Hegemony of the Antiquity’ Heritage: Sharing a Common Past?

Abstract

While focusing on Greece and North Macedonia, I will argue that the hegemony of authorized heritage discourse reveals the dominance of Hellenophilia, which has been continuously reinforced since the nineteenth century by archaeological discoveries of the ancient Greeks. The heritage narratives around the Warrior Hero statue in Skopje (2011) and the New Acropolis Museum in Athens (2009) glorify the ancient past and exclude other historical periods and cultural/ethnic influences, which creates a pregnant imaginary for Eurocentrism, while the hegemony of heritage sites is being harnessed for political agendas. Contrary to that, a celebration of shared civilizational heritage is being forged around imaginings of a glorious antiquity of East and West conjoined by the new Silk Road, specifically between China and Greece, emphasizing it via archaeology, heritage sites, and museums related to the Silk Road. This article is an attempt to demystify the domineering force of Eurocentric heritage studies and practice that suppress multi-cultural views, and ask whether heritage narratives constructed around the new Silk Road’s identity and shared past that look beyond borders can rebuild a dialogue of transnational heritage.