Keywords for the course: archaeology, nationalism, modernity, politics, heritage (and others) February 2, 2010 Arch Under the Tower of Babel: Archaeology, Politics, and Identity in the Modern Middle East Spring 2010

Mehmet II enters Constantinople Fausto Zonaro, ( )

British Empire 1897

colonialism keyword “conquest and control of other people’s land and goods” an economic relationship politically contested (domination and resistance) cultural encounter cultural “othering”/stereotypes, cultural hegemony

colonialism keyword mapmaking and material documentation of colonized landscapes archaeology: a “scientific” method of knowing an “antique” land

Carsten Niebuhr German Traveller, surveyer, geographer “the scientific exploration of Egypt, Arabia and Syria” sponsored by Frederick V of Denmark. Travels through ArabiaTravels through Arabia (google book)

Description de l’Egypt Napoleon Bonaparte’s “scientific” expedition to Egypt ( ). Recording of natural history, flora and fauna, archaeology, physical geography, technology, weights and measures, hydrography, meteorology, medicine,

Photographs of an Armenian–Iranian photographer: Antoin Sevruguin ( )

archaeology in the context of 19 th century colonialism: a way of systematically knowing the colonized landscape, surveying it, mapping it, studying its antiquities, ruins, its “antique” riches a way of acquiring objects for Western museums and supplying them with splendid collections serves a religious purpose as well discovery of places, cities, empires mentioned in the Biblical texts. Archaeology concretely legitimized the Biblical past. Very critical for European claim for Mesopotamian heritage. Lines up well with missionary activity. archaeology as part of the industrialist interventions from the West, employing, exporting technologies and scientific methodologies.

Austin Henry Layard ( ) Excavations at the site of Nimrud (ancient Kalhu), in Northern Iraq.

Paul Emile Botta appointed as French consul in Mosul (1842) Excavations on the mound of Khorsabad ( ) on the behalf of the Louvre museum a former botanist

archaeology keyword argument: with its entangled history with colonialism, archaeology is inherently political

discussion question! in the 20 th century, with the establishment of modern nation states, archaeology gains a new status. introduction of antiquities laws that restricted the circulation and taking away of artifacts, regulation of the practice of archaeological practices of Western archaeologists.. Western archaeologists as “scientists” in the field, battling with the “nationalist” elites of the host countries? nationalism as an annoyance that gets in the way of “science”? Mobilization of archaeology in the construction of new national identities as part of the project of modernity...

nationalism keyword cultural artifact of some kind, of the late 18 th and 19 th centuries, nation state: an imagined political community based on ethno-linguistic, ethno-religious identities of a dominant group

Nation and its Ruins: Stripping the Parthenon, an (ancient) monument to national identity

Athenian Acropolis in ealy 19 th c.. Edward Dodwell, Views in Greece (1821)

Parthenon and its historical “burdens”

Stripped Parthenon and the Athenian Acropolis

modernity keyword industrialization, new technologies of production, conquest of nature, remaking of cities ideals of progress and standards of comfort, a utopia of transforming everyday life- importation of European parlimentary democracy, legal system, architecture and urban planning, complete rupture with the recent past- an interest in the ancient past “invention of antiquity” complete break with tradition- interest in innovation and the avant-garde Modernism in the Middle East: “other modernities” archaeology as an exported science in the service of the nation state ideologies. “an incomplete project”, a utopia secularist “civil” religion

Ankara: the heart of Turkey a 1934 documentary by Sergei Yutkevich, with the invitation by M.K. Ataturk on the new modernism of the Turkish Republic, to commemorate the 10 th anniversary of its foundation

Archaeology, politics, heritage Heritage places Archaeological sites as sites of imagination (as Imagined Pasts) “Heritage is of the past in the present” Nick Shepherd

Heritage Places Places of local meaning and practice: Religious claims of belonging Storied landscapes State ideology: official and archaeological narratives national identities Global interests: UNESCO and the idea of world heritage

Leech Pond at Kerkenes Dag

Kerkenes Dag