ABSTRACT
Public archaeological interpretation has come a long way from earlier eras of unnuanced positivism and full confidence in the objectivity of specialized scholarship. Governmental authorities and international development agencies have made substantial investments to convert important archaeo-logical and historical sites into sustainable engines of local and regional economic development, in hopes of creating new heritage attraction's that offers a local employment opportunities and stimulates inter-regional tourism and trade. The World Bank has clearly expressed the underlying rationale of the concept of sustainable heritage and outlined its basic political economy: By definition, the patrimony represents a vast collection of cultural assets, but these assets also have a huge economic value. There is also an increasing trend toward trans-national messages and globalised interpretation that is hardly less ideological, serving the interests of regional unification and globalization, as in the cases of European Union cultural programs and the UNESCO World Heritage List.
