Local Monuments Research Articles

The construction of memory in interwar France

This work takes a look at the human impact of World War I by examining the ways in which the French remembered their veterans and war dead after the armistice. Arguing that memory is more than just a record of experience, this cultural history offers a perspective on how commemoration of World War I helped to shape post-war French society and politics. Daniel Sherman shows how a wartime visual culture saturated with images of ordinary foot soldiers, together with contemporary novels, memoirs and tourist literature, promoted a distinctive notion of combat experience. The contrast between battlefield and home front, soldier and civilian was the basis for memory and collective gratitude. Post-war commemoration, however, also grew directly out of the search for the remains of hundreds of thousands of missing soldiers, and the sometimes contentious debates over where to bury them. For this reason, the local monument, with its inscribed list of names and its functional resemblance to tombstobes, emerged as the focal point of commemorative practice. Sherman traces every step in the process of monument building as he analyzes commemoration's competing goals - to pay tribute to the dead, to console the bereaved and to incorporate mourner's individual memories into a larger political discourse.

Monumental Indifference?

Odermatts's discussion of the changing responses of theAbbasantesito the fate of the local nuragic monuments adds important new insights to the emergent literature on the politics of national and regional heritage. I intend my remarks as suggestions for expanding the argument – and perhaps the research – beyond the promising start made here. This timely topic and Odermatts's refreshingly critical perspective deserve no less.

Identifying and protecting historic landscapes

Six years ago, Darvill and colleagues reported (ANTIQUITY 61: 393–408) on the Monuments Protection Programme, a new English initiative to build, from a century of haphazard acts of site protection, a set of balanced judgements and priorities by which to recognize ancient places that are more precious, genuinely of a national importance. The Programme, they tell ANTIQUITY, has now completed the first-stage review of information in local sites and monuments records and is proceeding with the identification of nationally important monuments in every English county. This further paper reports on how the Monuments Protection Programme is addressing landscapes, as distinct from ‘spot sites’ with clear limits, where the matters of defining a ‘relict cultural landscape’ and judging relative value are harder.

A Proposed Dating for the Tour Saint-Aubin in Angers

The questions of dating and continuity of construction of the Tour Saint-Aubin in Angers have provoked much dissension among scholars for over a century. Documentary evidence regarding the history of the structure is extremely limited. Furthermore, much of the sculptural decoration has been replaced in the course of extensive restoration. Nonetheless, photographs taken of the sculptures in situ before restoration make possible an evaluation of the sculptural ensemble, and a comparison with other local monuments whose dates are more firmly established. Such comparison strongly suggests that the construction of the building took place in a single campaign between 1130 and 1180.

The Military in Soviet Society

It was entirely like the fulfillment of a responsible assignment in war. At the appointed hour each of the 'scouts' received an envelope with a wax seal and the inscription 'absolutely secret.' In it were crisp, military-style directions and a map. The participants, each separately, were ordered to seek out one of the local monuments related to events of the October Revolution or the Patriotic War and then gather as many details as possible. So operation 'Absolutely Secret' began. The 'warriors' made their way through forest paths to fulfill the assignment. Then, using the map and password, they gathered at the appointed time [to report]. . . . The 'scouts' were village boys and girls, members of the youth club. . . . [They then went in a procession, torches held aloft, to a cemetery of victims of fascism.] Youths and maidens swore to be true helpers of the party, to fight for peace and happiness on earth. Then military campaign songs resounded over the meadow.1 For Soviet schoolboys (and girls, too) such educational inspirational activities are no novelty, as countless clubs, often presided over by officers or reservists, train children in military-patriotic skills and virtues. From preschool years, children are encouraged to play war games. The Pioneers, which include nearly all children from ten to fifteen, march briskly, salute smartly, stand in formation, and swear solemn oaths in many a martial ceremony. In the Urals district, it was reported in 1969, military authorities sponsored 35 orphanages and 815 schools; there were 235 divisions of Young Friends of the Soviet Army, 438 military sport clubs, 418 military museums, and 5186 corners of military glory. About 1200 soldiers were leaders of pioneer brigades and 200,000 schoolchildren were guests on trips to army posts.2 Millions of boys and girls are taken on pilgrimages to the

XIX.—On some early Notices relating to the Antiquities of St. Alban's, by Thomas Wright, Esq. F.S.A.

Some time ago the Society of Antiquaries did me the honour of listening to, and printing in its Transactions, a few remarks on the Antiquarian excavations made by the monks during the middle ages; on the destruction of many ancient monuments by this process; and on the purposes to which the articles thus brought to light were turned. Perhaps I may be permitted to recall the attention of the members of the Society to this subject, which will be hardly considered an uninteresting one, in order to shew how much may be learnt on the subject of local monuments of antiquity in this country from a careful perusal of the legendary literature of the church. So general was the custom of turning old popular legends into religious legends, and so universally were such popular legends attached to ancient sites and monuments, that we need not be surprised at the great importance which these monuments often assume in the histories of the lives and miracles of saints, and at the numerous and curious descriptions of these monuments which we find in the peculiar class of literature to which I allude.