8 replies to this topic

[Gunnar Creutz]

The rock carvings in Tanum being removed from the UNESCO World Heritage List?

What is most important? 230 million SEK or unique rock carvings from the Bronze age? The Swedish National Road Administration (Vägverket) wants to build a new motorway in Tanum in northern Bohuslän.
The National Road Administration have produced two plans. On one of them the road is going stright through the rock carvings. On the other plan there is a longer road that is costing 230 million SEK more.
The rock carvings in Tanum are listed at the UNESCO World Heritage List.

This is roughly translated from a notice on the website of the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet.

One of my friends said that he had heard the head of the Vitlycke museum in Tanum on the radio being very upset about this road project.
I have tried to find more information about this, but I haven't found any.

Gunnar

[Edited by Gunnar Creutz (16-06-2000 at 17:55).]

[Diego]

Please try to collect every bit of information about it. I'll certainly post it in the next issue of our Archaeo News newsletter.

[Edited by Diego (15-06-2000 at 17:40).]

[Gunnar Creutz]

Yes, I will try to collect as much information as possible.

Gunnar

[Gunnar Creutz]

I have now found some more information. This scandal is probably on a far higher level than I first thought. It seems that we are talking about that The Swedish National Road Administration (Vägverket) are trying to run over the Swedish Central Board of National Antiquities (Riksantikvarieämbetet), and that UNESCO are trying to force Sweden to stop the National Road Administration.

The information in Swedish media is very scarce. This can have two reasons.
1) Swedish media don't care about the rock carvings.
2) Swedish media have got only a limited amount of information from the officials (or even been told to keep a low profile).
I don't know which of this reasons that is closest to the truth.

Gunnar

[Edited by Gunnar Creutz (16-06-2000 at 15:23).]

[Gunnar Creutz]

Here is a quote from Göteborgs-Posten.

Are the rock carvings nolonger a World Heritage?

UDDEVALLA:
The rock carvings around Tanum in northern Bohuslän (in Sweden) runs the risk of being removed from the UNESCO World Heritage List. The reason is the plans by the Swedish National Road Administration (Vägverket) to build a motorway straight through the area.
These Bronze age rock carvings was included to the prestigious list of priceless natural and cultural environments five years ago. But now the UN organisation focus on Bohuslän and the organisation is ready to reconsider its decision, says Sveriges Radios Ekoredaktion. The National Road Administration have presented two alternative routes for the new road through the Tanum area. One of the alternatives cuts straight through the of rock carvings very dense area around Vitlycke.
- The connection with the surrounding landscape would be lost if the landscape should be divided by a motorway, says Anita Larsson Modin, the head of the rock carving museum at Vitlycke.
According to Per-Erik Winberg, the leader of the E6 project at the National Road Administration, the alternative that save the rock carving area is 230 million SEK more expensive, and the road is also going to be longer. It is not yet decided which of the alternatives that the National Road Administration are going to choose.
UNESCO is going to handle the affair at the meeting of the World Heritage Committee in Paris the week after Midsummer.

All according to the news agency TT,  printed in the regional newspaper Göteborgs-Posten 14th June 2000, page 13.

Translated by Gunnar Creutz.

[Edited by Gunnar Creutz (16-06-2000 at 14:57).]

[Gunnar Creutz]

I am still seaching for relevant information on this subject. The information I have found this far is somewhat contradicting, and most of it focus on the political dimensions. One source says that everything depends on the choice of the Minister of Industry Björn Rosengren (I don't trust that man!). Leading local politicians in Tanum seems to think that the motorway is more important than the status of the area as World Heritage.
Maybe there is no immediate danger to the rock carvings, but none of the sources says clearly that the rock carvings are in no danger.
One of the few persons that I have managed to get in touch with is an expert on the rock carvings in Tanum. He answered me that he knows nothing about this!
Hopefully I can get an enlightning answer from someone at the Swedish Central Board of National Antiquities (Riksantikvarieämbetet) next week.

Gunnar

[Diego]

Terence Meaden and Lorainne Stobbart suggested the following addresses if anyone would like to register a formal protest at the proposed threat to the sites.

UNESCO/ICOMOS
(international council of monuments and sites) at:
secretariat@icomos.org

According to http://www.regeringen.se you can contact the ministerial offices at:
registrator@primeminister.ministry.se
registrator@culture.ministry.se
registrator@environment.ministry.se

[Gunnar Creutz]

I have still after six months heard nothing on this subject from any officials.
When talking to an archaeologist yesterday she told me that the officials will never answer such questions. She said that all they want to do is to keep people away from all information about sites in danger. I really hope that she is wrong, but it seems more likely that she really is right.

Gunnar

[Ed]

That would not suprize me.
Even the British House of Lords does that kind of thing. Much of what is 'publicly' released in the form of infomation supliments, realy focus towards what 'benifits' the new proprosition could bring.
This unwillingness to answer questions is quite comman, it you might find that only through small scale leaks and presisent nagging, will you get anything.