The Longue Durée of Cultural Heritage: Curation of the Past from Antiquity to the Present Day

Across the world, there is an ever-growing interest in cultural heritage, in academia and beyond. Heritage studies emerged as an interdisciplinary field in the 1980s and is today flourishing. Still, scholars in the field repeatedly emphasize that the very notion of heritage escapes any clear-cut definition, and that the concept needs an integrated approach to reflect its diversity and complexity. The editors of this special issue of ACTA align with this claim and the articles presented here are, each in their particular way, a case in point. Furthermore, they all challenge the common understanding that cultural heritage practices are exclusively modern. The volume presents examples of management and curation of the past in pre- and early modern contexts, showcasing engagements with the past from different historical presents.