G Plets
Biographic Data
| ID | 43484 |
|---|---|
| NAME | G Plets |
| GIVEN NAMES | G |
| FAMILY NAME | Plets |
| SIGNATURE | PLETS G |
| AFFILIATIONS | Utrecht University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9858-3464 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 28 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 200 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 28 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Museums and petrophilanthropy
Heritage statecraft
Carbon heritages
This themed section of IJHS explores the political dimensions of heritage and energy. Individual papers consider museological collections connected to extractive industries and petrocultures in Germany, South Korea and Portugal, commemorative practices surrounding the decline of coal in the UK, the emergence of new curatorial perspectives on gas extraction in the Netherlands, and the social and material impact of decarbonisation rhetoric on forme…
Curating gasscapes after extraction
This paper theorises an omnipresent but overlooked type of cultural heritage: gasscapes. Gasscapes are cultural landscapes scarred by contested histories and the impacts of gas extraction. Building on Carola Hein’s concept of the petroleumscape, we develop gasscapes as a framework to analyse the material, political and temporal specificities of gas extraction in relation to heritage-making. We unpack gasscapes as an important type of heritage thr…
Nederland, land van olie en gas
The Netherlands, land of oil and gas. Embracing petrohistory for a sustainable future The Dutch twentieth century was defined by oil and gas. In this article we introduce the concept of ‘petrohistory’: a (national) history structured around petroleum and its effects on economy, politics, culture, and infrastructure. We use this as a tool to explore the influence of fossil fuels on Dutch history. We argue that oil and gas created path dependencies…
Russia in Palmyra
This article analyses the reconstruction efforts of Russian heritage scholars and institutions in Palmyra, Syria. There is little doubt that the financial opportunities provided by the Kremlin for the reconstruction of the war-damaged World Heritage site can be analyzed as propaganda directed at foreign audiences. Drawing on ethnographic and historical research on world heritage politics, this article contextualizes reconstruction efforts as part…
Archaeology meets environmental genomics
Sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) has become one of the standard applications in the field of paleogenomics in recent years. It has been used for paleoenvironmental reconstructions, detecting the presence of prehistoric species in the absence of macro remains and even investigating the evolutionary history of a few species. However, its application in archaeology has been limited and primarily focused on humans. This article argues that sedaDNA h…
Digital heritage infrastructures as cultural policy instruments
Europeana is a digital infrastructure aggregating the most extensive collection of cultural heritage data in Europe. Launched in 2008, it has enjoyed the political and financial support of the European Union and its member states, becoming the most ambitious and financed digital cultural project to date. For this reason, Europeana is an outstanding example of how the European Commission has used digital heritage platforms to pursue its cultural a…
Gas, Oil and Heritage
This article was first published as online first on the website of BMGN – LCHR on 2 September 2021. You can find this version here, https://bmgn-lchr.nl/article/view/7028/online-first. This second version published in BMGN 137:1 has been updated and revised, see the enclosed corrigendum. The online first article provoked a reply by Ad Maas, to be consulted here https://doi.org/10.51769/bmgn-lchr.11658, and the authors' response here, https://doi.…
Reply to Ad Maas
The page numbers and footnotes mentioned in this reply refer to the ‘online first’-version of the article ‘Gas, Oil and Heritage: Well oiled Histories and Corporate Sponsorship in Dutch Museums (1990-2021)’, BMGN – Low Countries Review (Online first 2021) 1-28 by Plets and Kuijt, published in September 2021. You can find this version here, https://bmgn-lchr.nl/article/view/7028/online-first. A reply to this article by Ad Maas has been published h…
Felicity Bodenstein, Damiana Oţoiu & Eva-Maria Troelenberg, Contested Holdings
This ambitious edited volume is without a doubt an important contribution to one of the key debates in cultural history and heritage today, namely: What should we do with heritage that was acquired within a context defined by unequal power relations? And what social and political potentialities are present in such collections? This edited volume by Felicity Bodenstein, Damiana Oțoiu, and Eva-Maria Troelenberg is both a contribution and outcome of…
Europeana, EDM, and the Europeanisation of Cultural Heritage Institutions
Over the past two decades, the European Commission has mobilised cultural heritage to bolster a European identity. One of the main flagship initiatives promoted to this end has been Europeana, the most extensive digital cultural project financed by the EU. At the core of the project stands europeana.eu, a digital cultural portal aggregating metadata provided by national and local heritage institutions. Central in our analysis is the Europeana Dat…
Excavating Archaeological Texts
To date, the evolution of archaeological knowledge production and theory has been discussed and analyzed using qualitative methods by reading vast amounts of archaeological texts in search of specific discourses or framings of the past. In this paper, we present text mining methodologies from digital humanities that can be applied to large corpora of archaeological texts to trace and evaluate changing knowledge practices. Such a big data approach…
Promising pipelines and hydrocarbon nationalism
By analysing how shamanist nomads who previously opposed large infrastructure works have suddenly become enchanted by the prospect of the construction of a large gas pipeline, this paper ethnographically investigates how technology and infrastructure become perceived as promising by ordinary people on the ground in post-Soviet Siberia. Drawing attention to the discursive impact of large gas corporations and the role of deeply embedded Soviet conc…
Towards an inclusive curation of WWI heritage
Purpose Over a century of state-sponsored construction of monuments, historic mythmaking and nationalist framings of WWI has ensured that it has become notoriously difficult to present the heritage of the Great War in an inclusive and non-selective way. In this paper the authors present a strategy and technology-driven solutions to overcome the selective heritage curation of modern conflict. Design/methodology/approach Building on a suite of tool…
Exceptions to Authoritarianism? Variegated sovereignty and ethno-nationalism in a Siberian resource frontier
This paper explores how the governance of culture and nationalism in Russia is far from uniform but rather, characterized by exceptions and diffuse sovereignty. It responds to a literature exploring the use of culture and identity in the Kremlin’s governing practices through the idiom of “exceptions to authoritarianism.” The dominant conception that culture is strictly instrumentalized by the Kremlin for regime legitimation and the maintenance of…
Post-Soviet Heritages in the Making
Despite the growing interest in post-Soviet space (the countries formerly located in the Soviet Union or its sphere of influence) in the field of memory studies, researchers have only just begun to the study how 'things and practices' from the past are mobilized, institutionalized and repackaged in this particular part of the world. This special collection explores how heritage is being made in a highly diverse and multicultural space where Sovie…
Landscape archaeology in the Chinese Altai Mountains – Survey of the Heiliutan Basin
Violins and trowels for Palmyra
Since the rise of the Islamic State in the Middle East, anthropological research has focused on the many deliberate destructions of cultural heritage in the region. Whilst such analyses can offer important insights into the multidimensionality of contemporary warfare and the important role of culture in perpetuating physical violence, heritage ethnographers should also spotlight the post‐conflict futures of Syria and Iraq's war‐torn heritage. Dra…
Heritage statecraft
A growing number of scholarly works in the field of archaeology and heritage studies have been investigating the role of culture in relationship management. By assessing the use of heritage and repatriation of archaeological finds by multinational Gazprom, a natural gas company, in the Russian Federation, this paper contributes to this heritage diplomacy research by critically repositioning some of its core paradigms and its predominant emphasis …
Heritage bureaucracies and the modern nation state. Towards an ethnography of archaeological systems of government
Drawing on examples from the West (Flanders) and developing East (Siberia, Russia), this paper investigates the subtle and often overlooked entanglements between the nation state and archaeology. Drawing on careful ethnographic assessments mapping the impact of the state on archaeological practice in Russia and Flanders, this paper illustrates that we need to transcend our traditional focus on nationalism and also look at the impact of bureaucrat…
Ethno-nationalism, asymmetric federalism and Soviet perceptions of the past
Despite covering most of the Eurasian continent and recently reclaiming its position as a geopolitical heavyweight, the (world) heritage agenda of the Russian Federation remains relatively unexplored. In an effort to fill this gap, this paper seeks to uncover some of the main threads that define the politics of historical sites in Russia through contextualising Russia's most recent addition to World Heritage Site: the archaeological site of Bolga…
An Archaeological Landscape in the Dzhazator Valley (Altai Mountains)
Analysis of the organization of archaeological sites in the Dzhazator valley reveals patterns from the Chalcolithic to the Ethnographic period. There is a relationship between the monuments and petroglyphs in the Bronze Age, with a preference for the northern bank in the lower valley. In the early Iron Age and Turkic periods, all parts of the valley were used. The analysis reveals a distinction between the northern and the southern bank, where th…
Repatriation, Doxa, and Contested Heritages
Using Pierre Bourdieu's concepts of habitus and doxa, the authors analyze the contested heritage debates surrounding the sensational Scythian burial discovery of the Altai Princess, also called the Ice Maiden, on the Ukok plateau. Her 2012 repatriation to a special Gazprom-funded museum in the Altai Republic of Russia is politically contextualized and compared to cases of the Kennewick Man in the United States and the Lake Mungo Burials of Austra…
Development-led archaeology in Flanders
Towards a three-dimensional cost-effective registration of the archaeological heritage
Heritage statecraft
A growing number of scholarly works in the field of archaeology and heritage studies have been investigating the role of culture in relationship management. By assessing the use of heritage and repatriation of archaeological finds by multinational Gazprom, a natural gas company, in the Russian Federation, this paper contributes to this heritage diplomacy research by critically repositioning some of its core paradigms and its predominant emphasis …
Repatriation, Doxa, and Contested Heritages
Using Pierre Bourdieu's concepts of habitus and doxa, the authors analyze the contested heritage debates surrounding the sensational Scythian burial discovery of the Altai Princess, also called the Ice Maiden, on the Ukok plateau. Her 2012 repatriation to a special Gazprom-funded museum in the Altai Republic of Russia is politically contextualized and compared to cases of the Kennewick Man in the United States and the Lake Mungo Burials of Austra…
Violins and trowels for Palmyra
Since the rise of the Islamic State in the Middle East, anthropological research has focused on the many deliberate destructions of cultural heritage in the region. Whilst such analyses can offer important insights into the multidimensionality of contemporary warfare and the important role of culture in perpetuating physical violence, heritage ethnographers should also spotlight the post‐conflict futures of Syria and Iraq's war‐torn heritage. Dra…
Three-dimensional recording of archaeological remains in the Altai Mountains
In the course of their research campaign in Siberia, Ghent University archaeologists have developed a simple and cost effective method for the rapid 3D imaging of rock art, standing stelae and surface monuments. Their procedure will undoubtedly have a big role to play in archaeological research in advance of the oil pipeline expected soon
Landscape archaeology in the Chinese Altai Mountains – Survey of the Heiliutan Basin
Ethno-nationalism, asymmetric federalism and Soviet perceptions of the past
Despite covering most of the Eurasian continent and recently reclaiming its position as a geopolitical heavyweight, the (world) heritage agenda of the Russian Federation remains relatively unexplored. In an effort to fill this gap, this paper seeks to uncover some of the main threads that define the politics of historical sites in Russia through contextualising Russia's most recent addition to World Heritage Site: the archaeological site of Bolga…
Archaeology meets environmental genomics
Sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) has become one of the standard applications in the field of paleogenomics in recent years. It has been used for paleoenvironmental reconstructions, detecting the presence of prehistoric species in the absence of macro remains and even investigating the evolutionary history of a few species. However, its application in archaeology has been limited and primarily focused on humans. This article argues that sedaDNA h…
An Archaeological Landscape in the Dzhazator Valley (Altai Mountains)
Analysis of the organization of archaeological sites in the Dzhazator valley reveals patterns from the Chalcolithic to the Ethnographic period. There is a relationship between the monuments and petroglyphs in the Bronze Age, with a preference for the northern bank in the lower valley. In the early Iron Age and Turkic periods, all parts of the valley were used. The analysis reveals a distinction between the northern and the southern bank, where th…
Exceptions to Authoritarianism? Variegated sovereignty and ethno-nationalism in a Siberian resource frontier
This paper explores how the governance of culture and nationalism in Russia is far from uniform but rather, characterized by exceptions and diffuse sovereignty. It responds to a literature exploring the use of culture and identity in the Kremlin’s governing practices through the idiom of “exceptions to authoritarianism.” The dominant conception that culture is strictly instrumentalized by the Kremlin for regime legitimation and the maintenance of…
Heritage bureaucracies and the modern nation state. Towards an ethnography of archaeological systems of government
Drawing on examples from the West (Flanders) and developing East (Siberia, Russia), this paper investigates the subtle and often overlooked entanglements between the nation state and archaeology. Drawing on careful ethnographic assessments mapping the impact of the state on archaeological practice in Russia and Flanders, this paper illustrates that we need to transcend our traditional focus on nationalism and also look at the impact of bureaucrat…
Digital heritage infrastructures as cultural policy instruments
Europeana is a digital infrastructure aggregating the most extensive collection of cultural heritage data in Europe. Launched in 2008, it has enjoyed the political and financial support of the European Union and its member states, becoming the most ambitious and financed digital cultural project to date. For this reason, Europeana is an outstanding example of how the European Commission has used digital heritage platforms to pursue its cultural a…
Russia in Palmyra
This article analyses the reconstruction efforts of Russian heritage scholars and institutions in Palmyra, Syria. There is little doubt that the financial opportunities provided by the Kremlin for the reconstruction of the war-damaged World Heritage site can be analyzed as propaganda directed at foreign audiences. Drawing on ethnographic and historical research on world heritage politics, this article contextualizes reconstruction efforts as part…
Excavating Archaeological Texts
To date, the evolution of archaeological knowledge production and theory has been discussed and analyzed using qualitative methods by reading vast amounts of archaeological texts in search of specific discourses or framings of the past. In this paper, we present text mining methodologies from digital humanities that can be applied to large corpora of archaeological texts to trace and evaluate changing knowledge practices. Such a big data approach…
Post-Soviet Heritages in the Making
Despite the growing interest in post-Soviet space (the countries formerly located in the Soviet Union or its sphere of influence) in the field of memory studies, researchers have only just begun to the study how 'things and practices' from the past are mobilized, institutionalized and repackaged in this particular part of the world. This special collection explores how heritage is being made in a highly diverse and multicultural space where Sovie…
A Line Through the Sacred Lands of the Altai Mountains
In 2006 preliminary plans were made public showing that Gazprom intended to construct a pipeline through the Altai republic (Russia, south-west Siberia). Unfortunately, there was almost no attention to integrating the conservation of cultural heritage (both archaeological and landscape) into the planning of the pipeline, though the Altai is well-known for its rich cultural heritage. Hitherto, no assessment has been made of the potential impact of…
Development-led archaeology in Flanders
Towards a three-dimensional cost-effective registration of the archaeological heritage
Three-dimensional recording of archaeological remains in the Altai Mountains
In the course of their research campaign in Siberia, Ghent University archaeologists have developed a simple and cost effective method for the rapid 3D imaging of rock art, standing stelae and surface monuments. Their procedure will undoubtedly have a big role to play in archaeological research in advance of the oil pipeline expected soon
Repatriation, Doxa, and Contested Heritages
Using Pierre Bourdieu's concepts of habitus and doxa, the authors analyze the contested heritage debates surrounding the sensational Scythian burial discovery of the Altai Princess, also called the Ice Maiden, on the Ukok plateau. Her 2012 repatriation to a special Gazprom-funded museum in the Altai Republic of Russia is politically contextualized and compared to cases of the Kennewick Man in the United States and the Lake Mungo Burials of Austra…
An Archaeological Landscape in the Dzhazator Valley (Altai Mountains)
Analysis of the organization of archaeological sites in the Dzhazator valley reveals patterns from the Chalcolithic to the Ethnographic period. There is a relationship between the monuments and petroglyphs in the Bronze Age, with a preference for the northern bank in the lower valley. In the early Iron Age and Turkic periods, all parts of the valley were used. The analysis reveals a distinction between the northern and the southern bank, where th…
Ethno-nationalism, asymmetric federalism and Soviet perceptions of the past
Despite covering most of the Eurasian continent and recently reclaiming its position as a geopolitical heavyweight, the (world) heritage agenda of the Russian Federation remains relatively unexplored. In an effort to fill this gap, this paper seeks to uncover some of the main threads that define the politics of historical sites in Russia through contextualising Russia's most recent addition to World Heritage Site: the archaeological site of Bolga…
Heritage statecraft
A growing number of scholarly works in the field of archaeology and heritage studies have been investigating the role of culture in relationship management. By assessing the use of heritage and repatriation of archaeological finds by multinational Gazprom, a natural gas company, in the Russian Federation, this paper contributes to this heritage diplomacy research by critically repositioning some of its core paradigms and its predominant emphasis …
Heritage bureaucracies and the modern nation state. Towards an ethnography of archaeological systems of government
Drawing on examples from the West (Flanders) and developing East (Siberia, Russia), this paper investigates the subtle and often overlooked entanglements between the nation state and archaeology. Drawing on careful ethnographic assessments mapping the impact of the state on archaeological practice in Russia and Flanders, this paper illustrates that we need to transcend our traditional focus on nationalism and also look at the impact of bureaucrat…
Landscape archaeology in the Chinese Altai Mountains – Survey of the Heiliutan Basin
Violins and trowels for Palmyra
Since the rise of the Islamic State in the Middle East, anthropological research has focused on the many deliberate destructions of cultural heritage in the region. Whilst such analyses can offer important insights into the multidimensionality of contemporary warfare and the important role of culture in perpetuating physical violence, heritage ethnographers should also spotlight the post‐conflict futures of Syria and Iraq's war‐torn heritage. Dra…
Exceptions to Authoritarianism? Variegated sovereignty and ethno-nationalism in a Siberian resource frontier
This paper explores how the governance of culture and nationalism in Russia is far from uniform but rather, characterized by exceptions and diffuse sovereignty. It responds to a literature exploring the use of culture and identity in the Kremlin’s governing practices through the idiom of “exceptions to authoritarianism.” The dominant conception that culture is strictly instrumentalized by the Kremlin for regime legitimation and the maintenance of…
Post-Soviet Heritages in the Making
Despite the growing interest in post-Soviet space (the countries formerly located in the Soviet Union or its sphere of influence) in the field of memory studies, researchers have only just begun to the study how 'things and practices' from the past are mobilized, institutionalized and repackaged in this particular part of the world. This special collection explores how heritage is being made in a highly diverse and multicultural space where Sovie…
Promising pipelines and hydrocarbon nationalism
By analysing how shamanist nomads who previously opposed large infrastructure works have suddenly become enchanted by the prospect of the construction of a large gas pipeline, this paper ethnographically investigates how technology and infrastructure become perceived as promising by ordinary people on the ground in post-Soviet Siberia. Drawing attention to the discursive impact of large gas corporations and the role of deeply embedded Soviet conc…
Towards an inclusive curation of WWI heritage
Purpose Over a century of state-sponsored construction of monuments, historic mythmaking and nationalist framings of WWI has ensured that it has become notoriously difficult to present the heritage of the Great War in an inclusive and non-selective way. In this paper the authors present a strategy and technology-driven solutions to overcome the selective heritage curation of modern conflict. Design/methodology/approach Building on a suite of tool…
Europeana, EDM, and the Europeanisation of Cultural Heritage Institutions
Over the past two decades, the European Commission has mobilised cultural heritage to bolster a European identity. One of the main flagship initiatives promoted to this end has been Europeana, the most extensive digital cultural project financed by the EU. At the core of the project stands europeana.eu, a digital cultural portal aggregating metadata provided by national and local heritage institutions. Central in our analysis is the Europeana Dat…
Excavating Archaeological Texts
To date, the evolution of archaeological knowledge production and theory has been discussed and analyzed using qualitative methods by reading vast amounts of archaeological texts in search of specific discourses or framings of the past. In this paper, we present text mining methodologies from digital humanities that can be applied to large corpora of archaeological texts to trace and evaluate changing knowledge practices. Such a big data approach…
Gas, Oil and Heritage
This article was first published as online first on the website of BMGN – LCHR on 2 September 2021. You can find this version here, https://bmgn-lchr.nl/article/view/7028/online-first. This second version published in BMGN 137:1 has been updated and revised, see the enclosed corrigendum. The online first article provoked a reply by Ad Maas, to be consulted here https://doi.org/10.51769/bmgn-lchr.11658, and the authors' response here, https://doi.…
Reply to Ad Maas
The page numbers and footnotes mentioned in this reply refer to the ‘online first’-version of the article ‘Gas, Oil and Heritage: Well oiled Histories and Corporate Sponsorship in Dutch Museums (1990-2021)’, BMGN – Low Countries Review (Online first 2021) 1-28 by Plets and Kuijt, published in September 2021. You can find this version here, https://bmgn-lchr.nl/article/view/7028/online-first. A reply to this article by Ad Maas has been published h…
Felicity Bodenstein, Damiana Oţoiu & Eva-Maria Troelenberg, Contested Holdings
This ambitious edited volume is without a doubt an important contribution to one of the key debates in cultural history and heritage today, namely: What should we do with heritage that was acquired within a context defined by unequal power relations? And what social and political potentialities are present in such collections? This edited volume by Felicity Bodenstein, Damiana Oțoiu, and Eva-Maria Troelenberg is both a contribution and outcome of…
Digital heritage infrastructures as cultural policy instruments
Europeana is a digital infrastructure aggregating the most extensive collection of cultural heritage data in Europe. Launched in 2008, it has enjoyed the political and financial support of the European Union and its member states, becoming the most ambitious and financed digital cultural project to date. For this reason, Europeana is an outstanding example of how the European Commission has used digital heritage platforms to pursue its cultural a…
Russia in Palmyra
This article analyses the reconstruction efforts of Russian heritage scholars and institutions in Palmyra, Syria. There is little doubt that the financial opportunities provided by the Kremlin for the reconstruction of the war-damaged World Heritage site can be analyzed as propaganda directed at foreign audiences. Drawing on ethnographic and historical research on world heritage politics, this article contextualizes reconstruction efforts as part…
Archaeology meets environmental genomics
Sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) has become one of the standard applications in the field of paleogenomics in recent years. It has been used for paleoenvironmental reconstructions, detecting the presence of prehistoric species in the absence of macro remains and even investigating the evolutionary history of a few species. However, its application in archaeology has been limited and primarily focused on humans. This article argues that sedaDNA h…
Nederland, land van olie en gas
The Netherlands, land of oil and gas. Embracing petrohistory for a sustainable future The Dutch twentieth century was defined by oil and gas. In this article we introduce the concept of ‘petrohistory’: a (national) history structured around petroleum and its effects on economy, politics, culture, and infrastructure. We use this as a tool to explore the influence of fossil fuels on Dutch history. We argue that oil and gas created path dependencies…
Museums and petrophilanthropy
Archaeological Research and Protection (13 works) · Archaeology (13 works) · Political science (13 works) · Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation (11 works) · History (11 works) · Politics (11 works) · Geography (10 works) · Law (10 works) · Cultural heritage (8 works) · Sociology (7 works)