CHASING the IMAGINARY the Classical Past of Ancient Greece: Colonial and National Fantasies
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CHASING THE IMAGINARY The Classical Past of Ancient Greece: Colonial and National Fantasies Charalampos Maliopoulos Student Number: 1581880 MA Heritage and Museum Studies University of Leiden, Faculty of Archaeology Supervisors: Dr. M. De Campos Francozo Prof. dr. R.B. Halbertsma Cover Figure: Monument of Philopappus in Athens. James Stuart and Nicholas Revett, The antiquities of Athens, measured and delineated, Volume III, London: John Nichols, 1794. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 4 1.1 Problem Setting And Research Questions................................................................................ 4 1.2 Relevance Of The Thesis .................................................................................................................. 8 1.3 Methodology ....................................................................................................................................... 10 1.4 Theoretical Background ................................................................................................................ 13 1.5 Structure Of The Thesis ................................................................................................................. 22 CHAPTER 2: Historical And Socio-Political Background Of Hellenism: The Ideological Appropriation Of Greece And The Role Of European Scholars And Travellers ......................................................................................................................................................... 24 2.1 The European Interest In Greece Between The 14th and The 17th Centuries .......... 24 2.1.1 1670’s: Revising The Relationship With Greece And Its Ancient Material Remains ........................................................................................................................................................................... 27 2.2 18th Century: Perception Of The Hellenic During The Englightenment .................... 33 2.3 Late 18tH And Early 19th Centuries: Nationalism, Philhellenism And The Cultural Appropriation Of Greece .............................................................................................................................. 37 CHAPTER 3: Greek Classical Material Culture And Its Grip In Colonial And National Imaginings ....................................................................................................................................................... 42 3.1 The Tradition Of Collecting In Greece – An Overview ...................................................... 42 3.2 The Elgin Debate: Aesthetical, Legal, Ethical ........................................................................ 49 3.3 The Relationship Of Local Populations With Material Heritage ................................... 55 3.3.1 The Case Of Edward Daniel Clarke And The Statue of Demeter At Eleusis .... 60 3.4 The Case Studies of Aphaea In Aegina And Apollon Epicurius At Bassae ................. 64 3.5 The Collection Of Greek Antiquities By B.E.A. Rottiers – Its Impact And Symbolic Character ............................................................................................................................................................ 72 CHAPTER 4: Presenting Ottoman Athens In Recent Museum Exhibitions Through European Travellers’ Narratives ......................................................................................................... 84 4.1 Exhibition “Ottoman Athens, 1458-1833” ............................................................................. 85 4.2 Exhibition ““A Dream Among Splendid Ruins…” Strolling Through The Athens Of Travellers 17th-19th Century” ..................................................................................................................... 90 CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................................................................. 99 ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................................................... 106 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................................................... 107 TABLE OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................................... 116 APPENDICES ................................................................................................................................................. 118 3 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 PROBLEM SETTING AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS This thesis investigates the development of the discipline of archaeology in Ottoman Greece in step with colonial and national imaginings, and contemplates the existence of potential colonial echoes in recent museum exhibitions. By virtue of the recent global resurgence of nationalist movements and warfare, the close relationship between archaeology and its political implications has repeatedly been stressed within academia, concurrently criticizing the manipulation of the science and its data for nationalist interests (Atkinson et al. 1996; -Andreu and Champion 1996; Kohl and Fawcett 1995; Kohl 1998; Kohl et al. 2007; Silberman 1989). In this regard, the importance of the diverse sociopolitical context within archaeology emerged has been stressed (Trigger 1984, 356; Kohl 1998, 224), including the role of the materiality of antiquities as a means of interacting between cultures and formatting national identities (Gosden 2012). Still, according to Hamilakis (Hamilakis in Damaskos and Plantzos 2008) and Lydon and Rizvi (2010, 24), discussions about the relationship between archaeology and national imagination often fail to embrace the colonial subtleties that usually typify the imperi listic mbitions of West’s most prominent powers. Such imperial project ent iled the production of specific discourses bout the ‘other’ th t legitimi ed invasion, hegemony, or looting, and all of which proved essential in structuring a particular European identity. Within this scheme, it can be assumed that Trigger’s (1984) influential formulation of the three distinctive types of ‘n tion list, colonialist and imperialist or world-oriented’ archaeology played a role in this oversight of the colonial undertones (Hamilakis in Damaskos and Plantzos 2008). Yet, Trigger forewarned that this classification of ideal types fails to respond fully to the complexities and variations that characterize specific c ses’ social contexts (Trigger 1984, 358). Greece constitutes such a complicated and peculiar case, since it has never been officially colonized, and as a result, it is scarcely included in colonial or postcolonial studies (Hamilakis in Damaskos and Plantzos 2008). However, the historical 4 trajectories of the foundation of the discipline of archaeology and the formation of the modern Greek nation expose the interplay of diverse and complex forms of colonization. Besides, with the rise of nationalism and imperialism in the 19th century, the traditional colonial ways of territorial expansion and economic exploitation began also to involve the imposition of western-shaped ideology and culture as a naturalized norm to the colonies -Andreu 2007, 209-210). Along these lines, some recent discussions on the links between antiquities, archaeology and Greek national imagination show that the colonial discourse theory starts to draw more academic attention (Carastathis 2014; -Andreu 2007; Ruibal 2010; Hamilakis 2007; Herzfeld 2002; Mitsi and Muse 2013; Tziovas 2001). Still, the focal point in the majority of these discussions centers around the period that followed the establishment of the modern Greek nation, since the clearest manifestation of western intervention in the Greek state of affairs had been the imposition in 1832 of the Bavarian Otto, the first king of the newly-founded Greek state. Together with his administrative and academic circle, they consolidated the institutional archaeology in Greece. Ludwig Ross, for instance, was the first professor of archaeology and supervised the ‘c th rsis’ of the Acropolis fortress from any foreign and non-classical material existence, whereas Maurer was the designer of the first official archaeological law (Hamilakis in Damaskos and Plantzos 2008, 2; Kokkou 1977). The foundation, however, of this course of events had been laid down well before the Bavarian government rose in power. From the Ottoman period already (1453- 1821), the land of contemporary Greece and its residents had been subjected to various conceptual classifications and appropriations. However, despite the gradual inclusion of the Greek case within the discourse of postcolonial studies, van Dommelen (van Dommelen 2006 in Lydon and Rizvi 2010) argues that by prioritizing cultural and ideological hegemony over material exploitation, we run the risk of overlooking political aspects of colonialism such as asymmetrical power relations and looting. In this respect, along with the imposition of specific western ideologies, values and systems, this thesis asserts that the race for antiquities inaugurated by European antiquarians in Ottoman Greece as well as the nature of the involved processes at play, attest to that of formal colonization. On that note, European travellers that regularly visited the classically relevant territory of Greece, along with