This paper investigates a heritage assemblage in which the most prominent elements are an old brick arch and a massive beech tree, entwined together on Hampstead Heath. In drawing upon the figure of the assemblage, I explore how the practices of maintenance and management must take account of numerous human and nonhuman agencies that shape the ongoing emergence of the arch-tree assemblage. These multiple interactions continue to emerge and vanish according to divergent temporalities. I argue that in resisting reified, reductive accounts, more complex, layered narratives about heritage objects might be compiled to detail their historical entanglements with multiple forces and agencies. An awareness of these complexities also informs contemporary maintenance practices and provoke diverse conjectures about their futures.

本文调查了一个遗产组合，其中最突出的元素是一个古老的砖拱和一棵巨大的山毛榉树，它们在汉普斯特德希思 (Hampstead Heath) 上交织在一起。在利用组合的形象时，我探讨了维护和管理实践如何必须考虑到塑造拱树组合不断出现的众多人类和非人类机构。这些多重相互作用根据不同的时间性不断出现和消失。我认为，在抵制具体化的、还原性的叙述时，可能会汇编关于遗产对象的更复杂、分层的叙述，以详细说明它们与多种力量和机构的历史纠葛。对这些复杂性的认识也为当代维护实践提供了信息，并引发了对其未来的各种猜想。