UNESCO

Chair on Heritage Futures

A Fossil Discovered in an Iron Age Excavation by archaeology students in Löt, Öland

2026-10-02

By Nur Esin Karaosman, Visiting PhD student at the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures, Linnaeus University

During an archaeological excavation in Löt, Öland, conducted as part of a large research project on ringforts on Öland and of Linnaeus University’s archaeology program, what may be the oldest find of the excavation was brought to the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures.

It was found on 17 September 2026, during a conversation among the students about how to distinguish a fossil from “just-a-stone”. Helena Deller, a Master’s student in archaeology, noticed the fossil and, just before removing it from the trench, showed it to Esin Karaosman, a visiting doctoral student at the Chair who was taking part in the excavation that day.

It was important enough for Esin to keep, but not important enough to be archived as part of the Iron Age excavation. The find has been documented at the Chair, where the investigation continues.

Fig.1: The documentation of the find, including its speculative future. (Photograph by Esin Karaosman.)

It is very possible that the find was already here when the Iron Age settlement was inhabited. Esin considers the find an important object for archaeological practice. “Perhaps someone living here in this Iron Age house picked it up too, because it reminded them of something,” she says. “Then we would be looking at the same stone or the same fossil, only making sense of it in different ways today.”

Whether or not the fossil was a part of the history of the site, therefore the past human lives, it has already become an archaeological find.

A conversation with a geologist at Linnaeus University, Christopher Allen, confirmed that it is a fossil. The find holds the traces of an animal that was once alive in the same place, but in a sea that covered Öland 450 million years ago.

Esin recalls a quote from Cornelius Holtorf which he said at another Iron Age site nearby, on 12 September at around 3.19 pm: “We are looking at the same sky as people in the Iron Age, sitting in the same place. We will probably look at the same sky, also in the future.” The fossil, too, will be looked at again, and its story will continue to unfold in the future.

Fig.2: The re-enactment of the moment when the fossil became an archaeological find. (Photograph by Esin Karaosman.)

The find is already evidence of a life that reaches far beyond the site’s Iron Age. It is also the evidence of the very recent past: of archaeological sensibility and of students being trained how to see; of the class that took place that day; and of the conversation between Helena and Esin about what counts as evidence for the story of a site.

Not only these stories change the life of the find, but also the finds and their stories change how the site will be remembered, known and imagined. Having escaped the Iron Age archive, the find continues its travels and transformations. (1)

Note: This article is inspired by the following article: Holtorf, C. 2006. “A silver ring discovered by Swedish archaeologists in Portugal.” World Archaeological Congress eNewsletter no. 12, and The European Archaeologist no. 26, 16.

(1) This endnote is left for the texts that will change the enduring life of the artifact, and of the site.

Various activities July – September 2026

2026-10-01

Cornelius Holtorf was among nearly 300 attendants of the UNESCO Futures Dialogues on ‘African Knowledge and Governance Systems for a Culture of Peace’ organized in the lead-up to the 4th edition of the Biennale of Luanda – the Pan-African Forum for the Culture of Peace in Africa (8 July 2026). In his introduction, Mohamed Elfarnawany (UNESCO) reminded the audience of the significance of the minds of people for peacebuilding because it is in the minds that people’s attitudes, behaviour and values are shaped. He suggested that the world needs African intellectual leadership in this area. George Ladaah Openjuru, Vice Chancellor of Gulu University in Uganda, pointed to the significance of the African ‘land-based’, indigenous knowledge system and Ubuntu, advocating a shift from ego to eco, i.e. promoting harmony with the environment and respect for people and nature to advance cultural peace. Others in the audience pointed to the fact that Africa consists of 54 countries, each with a plethora of tribes and languages, and unique forms of governance.

Cornelius Holtorf attended a regular online seminar of the Long-Term Governance Network, chaired by Sophie Howe (17 July 2026). Among the presenters were Manuel Castañón, President of the Foundation for the Protection and Defence of Future Generations, and Daouia Chalali who leads a project on long-term governance at the United Nations University’s Centre for Policy Research.

Cornelius Holtorf participated in the Inauguration of the Linnaeus Garden at Linnaeus University in Kalmar, Sweden, and served cheese cookies with wild oregano grown in soil at the Iron Age site of Gamla Skogsby (18 August 2026). Marcy Rockman, Gustav Wollentz and Emily Hanscam attended too.

Cornelius Holtorf gave a short talk on UNESCO, intangible cultural heritage and Swedish peace culture for more than 200 participants of the Peace & Climate Festival, arranged in Mellstabylund on Öland, Sweden, by the local Cultural Association “Karneval” (22 August 2026).

Cornelius Holtorf took part in an internal meeting with the Vice-Chancellor and other senior administrators and senior researchers discussing the future potential of Linnaeus University as a hub in UNESCO MOST-BRIDGES (27 August 2026).

Anders Högberg, Gustav Wollentz, and Cornelius Holtorf, among many others, took actively part in a 2-day workshop in Sigtuna, Sweden, organised by the Swedish National Heritage Board in connection with their project on Sustainable Cultural Heritage (27-28 August 2026).

Cornelius Holtorf, Marcy Rockman, Emily Hanscam, and Gustav Wollentz, took part in the second workshop of the internally-funded interdisciplinary Hope-making project in which they collaborate with colleagues in English Literature, and artists. The two days hosted by the artist collective Kultivator in Dyestad on Öland was dedicated to preparing a future project involving not only archaeologists and literature scholars but also biologists, artists, and various non-human species. The days featured even some collaborative ditch digging and was in parts attended by some horses and a few dogs and cats (2-3 September 2026).

Cornelius Holtorf attended “Day Break”, an event facilitating meetings between 100 investors, entrepreneurs, and innovators from Linnaeus University, held at Vida Art Museum, Öland, Sweden (4 September 2026). Among those inspiring us was Björn Ulvaeus of ABBA fame and also holding an Honorary Doctorate from our University.

Cornelius Holtorf had an informal meeting about future collaboration with Johanna Blokker, Chairholder of the UNESCO Chair in Heritage Studies at the Brandenburg University of Technology (BTU), Cottbus-Senftenberg, Germany (10 September 2026).

Cornelius Holtorf attended a digital seminar of the ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on Aerospace Heritage on the topic of “Protecting Lunar Heritage: Developing Guidelines and Recommendations for Controlled Lunar Deorbiting” (14 September 2026) and engaged subsequently in correspondence with Bryan Lintott, the Committee’s Secretary-General, concerning questions of emphasis and strategy.

Cornelius Holtorf completed the Member Survey of the ICOMOS International Committee on Interpretation and Presentation (ICIP) responding to proposals for the planned Revision of the 2008 ICOMOS Charter for Interpretation and Presentation of Cultural Heritage Sites (16 September 2026).

Gustav Wollentz and Anders Högberg held a futures workshop in Malmö, Sweden, for 8 professionals in the cultural heritage sector in southern Sweden. The purpose was to inform the ongoing study on the sector’s future research needs in relation to social sustainability (22 September 2026).

Gustav Wollentz and Cornelius Holtorf held a futures workshop in Göteborg, Sweden, for 11 professionals in the cultural heritage sector in western Sweden. The purpose was to inform the ongoing study on the sector’s future research needs in relation to social sustainability (24 September 2026).

Cornelius Holtorf attended the European Heritage Hub’s online Policy Talk on how cultural heritage should fit into future European AI policies, featuring presentations by Hermann Parzinger, Executive President of Europa Nostra, Georg Häusler, Director of Culture, Creativity and Sport in the European Commission, and Mariya Gabriel, Assistant Director General for Communication and Information at UNESCO, among others (29 September 2026). The occasion was the publication of a new policy paper entitled “Beyond adopter and supplier: putting cultural heritage at the heart of Europe’s Public AI ecosystem,” emphasizing the needs to innovate in Europe, to protect cultural diversity and heritage in Europe, and to empower creators and people in Europe through the development of Public AI.

Heritage Futures@Aarhus

2026-09-22

A new research programme dedicated to Heritage Futures has been launched at the University of Aarhus in Denmark. As the researchers explain,

“We are interested in how heritage can shape the present and future. Mostly people think of heritage as something that ‘has been’, something in the past, but heritage is produced in the present and shapes the future. (…)

One of the debates that we want to engage is the emerging conversation around Heritage-based Solutions (HbS) to global challenges, like the climate emergency and social and economic inequality. For us, heritage is an important route towards social justice, hence the theme for the first year of the research programme is ‘Decolonial Futures’ in which we engage with difficult and contested questions of coloniality and its shaping effects in Denmark and more broadly. (…) In the second year we will explore the subject of utopia/dystopia. (…)

The emerging debate around Heritage-based Solutions understands heritage as a ‘solutions archive’ that we can draw on to address contemporary challenges. We are an ingenious species, and we have faced many challenges in the past, including the challenge of rapidly transforming climatic conditions. (…) In this moment of crisis, it makes sense to draw on the archive of heritage to find solutions and inspiration.

Good luck with your work!

Bye Bye Bryggen!

2026-09-20

I have been listening to a very interesting audiowalk through Bergen’s World Heritage Site of Bryggen and the city’s climate future. The title is Bye Bye Bryggen.

The audioguide was produced by Umami Productions and they describe the task as follows (automated translation of the Norwegian original):

The World Heritage Site of Bryggen is located right by the water in Bergen, Europe’s rainiest city. What will happen to the World Heritage Site in the future is an open question, given that the problems caused by flooding and storm surges will become increasingly severe as the years go by. In Bergen, intensive work is underway to assess the future in order to make informed decisions about how infrastructure needs to change. However, the primary language of climate research is numbers and graphs—and it can be difficult to understand their real implications, even for experts working with future analyses.

To solve the task at hand, Umami wrote two stories based on very different scenarios. They describe the underlying key ideas as follows:

Bye Bye Bryggen is a fictional story about the lives of two siblings. They are born in the early 2020s and experience the great storm that hits Bryggen in 2072. Almost thirty years later, one of the siblings’ grandchildren is given a school assignment: go home and interview your relatives about something that has happened in their lives. Tonje, the granddaughter, has always wondered what really happened during the storm. The only thing she knows is that her grandfather, her mother, and her grandfather’s sister were at Bryggen when the storm struck, where the family had a shop. And that her grandfather and his sister have not spoken to each other since then.

Bye Bye Bryggen is based on the idea that all our decisions—both major political decisions and the small decisions we make in our everyday lives—affect the future. This is what we explore through the story of the siblings. Their private conflict mirrors larger conflicts in the society in which they live. The concept allows you to choose between two different futures. One takes place in a world where major conflicts have been resolved through various forms of agreement. The other is a future in which the conflicts remain unresolved. The idea is that the different versions will stimulate conversations about what kind of future we want, what we are prepared to sacrifice, and which values matter when we are forced to compromise because of climate change.

The project may be called Applied Heritage Futures: set in 2100, it makes audiences think about the role of cultural heritage in managing the relations between present and future societies. This is clearly expressed at the very end of the audioguide when the narrator gives this advice:

“Remember, there are endless possible futures, and whatever future may come, we create it together.”

You can listen to the two versions of the audioguide through The World Heritage of Bryggen at Bergen by downloading the Climaginaries app for free. Highly recommended!

Nordic World Heritage Conference

2026-09-15

Cornelius Holtorf and Gustav Wollentz were invited speakers at the Nordic World Heritage Conference 2026 attended by about 200 World Heritage managers and policy-makers from all the Nordic countries and held in Karlskrona and on Öland (15-16 October 2026). The theme was “World Heritage and Sustainable Development.”

The conference was officially opened by H.R.H. Prince Carl-Phillip.

Cornelius Holtorf presented a keynote entitled “World Heritage in a Post-2030 Agenda”. He explored the ongoing international dialogue around a post-2030 agenda and its implications for World Heritage. The session highlighted how heritage can relate to future frameworks for sustainable development.

Gustav Wollentz talked about “The value in futures thinking for World Heritage”. He reflected on how future perspectives can—and should—be integrated into World Heritage work.

The meeting also provided an opportunity for meetings with colleagues from near and far. Here, from left to right: Elene Negussie (World Heritage Coordinator, Swedish National Heritage Board), Maria Wilenius (Secretary General, Swedish UNESCO Commission, and Cornelius Holtorf).

UNESCO80 Initiative

2026-08-18

Cornelius Holtorf listened to a first dialogue of the Director-General (DG) of UNESCO, Professor Khaled El-Enany with some 600 UNESCO Chairs (more than half of the total!), held in two sessions on 29 January 2026. El-Enany emphasized the significance of the UNESCO Chairs and UNITWIN networks as well as the need for UNESCO of utilizing the “priceless” expertise, knowledge, and research of the UNESCO Chairs and UNITWIN networks. This important meeting was intended as the beginning of a series of meetings during the DG:s entire mandate. In the framework of the UNESCO80 initiative: Shaping UNESCO’s Future Together, El-Enany asked the Chairs for observations, aspirations, ideas and suggestions to build together the strategy for the future of UNESCO, at the same time identifying or improving synergies between UNESCO and the Chairs. The DG concluded by calling for a more efficient and better coordinated way of collaborating with the UNESCO Chairs and UNITWIN networks, offering them a win-win deal: “Lets start a new era of a real partnership between UNESCO and every one of the Chairs.”

I submitted the following suggestions:

To Professor Khaled El-Enany
Director-General of UNESCO

7 July 2026

Dear Professor El-Enany,

During your first dialogue as DG with UNESCO Chairs at the end of January, you invited Chairholders, in a spirit of intellectual collaboration, to contribute ideas and aspirations for UNESCO’s future role in an evolving world. You encouraged us to reflect on how UNESCO can respond to emerging realities, including climate change, digital inequalities, threats to human rights, and other global challenges.

Since 2017, I have held the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures at Linnaeus University in Sweden. The Chair explores the role of heritage in shaping relationships between present and future generations. I was also pleased to meet you briefly during your much appreciated participation in the Chair’s reception on World Futures Day in Paris on 2 December 2025.

In response to your invitation, I would like to offer a few reflections that may contribute to UNESCO’s work in the context of UN80 and support greater effectiveness, coherence, and impact across the United Nations system.

1. Strengthening long-term thinking

The 2024 UN Pact for the Future highlighted the importance of long-term thinking in addressing global challenges. UNESCO is uniquely positioned to advance this agenda. The cultural heritage sector as well as the humanities and social sciences offer rich resources for understanding long-term societal change, while futures literacy and foresight provide tools for imagining and preparing for alternative futures.

Closer collaboration between these domains could strengthen UNESCO’s contribution to anticipatory governance and intergenerational fairness, while also fostering synergies across the UN system. The UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures would be pleased to contribute to such efforts.

2. Understanding our shared human heritage

Culture shapes how people make sense of the world and relate to one another. Addressing global challenges, including climate change, emerging technologies, pandemics and nuclear risks, requires trust, solidarity, and a sense of shared responsibility.

UNESCO could further strengthen its leadership by promoting awareness of humanity’s common heritage and shared destiny, complementing its important work on cultural diversity. Greater attention to what unites human beings across cultures, histories, and regions may help foster mutual understanding and strengthen global cohesion for the benefit of people living now and in the future. This effort could draw productively on expertise from both the social and natural sciences, including research on our shared human origins and our genetic heritage.

3. Reimagining heritage and change

In a world increasingly characterized by rapid change and transformation, heritage remains an important resource for individuals and communities seeking continuity and resilience. Yet heritage is not only something to be safeguarded against identified threats; it can also be a catalyst for desirable positive change and transformation.

UNESCO could lead a broader conversation on how changing and emerging heritage practices can contribute to human happiness, equality, justice, and human rights. This may involve complementing traditional preservation approaches with perspectives that recognize heritage as a dynamic concept reflecting past and present people’s choices while informing future ones in pursuit of both human well-being and people’s own aspirations.

4. Expanding UNESCO’s leadership on human–environment relations

UNESCO emerged from intellectual traditions grounded in humanism and cooperation between peoples. Today, all of humanity faces planetary challenges associated with environmental degradation, biodiversity loss, and climate change that affect both human and non-human life.

Building on UNESCO’s recent leadership in areas such as the ethics of artificial intelligence, the Organization could further advance reflection on human–environment relations through fields such as the environmental humanities and interdisciplinary approaches on planetary cohabitation, interspecies care, and related topics. UNESCO is exceptionally well placed to foster dialogue on the wider implications of post-human thinking.

I would be pleased to elaborate on any of these ideas, adapt them in light of UNESCO’s priorities, or contribute to future initiatives in these areas.

Thank you for inviting UNESCO Chairs to share their perspectives and suggestions in the framework of UN80. I greatly appreciate this opportunity to contribute to UNESCO’s future work.

Yours sincerely,

Cornelius Holtorf
Chairholder, UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Linnaeus University, Kalmar Sweden, http://lnu.se/en/unescochair

P.S. As a Chairholder based at a university, I may not always be fully aware of the institutional and political considerations that shape UNESCO’s priorities and programmes. It is therefore possible that some of the ideas outlined above overlap with ongoing initiatives. If so, I would welcome opportunities for stronger communication and exchange between UNESCO and its Chairs, helping us better understand and contribute to the Organization’s work.

Various activities April – June 2026

2026-06-30

Anders Högberg, Gustav Wollentz and Cornelius Holtorf, among others, took place in an informal meeting with the national organizers of “Collection Forum 2026. Visions and Innovations”, a conference attracting ca 150-200 participants and taking place in November 2026 in collaboration with Kalmar County Museum in Kalmar (7 April 2026).

Cornelius Holtorf briefly presented some theoretical perspectives on time travel in different formats for the emerging internal Centrum for living and embodied history at Linnaeus University. Even Gustav Wollentz participated in the meeting (8 April 2026).

Cornelius Holtorf was interviewed by a group of students at Sciences Po Paris, reading the course Policy Making Initiative for Sustainability, about various issue concerning future generations and long-term memory in the context of nuclear waste (9 April 2026).

Cornelius Holtorf took place in the regular meeting of the International Scientific Committee on AeroSpace Heritage of the International Council of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) which discussed, among others, including a presentation on Space Law at the UN Committee on the Peaceful uses of Outer Space’s 65th Legal Sub Committee’s meeting in Vienna (10 April 2026).

Cornelius Holtorf had an informal discussion with Sarah Thomas and Zoe Tcholak-Antitch on continuing collaboration regarding their Future Generations Communications Playbook (13 April 2026).

Cornelius Holtorf presented an invited online lecture entitled “Nuclear Waste as Heritage of the Future: What Archaeology Teaches Us About 100,000-Year Communication” for ca 20 participants in the NewComers4Nuclear Global lecture series (14 April 2026).

Cornelius Holtorf had an informal meeting, discussing future collaboration, with Mathias Lafolie, Head of Culture at the municipality of Kalmar (16 April 2026).

Cornelius Holtorf co-presented a talk on “Thinking with Soil in Heritage Matters” for an audience of 20 students and researchers at the Green Zone Higher Seminar in Environmental Humanities at the University of Stockholm, Sweden (23 April 2026).

Anders Högberg, Cornelius Holtorf, and Gustav Wollentz, among others, took part in an informal virtual meeting with Chiara Bortolotto, UNESCO Chairholder in Intangible Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Development in Paris, discussing future research needs concerning the contribution of intangible cultural heritage to social sustainability (30 April 2026).

Cornelius Holtorf was among ca 90 participants from the global region of Europe and North America in a meeting by the Sustainable Development Goals Working Group (SDGWG) of ICOMOS on “Integrating Culture and Cultural Heritage into Sustainable Development” (19 May 2026).

Cornelius Holtorf attended a Briefing on Culture, Heritage and Adaptation related to the forthcoming UNFCCC intersessional meeting known as SB64 and organized by the Heritage Adapts to Climate Alliance (HACA) (20 May 2026).

Cornelius Holtorf presented a talk on “Heritage Futures – how cultural heritage can make us hopeful” for the K3 Heritage Research Seminar at the University of Malmö, Sweden (25 May 2026).

Anders Högberg, Cornelius Holtorf, Gustav Wollentz and Marcy Rockman participated in a working meeting with Philip Buckland, Umeå University, and Marcus Fjellström, University of Stockholm, on synergies regarding the project on sustainable heritage funded by the Swedish National Heritage Board (27 May 2026).

Several members of the Chair digitally attended a lecture by Kim Stanley Robinson on “Designing a Just Climate Future”, held in the UNESCO Thought Leaders series in Paris (3 June 2026). Robinson is the author of “The Ministry of the Future”, among other novels. UNESCO stated: “His body of work explores the long-term future of humanity through a blend of scientific rigor, ecological awareness, and socio-political imagination. His novels examine how collective choices shape possible futures, often presenting multiple pathways rather than fixed outcomes. This approach aligns closely with the goals of the UNESCO MOST Programme and its emphasis on anticipatory, evidence-based policy for social transformations, using Futures Literacy and Foresight to enhance our capability to use the future to shape the present. Robinson’s speculative scenarios help readers and policymakers alike imagine alternative systems, anticipate challenges, and cultivate the capacity to navigate uncertainty—core principles in contemporary futures and foresight methodologies.”

Cornelius Holtorf participated actively updating progress in regarding our working group on heritage processes and futures literacy in the second Plenary Meeting of the Expert Group on Archiving and Awareness Preservation (EGAAP-2) of the Nuclear Energy Agency held at the OECD in Paris (11-12 June 2026).

Cornelius Holtorf attended a virtual UNESCO Futures Dialogue on “Time and Possibilities: Governing and researching time in new ways for transformative futures”. Among the speakers for an audience of cirka 170 , including many UNESCO Chairs, were Keri Facer and Michelle Bastian (24 June 2026).

Cornelius Holtorf (and Marcy Rockman??) made suggestions for an update of the 2008 ICOMOS Charter on the Interpretation and Presentation of Cultural Heritage Sites, responding to a call members of the ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on Interpretation and Presentation (ICIP) (27 June 2026)

Future Library Oslo

2026-06-29

I participated 27-29 June 2026 in a weekend with the Future Library project in Oslo. The occasion was the handover of the manuscripts of Tommy Orange and Amitav Ghosh to this 100-year project created by Katie Peterson in 2014. All three were present. On the main day, some 150 people participated: from Norway, many other European countries, Mexico, and the US.

The handover ceremony on 28 June 2026 in the Future Library forest.

The weekend involved various performances including a handover ceremony in the Future Library forest north of Oslo (see picture above), the placing of the unread manuscripts until 2114 into the Future Library room in the Deichman Bjørvika Public Library in Oslo (see picture below), and a Symposium of the Long-Term Art Projects (LTAP) initiative entitled “What Can Art Do for the Future?”. I contributed by co-chairing (with Richard Sandford, UCL) a panel offering “Perspectives on a Long Future”, with three present custodians of long-term art projects from Germany, the Netherlands, and Austria.

Among the participants of the Symposium were Marianne Borgen (former Mayor of Oslo), Anne Beate Hovind (curator of the Future Library project), Michael Münker (founder and co-ordinator of LTAP) and Lydia Caldana (Foresight Policy Analyst at EU Policy Lab).

I like to see the Future Library project in Oslo, as many of the other long-term art projects elsewhere, as an exercise in practicing heritage futures.

The heritage is in this case is both natural and cultural. The natural heritage is the Future Library forest where in 2014 the trees have been planted that in 2114 are anticipated to be used to produce the paper on which the manuscripts of the (by then) 100 manuscripts will be printed. The cultural heritage are not only the unread texts, the public library where they will be stored until 2114, and the books then to be printed, but also the annual public handover and placing rituals in which many people participate, celebrating the power of art and culture.

The Future Library room, eventually containing 100 unread texts to be printed after 2114.

This heritage is negotiating the relations between present and future societies in several ways. On one level, it transmits texts for up to one century into the future. On another level, it involves a community of authors and project facilitators in the present that takes on a commitment for the future and in doing so spreads hope and trust in many uncertain events and processes that lie ahead of all of us.

Regenerating the past

2026-06-26

Our movable card only exists in a very limited edition in print but is now available on Youtube:

It depicts the scenery in an Iron Age village—and what ended up enriching the soil, feeding life to this day and into the future (click on the image to see the moving bit):


The scene was inspired by recent archaeological excavations conducted by Linnaeus University at Gamla Skogsby in Mörbylånga on the island of Öland in Sweden.

Drawing: Mats Vänehem, www.vanehemillustration.com
Paper engineering: Kajsa Bornedal, www.kajsabornedal.se
Idea and coordination: Cornelius Holtorf

For more details, inspiration and sources of this project see here. A broader theoretical discussion linked to this work is available in this new paper:

Holtorf, C. (2026). Beyond the 1964 Venice Charter: cultural heritage as regeneration (ever changing never less than whole). Conservar Património, 52, 14–27.

At Nordic TAG in May 2026 in Kalmar, I presented on “Devouring the Iron Age: A Life-Centred and Culinary Approach to the Soil” in the session “Soil as Archive, Actor and Ally: Rewilding Archaeological Practice” (which I had co-organised with Ewa Domanska and Christina Fredengren). I served cheese crackers with wild oregano grown in the very soil shown on the card above.

Watch a short video clip of my presentation (with the cheese in the background) here: https://play.lnu.se/media/t/0_v66b1bak

© UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures, Linnaeus University, Kalmar, Sweden, 2026, lnu.se/en/unescochair

Culture, Heritage, and War

2026-06-22

Cornelius Holtorf participated as a panel member in a LEIZA Dialogue for Democracy entitled “And When Things Become Serious? The Role of Culture and Cultural Heritage in Times of War” in Mainz, Germany (17 June 2026).

The evening attracted an audience of about 100, which engaged actively with an expert panel consisting of

  • Léonie Evers, Project Officer, Culture in Emergencies, Emergency Preparedness and Response Unit, UNESCO
  • Torsten Fischer, Administrative Director, LEIZA
  • Cornelius Holtorf, UNESCO Chair in Heritage Futures, Linnaeus University, Kalmar, Sweden
  • Thorsten Ilg, Brigadier General, Deputy Commandant and Director of Training, Bundeswehr Command and Staff College
  • Hermann Parzinger, Former President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and Executive President of Europa Nostra.

In my own short opening statement, I emphasized the high number of about two million war casualties in the war in Ukraine to date, reminding us that in a war there are only losers. We therefore have to prevent war. Culture and cultural heritage have a particular responsibility since, as is often said, culture and cultural heritage is what people tend to be fighting for in military conflicts. Indeed, according to the famous statement in the 1945 Constitution of UNESCO, war and peace begin in the minds of people. Culture and heritage do not only express shared values but also collective identities: they define “my people” and thus who is particularly worth defending. I quoted a Swedish official stating that “Cultural heritage gives the nation its flesh and blood.”

In short, I suggested that without culture playing that role there may be fewer wars. We should work towards a cultural heritage that serves human wellbeing and co-existence rather than the interests of competing nation-states for which their citizens are sacrificed. I concluded by calling for the creation of Ministries of Peace in addition to Ministries of Defense.

In the subsequent discussion, we talked, among others, about the need to see the gruel reality of human war victims and the inspiration of successful peace processes such as the steps taken after World War II towards the EU. Also discussed was the significance for human beings of a sense of collective belonging. I emphasized that Russia is part of Europe, European history and European culture. It was suggested that cultural institutions like LEIZA could work for peace by increasing understanding in Germany of contemporary thinking among Russians, for example. Generally, we should appreciate that we have so much more in common with people anywhere on Earth than what ultimately divides us.

The audience was particularly taken by my discussion of the sudden turn in Sweden in recent years towards rapid rearmament and the ongoing militarisation of the entire country. Particular astonished was the audience to learn that in expectation of a coming war, spaces for war graves for 5% of the population are being prepared across Sweden. They were also stunned by the propaganda statement printed in a recent information brochure produced on behalf the Swedish government and distributed to all households:

Brigadier General Ilg suggested in the discussion that in case of war, he would either be fighting at NATO’s Eastern Front or already be dead.

The aims of the event, which I had initiated and co-organised with LEIZA, included to

  • increase the importance and visibility of culture and cultural heritage in society and politics,
  • make multilateral and supranational levels of discussion more visible and thereby strengthen them,
  • encourage processes of reflection among visitors/audiences,
  • provide ideas and inspiration for how individuals can become involved in culture and cultural heritage themselves, and
  • strengthen dialogue between the cultural sector, politics, and defense.

For a full discussion of similar issues as those addressed by the panel see the recent debate in Forum Kritische Archäologie.