Empires of Antiquities

Empires of Antiquities PDF Author: Billie Melman
Publisher:
ISBN: 0198824556
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 412

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Book Description
Empires of Antiquities is a history of the rediscovery of the imperial civilizations of the ancient Near East in a modern imperial order that evolved between the outbreak of the First World War and the decolonization of the British Empire in the 1950s. It explores the ways in which near eastern antiquity was redefined and experienced, becoming the subject of imperial regulation, modes of enquiry, and international and national politics. Billie Melman follows a series of globally publicized spectacular archaeological discoveries in Iraq, Egypt, and Palestine, which made antiquity material visible and accessible as never before. She demonstrates that the new definition and uses of antiquity and their relations to modernity were inseparable from the emergence of the post-war international imperial order, transnational collaboration and crises, the aspirations of national groups, and collisions between them and the British mandatories. This study uniquely combines a history of the internationalization of archaeology and the rise of a new 'regime of antiquities', under the oversight of the League of Nations and its institutions, a history of British attitudes to, and passion for near eastern antiquity and on the ground, colonial policies and mechanisms, as well as nationalist claims on the past. It points at the centrality of the new mandate system. Drawing on an unusually wide range of materials collected in archives in six countries, as well as on material and visual evidence, this volume weaves together imperial, international and national histories, and the history of archaeological discovery which it connects to imperial modernity.

Empire Without End

Empire Without End PDF Author: Kathleen Wren Christian
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780300154214
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 440

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Book Description
In the early fifteenth century, when Romans discovered ancient marble sculptures and inscriptions in the ruins, they often melted them into mortar. A hundred years later, however, antique marbles had assumed their familiar role as works of art displayed in private collections. Many of these collections, especially the Vatican Belvedere, are well known to art historians and archaeologists. Yet discussions of antiquities collecting in Rome too often begin with the Belvedere, that is, only after it was a widespread practice. In this important book, the author steps back to examine the "long" fifteenth century, a critical period in the history of antiquities collecting that has received scant attention. Kathleen Wren Christian examines shifts in the response of artists and writers to spectacular archaeological discoveries and the new role of collecting antiquities in the public life of Roman elites.

Plundered Empire

Plundered Empire PDF Author: Michael Greenhalgh
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 900440547X
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 696

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Book Description
This book concentrates on the sometimes Greek but largely Roman survivals many travellers set out to see and perhaps possess throughout the immense Ottoman Empire, on what were eastward and southward extensions of the Grand Tour. Europeans were curious about the Empire, Christianity’s great rival for centuries, and plenty of information on its antiquities was available, offered here via lengthy quotations. Most accounts of the history of collecting and museums concentrate on the European end. Plundered Empire details how and where antiquities were sought, uncovered, bartered, paid for or stolen, and any tribulations in getting them home. The book provides evidence for the continuing debate about the ethics of museum collections, with 19th century international competition the spur to spectacular acquisitions.

Empires of the Imagination

Empires of the Imagination PDF Author: Holger Hoock
Publisher: Profile Books
ISBN: 1847652239
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 561

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Book Description
Between the mid-18th and mid-19th centuries, Britain evolved from a substantial international power yet relative artistic backwater into a global superpower and a leading cultural force in Europe. In this original and wide-ranging book, Hoock illuminates the manifold ways in which the culture of power and the power of culture were interwoven in this period of dramatic change. Britons invested artistic and imaginative effort to come to terms with the loss of the American colonies; to sustain the generation-long fight against Revolutionary and Napoleonic France; and to assert and legitimate their growing empire in India. Demonstrating how Britain fought international culture wars over prize antiquities from the Mediterranean and Near East, the book explores how Britons appropriated ancient cultures from the Mediterranean, the Near East, and India, and casts a fresh eye on iconic objects such as the Rosetta Stone and the Parthenon Marbles.

Who Owns Antiquity?

Who Owns Antiquity? PDF Author: James Cuno
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400839246
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 285

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Book Description
Whether antiquities should be returned to the countries where they were found is one of the most urgent and controversial issues in the art world today, and it has pitted museums, private collectors, and dealers against source countries, archaeologists, and academics. Maintaining that the acquisition of undocumented antiquities by museums encourages the looting of archaeological sites, countries such as Italy, Greece, Egypt, Turkey, and China have claimed ancient artifacts as state property, called for their return from museums around the world, and passed laws against their future export. But in Who Owns Antiquity?, one of the world's leading museum directors vigorously challenges this nationalistic position, arguing that it is damaging and often disingenuous. "Antiquities," James Cuno argues, "are the cultural property of all humankind," "evidence of the world's ancient past and not that of a particular modern nation. They comprise antiquity, and antiquity knows no borders." Cuno argues that nationalistic retention and reclamation policies impede common access to this common heritage and encourage a dubious and dangerous politicization of antiquities--and of culture itself. Antiquities need to be protected from looting but also from nationalistic identity politics. To do this, Cuno calls for measures to broaden rather than restrict international access to antiquities. He advocates restoration of the system under which source countries would share newly discovered artifacts in exchange for archaeological help, and he argues that museums should again be allowed reasonable ways to acquire undocumented antiquities. Cuno explains how partage broadened access to our ancient heritage and helped create national museums in Cairo, Baghdad, and Kabul. The first extended defense of the side of museums in the struggle over antiquities, Who Owns Antiquity? is sure to be as important as it is controversial. Some images inside the book are unavailable due to digital copyright restrictions.

Empires of Knowledge

Empires of Knowledge PDF Author: Paula Findlen
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429867921
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 412

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Book Description
Empires of Knowledge charts the emergence of different kinds of scientific networks – local and long-distance, informal and institutional, religious and secular – as one of the important phenomena of the early modern world. It seeks to answer questions about what role these networks played in making knowledge, how information traveled, how it was transformed by travel, and who the brokers of this world were. Bringing together an international group of historians of science and medicine, this book looks at the changing relationship between knowledge and community in the early modern period through case studies connecting Europe, Asia, the Ottoman Empire, and the Americas. It explores a landscape of understanding (and misunderstanding) nature through examinations of well-known intelligencers such as overseas missions, trading companies, and empires while incorporating more recent scholarship on the many less prominent go-betweens, such as translators and local experts, which made these networks of knowledge vibrant and truly global institutions. Empires of Knowledge is the perfect introduction to the global history of early modern science and medicine.

Incidental Archaeologists

Incidental Archaeologists PDF Author: Bonnie Effros
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501718541
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 390

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Book Description
"From 1830, the Roman ruins of North Africa intrigued invading French military officers and became key to the colonial narrative justifying French settlement of North Africa"--

Handbook Hittite Empire

Handbook Hittite Empire PDF Author: Stefano De Martino
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 9783110657678
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This handbook offers an overview of the political, administrative and economic structure of the Hittite empire in a diachronic pespective, from the Old Kingdom untill the fall of the Hatti state. It will deal with: the relation between environment and political power;the political and administrative structure; war; religion and power.

Cyprus and the Balance of Empires

Cyprus and the Balance of Empires PDF Author: Charles Anthony Stewart
Publisher: American Society of Overseas Research
ISBN: 9780897570732
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Between 491 and 1191 AD, Cyprus was influenced by various political and cultural centers that vied for dominance in the Eastern Mediterranean. This collection of essays primarily focuses on the island's archaeology when it was governed by the Byzantine capital of Constantinople. Greek and Orthodox Christian identity was cultivated during this period, which provided a sense of unity among the various provinces; and yet, the surviving historical and archaeological data concerning Cyprus is unique in that it expresses both local and regional characteristics. By investigating the various threads, whether textual, numismatic, architectural, or artistic, narrative has emerged that challenges our past assumptions. The themes covered in this volume developed from a conference held in Nicosia, organized by the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute [CAARI] celebrating the 50th year anniversary of the Republic of Cyprus. An international group of experts explored several themes such as: the impact of recent archaeological discoveries; the shift from studying Late Antique urbanism to rural development; indicators of Cypriot identity; shifts in population settlement, production, and trade; cultural interaction between Islam and Christianity; the significance of ceramic and numismatic evidence; monumental figural arts and their iconographical interpretation. The resulting chapters provide new and previously unpublished data, and should be considered a major contribution to Late Antique and Medieval studies.

Scramble for the Past

Scramble for the Past PDF Author: Zainab Bahrani
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789944731270
Category : Archaeology
Languages : en
Pages : 519

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Book Description