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In 2003, the Hadrian's Wall National Trail was opened, providing a 135 km (84 mile) public footpath along the length of the Roman frontier from Wallsend to Bowness-on-Solway. Each year, thousands of visitors walk the Trail from end-to-end and many more make day trips to visit specific locations within the wider World Heritage Site. In the second of two related papers (see Witcher, 2010), consideration turns from professional and popular visual representations of Hadrian's Wall to the ways in which visitors physically experience the monument and its landscape. The paper explores how embodied and sensory encounters produce and reproduce understandings which are charged with cultural and political meaning. Specifically, the elision of visitors and Roman soldiers through a process of embodied empathy/sympathy is outlined. It is argued that the way in which Western society assumes familiarity with an ancestral Roman Empire actively reduces the interrogative potential of encounters with the monument and limits visitors' ability to reflect on the significance of the Wall. The paper goes on to consider alternative modes of visual and physical engagement, drawing inspiration from virtual communities including geocachers who have used Information Technology such as Global Positioning Systems and Web 2.0 functionality to develop innovative modes of representation and encounter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the decades following the Second World War the once proud transatlantic port and trading city of Liverpool witnessed serious, progressive decline. The city featured prominently in buildings at risk registers, and areas of traditional terraced housing remain programmed for destruction under the government's controversial Housing Market Renewal Initiative (better known as 'Pathfinder'). In recent years Liverpool has seen a remarkable change of fortune. Key monuments have been restored, and multi-million pound projects of inner-city redevelopment are either on site or in the pipeline, including one for the site of the `fourth grace'. Six linked, tightly defined areas in the historic centre and docklands were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004; Liverpool celebrated its 800th anniversary in 2007 and is European Capital of Culture 2008. This paper sets out the historical background, recent initiatives and ongoing conservation challenges that confront the historic central and waterfront areas as well as the wider city of Liverpool. It relates threats posed by tall buildings and `iconic' modern architecture to the concept of `historic urban landscape', a UNESCO World Heritage Centre initiative aimed at the protection of urban identity and the management of change at the scale of historic cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has a central place in the identification and definition of World Heritage Sites, and increasingly in their ongoing management and conservation. Using the example of Stonehenge in central southern England, attention is drawn to the formulation of a research framework as a means of providing a transparent and structured approach to the planning and execution of high quality research. Ultimately, however, research has to be useful and socially relevant in terms of the outputs produced. In the second part of the paper some of the wider issues of knowledge creation are explored and a scheme proposed for the conceptualization of archaeological knowledge or scientia as four overlapping fields: narrative knowledge, strategic knowledge, indigenous knowledge and contemplative knowledge. It is suggested that World Heritage Sites should not only be exemplary situations for the pursuit of research but also be closely identified with the creation and maintenance of different kinds of knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

World Heritage Site (WHS) status is becoming a highly valued accolade in both developed and developing countries alike.The diversification and expansion of theWorld Heritage List has led to a more inclusive and representative approach to both designation and inscription. Although this could be perceived as a positive development, questions should still be raised about the meaning and significance of WHS status given the apparently indefinite expansion of the List. The paper will firstly examine the motivations, which appear to underpin the quest for WHS status in an international context, before proceeding to an analysis of Maritime Greenwich, which was inscribed on the List in 1997. Although it is acknowledged that generalisations about the significance of this global accolade are not always useful, the chosen case study exemplifies some of the generic impacts that WHS status can bring in its wake, particularly in historic towns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]