Fake Heritage – from Artefact to Artifice - six online talks by John Darlington

Welcome to a world of mock-ruins, sham castles and false Adams. Welcome to a mirage of walls, ceilings and entire towns, a place where buildings are but a single-course deep and ancient monuments antiqued to give them the patina of age.

Why do people reconstruct the past? Six talks, each arranged thematically, consider the possible reasons: greed, aesthetics, entertainment, religion, personality, disaster and conservation. The series focuses on stories of imitation buildings and the people involved, seeded archaeological sites and forged heritage. It explores the motivations for creating a false past at a time when fake news is itself making the news, and seeks to understand the difference between heritage fakery versus authentic replication, inspiration and legacy.

Sharing stories from around the world, and dating as far back as the Neolithic, John Darlington describes a range of extraordinary buildings, sites, art and artefacts that are not what they first appear to be. He explores why they were crafted or constructed, and why this is relevant today, when truth and authenticity are important anchor-points in a century marked by political change, fragmentation and divergence.

They take place every Wednesday from 6th November–11th December at 4.30pm (London) and, including Q&A, will probably last just under an hour. They are available for viewing for eight weeks after the last episode is streamed (5th February 2025).