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Who Owns Antiquities? The Politics of Museology & Archaeology - MST00098M

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  • Department: Centre for Medieval Studies
  • Credit value: 20 credits
  • Credit level: M
  • Academic year of delivery: 2023-24
    • See module specification for other years: 2024-25

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 2023-24

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

None

Special assessment rules

None

Indicative reassessment

None

Module feedback

Students have the opportunity to submit a formative essay of up to 2,000 words and to receive feedback from a tutor. For the summative assessment task, students will receive their provisional mark and written feedback within 25 working days of the submission deadline. The tutor will then be available during student hours for follow-up guidance if required.

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.


The information on this page is indicative of the module that is currently on offer. The University constantly explores ways to enhance and improve its degree programmes and therefore reserves the right to make variations to the content and method of delivery of modules, and to discontinue modules, if such action is reasonably considered to be necessary. In some instances it may be appropriate for the University to notify and consult with affected students about module changes in accordance with the University's policy on the Approval of Modifications to Existing Taught Programmes of Study.