[...]... hastened processes of change in unimagined and unintended ways A comparison of the accounts of two leading archaeologists dating from the close of each of these conflicts, one by James Breasted written Preface xi in 1920, the other by John Wilson written in 1946, provides eloquent testimony of the degree to which Middle Eastern archaeology had changed during the intervening years and of the extent to which... and, less often, Germany There were frictions, of course, especially with the French, who devoted themselves to expanding their cultural in uence in the Middle East during the interwar years, sometimes to the detriment of American interests Although the struggle for great power dominance in the region that Neil Asher Silberman has so carefully detailed for the prewar period in his Digging for God and. .. 1930s? In the mid-1930s, with the rise of 8 Negotiating for the Past anti-Semitism in Germany, American field directors and their sponsoring institutions provided safe haven in the United States for a number of German Jewish archaeologists James Breasted, director of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago, which sponsored by far the most expeditions in the region, introduced a new model of. .. fifty-seven, Atatürk led the nation through a period of intensive reform, which be- 20 Negotiating for the Past Turkey came a model for other nations in the region, such as Egypt and Iran In the early years he focused on consolidating power in the new capital, breaking up the religious brotherhoods, so in uential under the late empire, and cutting the tie between Islam and the state By the late 1920s Atatürk... the pre-Islamic past of the Turks, the need to modernize the cultural life of Turkey and to purge the language of its Arabic and Persian elements These ideas were not original; Europeans, especially Hungarians, had expressed such thoughts as early as the 1840s The University of Budapest, spurred by the theory of the common origin of Hungarians and Turks and concerned at the rise of Pan-Slavism in the. .. Even 18 Negotiating for the Past in the decade of the Great Depression, American diplomats struggled to maintain a presence in much of the region Department policy had changed so dramatically that at times it seemed the diplomats had become the handmaidens of the archaeologists Time and again the U.S government came to their support, either alone or in concert with the other Western powers, Britain, France,... narrative’’ on nationalism because it examines elite ideologies in the context of the larger society, suggesting how these ideas permeated the growing middle class in each of the four countries In each of these states nationalist elites made extensive use of the media and the education system, both of which they controlled, to disseminate their messages.8 In these newly constructed or reinvigorated nations,... pre-Islamic sites, ignoring the thirteen centuries since the appearance of the Prophet Muhammad They knew little about the Arab world or Islam, and many believed that nothing original had come out of the Islamic world, that everything of worth there had derived from earlier civilizations They searched for the roots of Western civilization and of the Bible, and these they expected to find in excavations at... maps for the book For financial support of my research I would like to thank the Rockefeller Archive Center, the American Institute for Persian Studies, the Fulbright Commission, and, most important, the Research and Development Committee and the Padnos International Center at Grand Valley State University NEGOTIATING FOR THE PAST THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK INTRODUCTION This study of the Middle. .. appreciation for the works of art around them At the turn of the century one archaeologist lamented the looting of an ancient church, writing that ‘ the miserable Moslems of the present generation have simply destroyed the beautiful relics of antiquity to furnish material for putting together their hideous little hovels.’’ Almost forty years later, also in reference to the plain of Antioch, a publication of the . NEGOTIATING FOR THE PAST THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK Archaeology, Nationalism, and Diplomacy in the Middle East, 1919–1941 NEGOTIATING FOR THE PAST JamesF.Goode University of Texas Press Austin Copyright. Yahya, and the anonymous readers chosen by the Universityof Texas Press. My colleague xii Negotiating for the Past Roy Cole kindly produced the maps for the book. For financial support of my research. (Permanence of Paper). Library of Congress Cataloging -in- Publication Data Goode, James F., 1944– Negotiating for the past : archaeology, nationalism, and diplomacy in the Middle East, 1919–1941