From Ur to Masada: Antiquities Policy and State Building in Palestine/Israel and Iraq, 1919-1950

Open Access
- Author:
- Welp, Julia
- Area of Honors:
- History
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Arts
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Laura Robson, Thesis Supervisor
Jacob F. Lee, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- antiquities
antiquities policy
archaeology
Palestine
Israel
Iraq
MENA
Middle East
state building
legitimacy
British mandate
Britain
British Empire
colonialism - Abstract:
- Antiquities were inextricable from state building projects in Palestine/Israel and Iraq both under the British Mandate and following Israeli independence in 1948 and Iraqi independence in 1932. Throughout the mandate era, Britain sought to legitimize its rule to Western archaeologists, the British public, and the League of Nations by implementing antiquities policies that prioritized Western interests over local ones. While direct rule in mandatory Palestine and indirect rule in mandatory Iraq created different government structures, British officials in both states wrote and enforced antiquities laws that allowed Western archaeologists and museums to keep most of the objects they excavated. As a result, Britain’s attempts to prove itself a worthy guardian of antiquities to the local populations failed. After independence, the Israeli and Iraqi governments both utilized antiquities laws and archaeology to attempt to foster a sense of nationalism and identity among their citizens. In both countries, antiquities became central to the regimes’ sense of power and how they presented themselves as the legitimate governments. Despite these similarities, the legal framework from which nationalist archaeology emerged differed between Israel and Iraq. While the legacy of mandate rule and its government structures led Israel to adopt mandate-era antiquities law, Iraq drafted and passed new legislation that eliminated the old law’s privileges for Western archaeologists.