Osman Hamdi Bey, Gertrude Bell, and the archaeology of Mesopotamia

Abstract

This thesis highlights the importance of archaeology conducted in Mesopotamia, a constituent part of the Ottoman Empire, beginning with the first Ottoman decree on antiquities in 1869 and continuing into the period of the British mandate which formally lasted from 1919 until 1932. Starting in 1869, the Ottomans placed an intrinsic and official value upon antiquities by issuing an edict governing the treatment of historic artifacts. Nearly fifty years later, when the British accepted a Mandate over Iraq, the officially inscribed meaning of archaeology in Mesopotamia took a new turn, moving away from Ottoman precedents. I focus specifically on the role played by an Ottoman official, Osman Hamdi Bey, and a British agent, Gertrude Bell, structuring the manner in which archaeology was actually practiced in what became known as Iraq and the manner in which it was interpreted and manipulated both for imperial cultural consumption and for the elaboration of two distinct ideological stances. The thesis has a comparative perspective, in that it compares and contrasts the relative role of an Ottoman imperial functionary with that of a servant of the British Empire. It additionally engages, and hopes to contribute to, some of the recent literature, which discusses Iraq’s cultural heritage as more than a mere excavation in the sand, and thereby enmeshes it in matters relating to high imperial politics, ideological preferences and identity formation. The thesis is divided into five chapters, preceded by an introduction and closes with a conclusion.