1. Archaeology and the Public

2. Masada, near the Dead Sea, Israel
NATIONALISM
Masada, near the Dead Sea, Israel

3. Built by Herod in 1st century BCE
Taken over by Romans
Zealots occupy it during Jewish Revolt of CE

4. Arch of Titus, Rome
70 CE: Titus conquers Jerusalem

5. Zealots’ last stand was Masada
73: siege by Roman general Silva
1000 Zealots committed suicide

6.                                        
Yigael Yadin
( )
Masada excavated in by Yadin: it becomes a national symbol of Israel:
‘Masada represents for all of us in Israel and for many elsewhere, archaeologists and laymen, a symbol of courage, a monument to our great national figures, heroes who chose death over a life of physical and moral serfdom.’

7. IDEOLOGY
Bamiyan Buddhas, Afghanistan, March 2001, destroyed by Taliban

8. Built by Emperor Constantius II in fourth century CE
Rebuilt by Justinian in sixth century CE
Turned into a mosque after 1453
1935: turned into a museum by Kemal Atatürk
Aya Sofia, Istanbul

10. mihrab

11. ARCHAEOLOGY AND WAR
                      Missing: IM5572 Large sand-colored stone statue of a male priest (15.2 x 38 cm), with an inscription on the right shoulder mentioning the goddess Nin-shu-pur, reputedly found in the vicinity of Adab (Bismaiya), datable to the 3rd Early Dynastic Period (c B.C.)
Looted Museum of Antiquities Baghdad, 2003

12. Treasure of Priam
Illegally shipped to Berlin by Schliemann
Taken away by Sovjets in 1945
Turned up in 1990’s in Moscow
Now in Pushkin Museum
Does the treasure have to be returned to Turkey, or to Germany?

13. Positive effect of war (rare): Description de l’Egypte

14. Elgin Marbles:
Removed from Parthenon in 1806 by Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin
Placed in British Museum in 1816
WHO OWNS THE PAST?

15. Arguments for London:
Elgin had legal permission of Sultan
Elgin saved the sculpture from worse
The marbles have become associated with London and benefit from it being displayed in one of the largest museums in the world
The British Museum cannot legally give away the marbles to Greece

16. Greek position:
Elgin took advantage of Ottoman rule of Greece
Marbles belong in Athens
New Acropolis Museum is being built on foot of Acropolis: it can equally well place the marbles without them being polluted or damaged

20. What do you think?
Should objects always go back to their place of origin?
Should objects be on their original spot or in a museum covering all of civilisation?
Should casts be made or not?

21. Egyptian Museum, built in 1835
ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE DEAD

22. Mummy room: should these bodies be displayed?

23. Temple mount, Jerusalem: one of the most heavily debated archaeological sites in the world

24. Ultra-orthodox in Jerusalem against archaeological excavations on Temple Mount in 1994: ‘Let the dead rest in peace’

25. ‘The world is shocked by the desecration of Jewish graves on the slopes of the Temple Mount by archaeologist robbers’

26. "The whole world is shocked at the archaeologists."

27. USES OF THE PAST
17 November 1997: six gunmen fire randomly at tourists, killing 58 of them
IT PAYS:
Economy of some third-world countries like Egypt rely in large part on tourism
Temple of Hatshepsut (15th century BCE), Luxor

28. Making the past more attractive: Nubian Museum, Aswan

29. CONSERVATION AND DESTRUCTION
Two main ways of human destruction: agriculture and roads: e.g. Betuwe line in the Netherlands (high speed train from Rotterdam to the Ruhrgebiet in Germany)

30. Aswan High Dam: UNESCO Salvage Project

31. Rescue of temples of Philae

33. ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE PUBLIC: making archaeological remains visible to the public