Lecture: Georgia Andreou (University of Southampton)

The University of Toronto Archaeology Centre and Department of Classics are pleased to present a lecture by Georgia Andreou (University of Southampton).

Georgia's talk will be on Heritage in Gaza: A test in archaeological ethics

Working with heritage in the Gaza Strip even prior to its unprecedented devastation was conditioned by limitations impacting the physical and intellectual labour involved in archaeological praxis. From financial and technological constraints to conditional and prescribed integration of local voices in the production of knowledge, Gazan archaeology and heritage are often presented as victims of “historical circumstances”.

This talk reflects on the intellectual foundations of archaeology in Gaza. It presents the results of a baseline survey documenting archaeological sites before the current war. It introduces a University of Southampton project that developed accessible and low-cost workflows to monitor Gaza’s deteriorating sites (GAZAMAP 2021-2023). It concludes with a reflection on the ethics and politics of assessing heritage destruction during active war.