Happen? An analysis of the motivations for heritage destruction in Mesopotamia through a deep-time perspective
Congratulations Carlota! A fantastic achievement!
“My dissertation used a deep-time perspective to study the driving forces and/or motivators of heritage destruction in three relevant case studies from the geographical region of Mesopotamia.
The three case studies – The Sacking of Ur, The Vassal Treaties of Esarhaddon, and The Islamic State and Heritage Destruction in Iraq – were chosen for their particular circumstantial and chronological characteristics. These were extensively researched by comparing the available archaeological, textual, and cultural heritage evidence. The research carried out revealed that, despite their differences, the three case studies held a great degree of similarity, and so a pattern of heritage destruction was established: when certain political, social and/or religious circumstances occur, there is a likelihood that heritage will become targeted for destruction in order to affect or change such circumstances.
The heritage destruction debate focuses mostly on contingency and recovery plans for when destruction has already happened. My dissertation aimed at understanding why heritage is destroyed in the first place.
This dissertation was written as part of my undergraduate degree in Archaeology at the University of Glasgow. Next year I hope to pursue my passion for the conservation of heritage as a postgraduate student in the field of fine art conservation.”
First published: 6 December 2021
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