Who Owns Antiquities? The Politics of Museology & Archaeology - HOA00121M
Module summary
Who owns antiquities? This module tackles this question by focusing on nineteenth-century European colonialism in Western Asia (the “Middle East”) and the formation of universal or encyclopaedic museums in major European and American cities.
Module will run
| Occurrence | Teaching period |
|---|---|
| A | Semester 2 2025-26 |
Module aims
Who owns antiquities? Cultural, legal, economic, and political dimensions of this question continue to inform debates on the restitution and repatriation of antiquities, with immense repercussions for the fields of museology, art history, and archaeology. This module will tackle these issues by focusing on nineteenth-century European colonialism in Western Asia (the “Middle East”) and the formation of universal or encyclopaedic museums in major European and American cities. We will explore the intricate ties that link museology and archaeology with efforts of empire- and nation- building, as well as with exclusionary politics and the antiquities market. We will also pay special attention to the contemporaneous formation of non-Western museums (e.g., The Ottoman Imperial Museum), and incorporate into our analyses various indigenous sources and archaeologies across time—from the ancient to the Hellenistic, Medieval, and Ottoman periods.. This will lead us to delve into the political nature of the concept of the archive, namely whose voices are heard and whose are suppressed, and will help us critically engage with narratives that dominate both popular and scholarly discourses today. Finally, we will turn to the practical aspects of curating by addressing one of the most pressing issues in the field: the exhibition and publication of objects with questionable provenance (histories of ownership).
Module learning outcomes
By the end of the module, students should have acquired:
-
A solid grounding in the current debates on the restitution and repatriation of antiquities
-
A critical understanding of the intersections of archaeology, art history, and museology with the
histories of colonialism -
Familiarity with the legal, political, and economic backgrounds of the restitution debate as well as
their historical trajectory -
The ability to think critically about art historical and archaeological narratives, exhibition
didactics, and designs by situating them within the histories of the restitution and repatriation
debate -
An understanding of the impact of provenance research on curatorial decision-making processes
-
The skill to write clearly and concisely about complex ideas
Indicative assessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Special assessment rules
None
Indicative reassessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Module feedback
You will receive feedback on assessed work within the timeframes set out by the University - please check the Guide to Assessment, Standards, Marking and Feedback for more information.
The purpose of feedback is to help you to improve your future work. If you do not understand your feedback or want to talk about your ideas further, you are warmly encouraged to meet your Tutor and/or Supervisor during their office hours.
Indicative reading
- Azoulay, Ariela Aïsha. Potential History: Unlearning Imperialism. London and Brooklyn, NY: Verso, 2019.
- Bahrani, Zainab, Zeynep Çelik, and Edhem Eldem, eds. Scramble for the Past: A Story of Archaeology in the Ottoman Empire, 1753-1914. Istanbul: SALT, 2011.
- Bernhardsson, Magnus T. Reclaiming a Plundered Past: Archaeology and Nation Building in Modern Iraq. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005.
- Cuno, James. Who Owns Antiquity? Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008.
- Çelik, Zeynep. About Antiquities: Politics of Archaeology in the Ottoman Empire. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2016.
- El-Daly, Okasha. Egyptology: The Missing Millennium: Ancient Egypt in Medieval Arabic Writings. London: Routledge, 2007.
- Hamilakis, Yannis. The Nation and its Ruins: Antiquity, Archaeology, and National Imagination in Greece. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.
- Hartman, Saidiya. Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Social Upheaval. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2019.
- Sarr, Felwine and Bénédicte Savoy. The Restitution of African Cultural Heritage. Toward a New Relational Ethics. November 2018.
- Shaw, Wendy M. K. Possessors and Possessed: Museums, Archaeology, and the Visualization of History in the Late Ottoman Empire. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2003.