Reframing Time: Exploring and Curating the Past at the Ottoman Imperial Museum
This project investigates the perception of time in the late Ottoman Empire. It explores how the representation of the past served as a political tool in negotiating power imbalances and constructing a new imperial identity. The project specifically questions the role of the Ottoman Imperial Museum in fostering a new temporal culture within the Ottoman society, and in mediating between past and present during a period marked by intense transformation that was influenced by European temporal norms.
The Ottoman Empire’s entry into archaeology was characterized by three key developments: the establishment of the Imperial Museum in Istanbul, the launch of excavations to enrich the museum’s collections, and the enactment of antiquities laws to regulate foreign excavations and restrict the export of artifacts. Concurrent with these developments was a new historiographical approach that adopted the European tripartite classification of world history into “ancient,” “medieval,” and “new” periods, and the concept of a universal civilization. This shift, evidenced by new publications and research, intersected with the burgeoning fields of ancient history, art history, and archaeology, all essential for examining the empire’s rich history and culture. Osman Hamdi Bey played a key role in these developments during his directorship at the Ottoman Imperial Museum in Istanbul, starting in 1881, and marked a new era in museum management, archaeological research, and scholarly publishing.
This project critically examines how Ottoman archaeology, initially influenced by Western intellectual currents, incorporated distinct historical and cultural perspectives. It evaluates the extent to which the Ottoman archaeologists and museologists asserted their historical narrative through archaeological expeditions and museum curation. By investigating the decision-making processes behind the selection and presentation of objects at the museum, it aims to reveal the mindsets, motivations and considerations within Ottoman archaeological discourse, particularly regarding modernization, and identity construction, while ultimately revisiting the museum’s role in the empire’s quest for intellectual and cultural sovereignty.a
2020-2024
The Unknown History of Ottoman Archaeology: An Entangled Legacy
This project aims to produce a transnational history of archaeology in the Ottoman Empire around the turn of the twentieth century focusing on the social and scholarly interaction between Ottoman and European archaeologists. Drawing from archival sources such as official correspondence, letters, museum catalogues, field reports, photographs as well as archaeological material retrieved in Ottoman excavations, the project seeks to explore social networks, mechanisms of collaboration, and the specific role of Ottoman archaeologists in the formation of modern archaeology. In doing so, it aims to highlight the diversity of teams and individuals involved in archaeological practice in the late Ottoman Empire, who routinely collaborated in field research, artifact analysis, and publishing. Such transnational interaction in the archaeological realm opened up many opportunities for the exchange of knowledge and the transfer of expertise between European and Ottoman teams. The project exhibits the international nature of early archaeological research to allow for a reconsideration of the binary oppositions of East-West, local-foreigner, and Ottoman-European that have hitherto characterized mainstream historiographies. Emphasizing the prominence of local actors in the development of early archaeological practice, this project proposes an alternative narrative to those of the national(istic) and colonial histories.
2019/ 2020
From Raqqa with Love: Archaeological Explorations of the Ottoman Imperial Museum in Syria
This project investigates the formation of archaeology in the late Ottoman period as a ‘scientific’ discipline as it was implemented by a cosmopolitan team of archaeologists affiliated with the Ottoman Imperial Museum. By focusing on the archaeological explorations of the Imperial Museum at Raqqa as a case study, the project aims to give voice to underrepresented actors of the discipline, whose contributions are yet to be recognized in both Turkish and Western historiographies. In doing so, the project examines the ways and means in which the Ottomans actively engaged with archaeology in search for a new and ‘civilized’ imperial identity while counterbalancing the Western hegemony over antiquities lying in their land. Drawing attention to the social networks in archaeological circles of the time, the project offers an alternative narrative to the binary models focusing on east and west, local and foreigner, or Ottoman and Western. Besides, the project proposes a new methodology by integrating archaeological and textual sources in order to address neglected avenues of research and uncover the entangled histories surrounding archaeological investigations. Opening up new lines of inquiry for the history of Ottoman archaeology, this research seeks to broaden our understanding of the interplay between history, archaeology, and politics not only in the past but also at present.