LONDON -- Digging up the past has become politics, not archaeology. All round the world, whether in dusty archives or beneath sand-covered mounds, new "facts" are being uncovered, half-forgotten outrages reanalyzed, old myths debunked, old grievances exhumed and apologies or compensation, or both, demanded.
Starting first with more recent history, the supposed Turkish massacre of Armenians around 1915 has been resurrected -- by Turkey's critics, of course -- with all kinds of documents and incriminating pictures -- whose authenticity is immediately challenged. Newly discovered accounts of claimed British brutality in India in the early part of the century have generated new demands for apologies, as have British activities during the South African Boer War.
The cases of army deserters executed in World War I have been re-examined and several of the individuals pardoned. As part of the eternal quarrel between Britain and Ireland, the bloody events of the Easter uprising of 1916 have been redepicted.