Lucas Ignacio Gheco

Cultural heritage is not a neutral reflection of the past, but rather an ideological and material construct shaped to generate specific social memories. Detailed studies of this heritage-making process has revealed important insights. They have shown that objects and places had different meanings, roles and ontological status before becoming heritage, inspiring diverse forms of engagement with both humans and non-humans. Nevertheless, after their transformation into heritage in modern Western sense, this past apparently has not necessarily passed. Several material traces crystallize social practices that persist, survive, and return as haunted presences, challenging established heritage frameworks and engaging other beings, senses, and affects. How can we understand this haunted side of heritage? What kinds of memories and social practices are embodied in these materials? How do these multiple dimensions of heritage sites coexist—and how can we account for such complexity in our research? Our proposal aims to begin addressing these questions through a case study: Theban Tomb 93, located in the necropolis of Luxor (Egypt), where centuries of interventions have inscribed alternative engagements with this place beyond Phoraonic period. Focusing on physical modifications to its decorated walls, we aim to analyze these haunted materials through a multi-analytical macroscopic and microscopic methodology.