Codename SICILYWAR: Defending the Sicilian Heritage in Danger (1940-45)
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About the talk:
World War 2 (WW2) can be considered one of the most brutal and destructive events
in the twentieth-century history. The war caused death and destruction all over the
world. European states, regions, cities and communities were affected by massive bombing
and war operations between 1939 and 1945. Italy joined WW2 on 10 June 1940 as a member
of the Axis powers. As soon as Italy began military operations, Allied forces carried
out a series of systematic attacks to weaken the enemies and hit military and civilian
targets (ports, factories, bridges, etc.). Sicily was certainly one of the most affected
and bombed Italian regions until August 1943, when the Allied landed and defeated
the Nazi and Royal Italian armies. The effects of war on Sicilian antiquities are,
however, little known and needs further analysis.
This talk presents Crisà’s final results of his research project, carried out at Ghent University (Belgium), exploring the impact of war on archaeological sites, museums and small communities in Sicily during WW2. Now published as a new open-access book entitled Codename SICILYWAR with Archaeopress Publishing Ltd: (https://www.archaeopress.com/Archaeopress/Products/9781803278636), the project benefited from targeted investigations in international archives, which revealed essential sets of records (including documents, pictures, aerial photographs, military dispatches and letters). First, he will introduce his project contextualizing it in the historical European context. Second, he will assess some case studies on Agrigento, Cefalù and Palermo, in which intensive bombing, military operations, bunkers and anti-raid shelter construction put at serious risk local antiquities. Finally, such information helps us understand how safeguarding authorities, military bodies (Italian/German armies, AMGOT and Italian Provisional 'Badoglio' Government) and local communities played a leading role to preserve, make use of, damage or even occupy archaeological sites and museums in a state of war.
About the speaker:
Antonino ‘Nino’ Crisà is an Italian archaeologist, historian and numismatist, currently
Assistant Professor of Cultural Studies and Humanities at Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd
University (Saudi Arabia). His substantial publications explore numismatics and the
history of archaeology and cultural heritage in Italy between nineteenth and early
twentieth century (antiquarianism, coin collectors, excavations, museum collections
and community archaeology) through the analysis of unpublished archival records.
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