Rebuilding Cities in a Digital Age The Destruction and Reconstruction of Heritage in Palmyra, Warsaw, and Amsterdam

This paper investigates recent digital reconstruction efforts of Syrian heritage sites. These projects illustrate a Western saviorism emblematic of the colonial roots of archaeology and heritage practices. Rather than offering a solution, digital innovation further exacerbates the unequal distribution of knowledge and power. In order to de-naturalize narratives of technological progress, this paper compares the digitally produced replica of Palmyra’s Arch of Triumph, first presented in London in 2016,to the postwar reconstructions of Warsaw and the Hollandsche Schouwburg, a Holocaust site in Amsterdam. By comparing digital and nondigital memory technologies, we can examine how Western conceptions of heritage are entangled with the very possibilities of destruction and reconstruction.