Cultural Heritage

#03–2014 Cultural Heritage Archaeological Heritage Heritage and Tourism Iranian Narratives on Management on the Marxiano Melotti the Mongol Era Rania Plain Anja Pistor-Hatam Tim Skuldbøl, Carlo Colantoni Cultural Heritage in Governmentalities of Creating Futures for the the Gulf: Blight or Alevi Cultural Heritage Past in Southern Iraq Blessing? Benjamin Weineck Eleanor Robson Djamel Boussaa www.meta-journal.net CONTENT E DITORIAL FOCUS 05 Alexa Bartelmus, 41 Tim Skuldbøl, Carlo Colantoni Giulia Francesca Grassi A Damage Assessment of Iraq’s Dealing with the Past in the Past: Archaeological Heritage Present: How and Why? Management on the Rania Plain in Iraqi Kurdistan ANTI/THESIS 55 Djamel Boussaa Cultural Heritage in the Gulf: 19 Jody Tabitha Neal Blight or Blessing? A Discussion Provenience, Provenance and of the Evidence from Dubai, the UNESCO 1970 Convention: Jeddah and Doha Two Schools of Thought on the Publication of Indeterminate 71 Marxiano Melotti Artifacts Heritage and Tourism. Globalization and Shifting Values in the United Arab Emirates META 92 Benjamin Weineck 30 Markus Hilgert Governmentalities of Alevi Materializing Culture – Cultural Heritage: On Culturizing Material. On the Recognition, Surveillance and Status, Responsibilities and “Domesticated Diversity” in Function of Cultural Artifact Contemporary Turkey Repositories within the Framework of a “Transformative 104 Anja Pistor-Hatam Scholarship” Historical Thinking in Intercultural Perspective: Iranian Narratives on the Mongol Era Middle East – Topics & Arguments #03–2014 CONTENT 113 Eleanor Robson Creating Futures for the Past in Southern Iraq: Challenges and Opportunities CLOSE UP 125 Giulia Francesca Grassi Nabonidus, King of Babylon OFF-TOPIC 137 Renate Dieterich More than Movies: Cinema Petra in Amman During the Mandatory Period 151 IMPRINT Middle East – Topics & Arguments #03–2014 04 E DITORIAL Middle East – Topics & Arguments #03–2014 EDITORIAL 05 lennium, there is a very strong interest in recent developments in (mostly) the Arab Dealing with the Past in the Present: world. But the past is highly relevant for How and Why? understanding what goes on in the modern Near and Middle East, since it is also relevant for the people who regard it as their legacy. During the past decades there were quite a few rulers in the Near and Middle East that made their countries’ ancient past a topical issue. One might think in this con- text of, for example, the Shah of Persia’s (Mohammad Reza Pahlavi; r. 1941-1979) huge celebration of “2500 years of the Alexa Bartelmus and Giulia Francesca Grassi Persian Empire” in 1971 that celebrated the founding of the “Persian Empire” by Cyrus Keywords: tion of cultural property, while others are the Great (r. 559–530 BC) in the ruins of the Cultural Heritage; Ancient Near East; concerned with matters of its protection, ancient Achaemenid capital Persepolis Past; History; Transmission with its ideological or commercial aspects, (Grigor; Wiesehöfer), to which he invited or with legal issues, to mention only a few visitors from all over the world, including Dealing with the Past in the Present: How examples. So why add another one? many state rulers. Similarly, Saddam Hus- and Why?1 sein (r. 1979-2003) loved to decorate him- Unfortunately, in present days there is a self by counting selected famous rulers of In recent years, there has been an enor- tendency both at universities and in soci- Iraq’s past—the Old Babylonian king Ham- mous amount of publications on “cultural ety as a whole to disregard subjects deal- murabi (r. 1792–1750 BC), the Neo-Babylo- heritage.” Typing only the English term—in ing with pre-modern history as being to- nian king Nebuchadnezzar II (r. 605–562 quotation marks—in Google [4 Dec 2014] tally irrelevant to today’s life. The Ancient BC), and the founder of the Ayyubid dy- reveals allegedly 24,600,000 entries (of Near East is rarely known to anyone,2 and nasty and conqueror of Jerusalem (in 1187 which of course not all will prove relevant even disciplines investigating more recent AD), Salah al-Din (“Saladin”; r. 1174–1193 or valid), and there are hundreds of books past periods of Near and Middle Eastern AD)—among his predecessors (Baram 58; and even quite a number of journals that history attract relatively few students. In- al-Gailani Werr 20; Robson 116), a practice, have “(cultural) heritage” in their title. stead, presumably due to the dramatic by the way, that was very common among Some of these lament the loss or destruc- events since the beginning of the new mil- the Ancient Near Eastern rulers them- Middle East – Topics & Arguments #03–2014 EDITORIAL 06 selves (Grassi 128). Hussein annually held and approaches, but also leaves room for again—in combination with the informa- a celebration in Babylon (Baram 48-51; discussion, not only between scholars of tion provided by the object itself—adds to Robson 116) after having restored the ar- different disciplines, but also between ac- the knowledge of lost civilizations, and the chaeological site and even having built his ademics and practitioners, and between respective artifact, which would otherwise own palace there, overlooking the previ- people from “Western” and Near and Mid- remain lost to the world, thus becomes an- ous palace of Nebuchadnezzar. Also the dle Eastern countries. We certainly cannot other puzzle piece in the reconstruction of reconstruction of the past of Israel has answer all the questions posed in our vol- world history. been affected by an ideological use of his- ume, but maybe we can inspire discus- On the other hand, however, publishing tory and archaeology: If in the period of sion. And of this we are convinced: No an artifact with unknown provenance indi- the colonization of Palestine, archaeology matter in which way, the past matters. That rectly fuels the mechanisms that have was practiced by immigrants in search of is why we have prepared this issue. brought it into the antiquities market. This their roots, after the creation of the State is not only morally dubious because the of Israel, archaeology—one of the most A source of continuing discussion is the scholar thus ideologically supports a pro- popular pastimes in the country during question of whether important cultural ar- cess of theft in which the respective coun- the 1950s to 1970s—was also used as a tifacts whose provenance is unknown and tries—at least materially4—lose part of their means of legitimizing territorial rights that are therefore likely to stem from illicit cultural heritage, and increasing demand (Elon). For these people the past clearly excavations should be dealt with and pub- makes looting even more attractive, but it mattered; they used it to bolster their lished by scholars and thereby be made also has even more sinister ramifications: claims of legitimacy by referring to their even more valuable than they already are. Recent studies have discovered that there countries’ resplendent past. Two different perspectives on this ques- is also a strong connection between the tion are presented by Jody Tabitha Neal illegal antiquities trade and other, more Searching—in accordance with META’s in her article “Provenience, Provenance serious crimes, such as corruption, smug- aims of interdisciplinarity and debate-ori- and the UNESCO 1970 Convention: Two gling of drugs and arms, prostitution, and entation—for a topic that could be suitable Schools of Thought on the Publication of perhaps even the funding of terrorism. to bridge the gap between the historical- Indeterminate Artifacts.”3 So, whereas the damage to the historical ly-oriented and the modern disciplines She argues that, on the one hand, the pub- information related to an artifact caused concerned with the Near and Middle East, lication of an artifact with unknown prov- by the loss of its archaeological record and to raise mutual interest because it is enance (or history of ownership, as op- might be counterbalanced—at least in equally relevant for all of them, “cultural posed to “provenience,” the location part—by its publication and scholarly dis- heritage” (understood in its widest sense; where an object was found) and the result- cussion (Neal also points to the fact that see below) thus seemed to be a reason- ing scholarly discussion on its nature and archaeology itself is “ultimately destruc- able choice. Fortunately enough, this top- cultural association can be important tools tive”; 22), there are other kinds of damage ic not only allows for multiple perspectives to rectify its archaeological record. This related to the publication of indetermi- Middle East – Topics & Arguments #03–2014 EDITORIAL 07 nate artifacts that cannot easily be com- seemingly sound provenance record is catalyze “processes of transformation in pensated for. not necessarily trustworthy: in recent years society” and thus to become a “trans- There are, of course, also “chance finds” there have been some prominent cases formative scholarship” (36): The different that fall into a legal grey zone: The Dead where dealers managed to fake the neces- steps that were necessary to ensure effec- Sea Scrolls, of which the first were discov- sary documents in order to sell illegally- tive cultural property protection (such as, ered and kept by Bedouin shepherds, are acquired objects to museums. It is thus the for example, conservation, documenta- perhaps the most prominent example.5 responsibility of the institutions concerned tion, provenance research, research on the Such artifacts are neither the product of with trading and purchasing cultural arti- creation of suitable legal frameworks, and official excavations nor of looting. facts (like auction houses and museums) the establishment of training programs for As a kind of compromise, Neal suggests to carefully investigate their provenance— all those concerned with cultural artifacts to distinguish between publications that and to impose the necessary conse- protection) required the collaboration of are made for the sake of profit (like auction quences if it should turn out to be dubious, both academic and non-academic actors.

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