Perceiving the Past as Heritage:
Discourses on Ancient Archaeological Sites and Antiquities
in the Late Ottoman Empire

Wendy Kural Shaw, Istanbul Modern, Istanbul, Turkey

During the latter half of the nineteenth century, the growing interest in antiquities, their archaeological recovery, and their collection and preservation in museums expanded from Europe to regions in its sphere of influence. In the Ottoman Empire, this modern concern was manifest both in the establishment of a museum in 1846 and in the passage of increasingly restrictive legislation in 1874, 1881, and 1906.  While such institutional developments reflect the state’s recognition of antiquities as part of cultural heritage, the notion of preservation as part of a public discourse of shared cultural heritage emerged far more slowly. 

The work will focus on sources published between approximately 1896 and 1915, an era defined by a growing intellectual arena that gained an open political voice through the second constitutional revolution of 1909.  By the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth, journals such as Servet-i Funun (Treasury of Arts), Muassır Medeniyet (Contemporary Civilization), and Manzara (View) included occasional articles concerning important archaeological sites within the empire.  In 1913, court painter and artist Hüseyin Zekai Paşa wrote the first analytical text concerning art in the empire, Mübeccel Hazineler (Holy Treasures).  This work discussed the arts from a vantage point of preservation, discussing new arts like painting in their relationship with monumental and residential architecture as well as famous archaeological sites such as Troy and Baalbek, both of which had been discovered in the late nineteenth century and had developed into tourist attractions thanks to new railroads. 

While in Europe, an interest in antiquities was grounded not only in modern nationalism but in a long-standing interest in the classics, in the Ottoman Empire it had to rely on new discourses to give value to antiquities that had not been conceived as part of the modern world.  Examining sources that emerged not as part of public policy but which instead addressed an educated audience becoming increasingly invested in notions of heritage and preservation, this paper will examine the development of value placed on the preservation of antiquities in the late Ottoman Empire.  Thus it will consider how ancient history became part of a modern notion of heritage at a moment of transition from imperial to national identity.