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Tense Talks as UNESCO Mulls Heritage Sites at Risk

Stonehenge has been a bone of contention between the British government and UNESCO - AFP
Stonehenge has been a bone of contention between the British government and UNESCO - AFP
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Tense Talks as UNESCO Mulls Heritage Sites at Risk

Stonehenge has been a bone of contention between the British government and UNESCO - AFP
Stonehenge has been a bone of contention between the British government and UNESCO - AFP

Tensions are simmering ahead of summer talks on which UNESCO World Heritage sites are deemed to be endangered, with countries battling against featuring on the UN cultural body's list.

Terse language can be expected among diplomats at UNESCO's talks starting Sunday in New Delhi as they discuss cases as varied as Britain's prehistoric Stonehenge circle or Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha in Nepal, ahead of a deadline at the end of July, AFP reported.

The battles to come contrast with the usual suspense over which locations may be added to the prestigious World Heritage classification, which can be a lucrative driver of tourism.

UNESCO, the UN body for education, science and culture, insists that being placed on the narrower list of endangered sites is not a black mark.

But many countries affected, especially in the West, see it differently, fighting fierce rearguard actions against their inclusion.

Venice has been on UNESCO's World Heritage List since 1987, but under threat from climate change and over-tourism, it recently imposed a fee on visitors staying only a day at peak times of year after risking addition to the unhappy club in 2023.

And after years facing down UNESCO over its Great Barrier Reef, Australia has pumped billions into improving water quality, cushioning the impacts of climate change on the coral and protecting endangered species.

London, meanwhile, had long pushed for construction of a highway tunnel passing near Stonehenge, which joined the World Heritage list in 1986 as "the most architecturally sophisticated prehistoric stone circle in the world" according to UNESCO.

British courts blocked an initial plan for the tunnel in July 2021 over concerns about the environmental impact on the site dating to between around 3,000 and 2,300 BC.

The 14-year Conservative government nevertheless kept pushing forward with the project, claiming the tunnel would protect Stonehenge by reducing traffic.

The recently elected Labour government of Keir Starmer has "a different line" on the project, said Lazare Eloundou, head of World Heritage at UNESCO -- although he is in the dark about what London will propose in New Delhi.

In Nepal, the Buddha's birthplace of Lumbini -- rediscovered in 1896 after long being lost to the jungle -- is another sore point.

Added to the World Heritage list in 1997, it is now visited by millions of people each year.

"The site is endangered because many of the monuments are not well maintained and are being seriously degraded," Eloundou said.

Also afflicted with "many completely inappropriate projects", the site's "universal value" is at risk, he added.

"All of southeast Asia is watching this with great concern," Eloundou said.

In New Delhi, the World Heritage committee will also consider sites already seen as in danger due to political instability.

There are some sites which could heave themselves off the endangered list.

In Senegal, for example, elephants are returning to the Niokolo Koba national park that had long been deserted by animals -- though other species' reappearance is yet to be spotted.

UNESCO will consider 25 new candidates for inclusion on the World Heritage list, including the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia, sites linked to the life of Nelson Mandela in South Africa and Brazil's Lencois Maranhenses national park, a vast expanse of sand dunes interspersed with deep blue and turquoise lagoons.

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Archeologists Find Musket Balls Fired during 1 of the First Battles in US Revolutionary War

Five Revolutionary War musket balls, which are believed to be fired at the British by colonial militia men, are displayed at Minute Man National Historical Park, Monday, July 15, 2024, in Concord, Mass. (AP)
Five Revolutionary War musket balls, which are believed to be fired at the British by colonial militia men, are displayed at Minute Man National Historical Park, Monday, July 15, 2024, in Concord, Mass. (AP)
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Archeologists Find Musket Balls Fired during 1 of the First Battles in US Revolutionary War

Five Revolutionary War musket balls, which are believed to be fired at the British by colonial militia men, are displayed at Minute Man National Historical Park, Monday, July 15, 2024, in Concord, Mass. (AP)
Five Revolutionary War musket balls, which are believed to be fired at the British by colonial militia men, are displayed at Minute Man National Historical Park, Monday, July 15, 2024, in Concord, Mass. (AP)

Nearly 250 years ago, hundreds of militiamen lined a hillside in Massachusetts and started firing a barrage of musket balls toward retreating British troops, marking the first major battle in the Revolutionary War.

The latest evidence of that firefight is five musket balls dug up last year near the North Bridge site in the Minute Man National Historical Park in Concord. Early analysis of the balls — gray with sizes ranging from a pea to a marble — indicates colonial militia members fired them at British forces on April 19, 1775.

“As soon as they pulled one of them out of the ground, there was kind of a ‘look what I have,’” said Minute Man park ranger and historic weapons specialist Jarrad Fuoss, who was there the day the musket balls were discovered.

“And of course, everybody goes flocking to them like, ‘Oh, my gosh.’ We’re looking at them, and then the excitement continued to grow because it wasn’t just one,” he continued. “And the fact that we found five of them, which is incredible all these years later.”

Musket balls were previously found in the historic park of about a thousand acres outside Boston, which marks a series of opening battles of the American Revolution. About a decade ago, about 30 musket balls were found at the site known as Parker's Revenge, where the Lexington militia company led by Capt. John Parker ambushed British troops. In the early 19th century, Henry David Thoreau was walking in the area and found a few musket balls from what is believed to be the North Bridge fight.

The latest discoveries are the most ever found from that fight when militia leaders ordered their men to fire on government troops. The event led to the conflict escalating and was later dubbed the “shot heard round the world” by Ralph Waldo Emerson in his 1837 “Concord Hymn.”

About 800 British soldiers had started the day marching from Boston to Concord to destroy military supplies they believed that colony rebels had gathered. It ended with an eight-hour battle that stretched to the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston — covering 16 miles (26 kilometers) and leaving 273 British troops and 96 militiamen dead and wounded.

It prompted the militia to create an 11-month siege of Boston, leading to the Battle of Bunker Hill in June 1775, one of the bloodiest battles of the American Revolution.

“This is where everything kind of changes in an instant because that moment is treason. There is no turning back,” Fuoss said. “To be able to pull that out of the ground and know that we’re the first ones to touch that since somebody else was ramming it down the muzzle of their gun 250 years ago is one of those things that sends shivers all over your body.”

Joel Bohy, who was also on the dig site and is researching bullet strikes and bullet-struck objects from that day for a book, said the discovery helps “validate the historical record, as well as the types of arms that the provincial minute and militia companies carried that day.”

“Based upon the caliber of the balls and studying them, the general location, as well as the context of the site, it made the hair stand up on the back of my neck,” Bohy said, adding that he had “been fascinated with April 19 and the material culture since I was a 7-year-old — 51 years ago. So for me, it was a great day.”

The war continued for seven years after those first shots were fired, even past the July 4, 1776, adoption of the Declaration of Independence.

Nikki Walsh, the museum curator at the park, also said there was plenty to learn from the lead-cast musket balls that ranged in size from .40-caliber to .70-caliber. Given their various sizes, Walsh said, archeologists concluded they were from the militia. Those men brought their own weapons and ammunition to the fight, with some being imported, and others captured or purchased by the town or province from British or Dutch merchants, according to the National Park Service. On the other hand, the British had standardized all their ammunition.

And the fact that the musket balls were intact indicates fighters likely missed their mark.

“Since that lead is so malleable, you can see marks on them that indicate whether they’ve been fired, whether they were unfired and dropped,” she said. “If they had been fired and hit something, they would have likely smushed like a pancake.”

The musket balls have attracted intense interest from history buffs and tourists, with about 800 journeying to the park's visitor center over the weekend to get a first glimpse. The interest has also prompted the National Park Service to keep the exact location of the find under wraps, hoping to dissuade treasure hunters with metal detectors from showing up in search of more artifacts.

They are willing to disclose the general area of the find, a field just over a wooden bridge of the Concord River and just beyond two monuments — a 25-foot stone obelisk marking the 50th anniversary of the North Bridge fight and the Minute Man statue built to commemorate its 100th anniversary. Nearby, a smaller marker with British flags indicates where the first two British soldiers died in that battle.

Among those recently checking out the site was Jennifer Ayvaz, who came to the park with her husband, Tim, and their two children after her father heard about the discovery of the musket balls. As they passed Walsh, she offered to show the family the musket balls. Opening a tiny box, the family snapped photos and moved closer for a better look at the balls lined up in a row.

“It's incredible,” said Jennifer Ayvaz, who came from Castle Rock, Colorado, adding that her father would love to see the musket balls. “I wish he could be here with us. It's very neat. He is a huge history buff, and he is kind of living vicariously through us.”