Excavation of Raqqa by the Ottoman Imperial Museum in the early 20th century

Ayşin Yoltar-Yıldırım, Ankara, Turkey

The only excavation of an Islamic site by the Ottoman Imperial museum was Raqqa in Syria. There were two excavation campaigns by the Imperial Museum under the directorship of T. Makridi in 1905-6 and by Haydar (Sümerkan) Bey in 1908. These excavations did not last more than a couple of months and the findings were sent to the Imperial Museum for safe keeping. Objects from the excavation were exhibited early on in the Museum and only a few of them were published. Later more finds from Raqqa reached the Imperial Museum via confiscations. Today all of these finds from Raqqa are dispersed to Turkish and Islamic Art Museum in Istanbul, Istanbul Archaeological Museum, Ankara Ethnographical Museum and Konya Karatay Museum. This paper focuses on the history of the Raqqa excavations by the Imperial Museum, namely the reasons of the Museum to begin excavations, methods of its excavation; findings of the two excavations and later confiscations from this site, display and publications of the Museum. Archival documentation and the earliest inventories of the Imperial Museum will be analyzed to shed light on this long forgotten excavation of the Imperial Museum.