This chapter demonstrates how heritage processes can be explored within a very long temporal framework, and should not be described simply as a product of post-modern economic and social tendencies. It explores the history of heritage, not starting at an arbitrary date like 1882, but by producing a context-rich account of heritage as a process or a human condition rather than as a single movement or personal project. The chapter examines the nature of this 'present-centredness' that pervades the subject, before quickly exploring the full implications of the heritage definitions that are in current circulation. This will establish a contextual basis within which to place the historical analysis of the heritage concept. The chapter explores the implications of the very 'presentness' of heritage processes and practice. In other words, the only referent that matters is the present, which some have seen as representing a defeat of history and a closing off of any meaningful relationship with the past.