Ottoman Archaeology in the Late-Nineteenth Century. The Local Dimension

Edhem Eldem, Bosphorous University, Istanbul, Turkey

Much of the work that has been done to this day on archaeology in the Ottoman Empire has relied almost exclusively on western documentation, emanating from European archaeologists, scholars, travelers, diplomats, and statesmen. While providing a very rich and valuable context to the topic from the perspective of the growing interest of western powers and institutions for archaeological research in the Ottoman lands, this vision has to a large extent confined Ottoman actors —archaeologists, bureaucrats, notables, and so on— to a rather passive role at the ‘receiving end’ of this process. True, Ottoman sources directly related to archaeology are limited in quantity and scope, a fact that would tend to validate this vision of a marginal interest and involvement of Ottoman intellectuals and policymakers in archaeological concerns. Yet, a better use and exploitation of the few available Ottoman sources on the subject are likely to contribute to a better understanding of the complex relationship between ‘foreigners and locals’ in this domain. In a recent article, I have tried to analyze the position and action in this context of one particular Ottoman actor, namely Osman Hamdi Bey, director of the Imperial Museum of Antiquities from 1881 to 1910. I intend, therefore, to pursue in this direction by making use of a number of similar sources on which I have been working for some time. These include additional documents related to Osman Hamdi Bey —most notably his original travelogue to Mount Nemrud in 1883—, the correspondence of Macridy Bey, commissaire of the Imperial Museum, concerning his inspection of several archaeological sites between 1902 and 1907, and the correspondence (active and passive) of Halil Edhem Bey, Osman Hamdi Bey’s brother, collaborator and successor at the direction of the Imperial Museum. Covering a period from approximately the early 1880s to the Great War, these documents, complemented with a number of peripheral and related sources, will be used to try to give more substance and meaning to the complexity of Ottoman archaeological concerns during the period of the European scramble for Near Eastern antiquities.

Edhem Eldem, “An Ottoman Archaeologist Caught Between Two Worlds: Osman Hamdi Bey (1842-1910),” David Shankland (ed.), Archaeology, Anthropology and Heritage in the Balkans and Anatolia: The Life and Times of F. W. Hasluck, 1878-1920, Istanbul, Isis Press, 2004, vol. I, pp. 121-149