Final Report Summary - MAKAN (Moving Archaeological Knowledge Away from Neo-colonialism)
The history of archaeology is tightly intertwined with colonialism. In the Middle East, in particular, from the mid-19th century, archaeological “campaigns” were conducted alongside gradual European intrusion, under the label of "civilizing mission". In Egypt, the formative phase of Archaeology as a discipline evolved, not least under the auspices of leading London-based archaeologist William Matthews Flinders Petrie, in conjunction with the British military occupation, starting in 1882 and ending, long after national independence, only in 1956. For over two centuries the Middle East has been a resource for ancient materials, enriching major Western collections, but remained disciplinarily excluded from the recovery of its own heritage and history. Even today, despite great advances in methods and technologies, Middle East excavation praxis generally retains 19th century structures: workmen are usually seen as unskilled wage earners in need of constant supervision by skilled non-local supervisors; finds are later inaccessible to workmen and all living in the immediate neighbourhood of the archaeological site; and local interest in the Past is rarely investigated. Funding of Western projects, permitted to work in Middle Eastern countries, is usually more generous than those countries can afford for their own projects, and this creates an unbalanced relation which sustains a sort of economic neo-colonialism within archaeology. Although finds usually now remain in the country of origin, final site reports, data and studies are seldom published in the host country's language.
In recent initiatives to develop reflexive field methods in archaeology, reflexivity has been defined as "the recognition and incorporation of multiple stakeholder groups, and the self-critical awareness of one's archaeological truth claims as historical and contingent" (Hodder 2003: 56). Nevertheless, prominent archaeological journals (World Archaeology, Journal of Social Archaeology, Public Archaeology) still tend to avoid topics directly related to the politics of archaeology; there is a dearth of studies on intercultural interactions on Middle East excavations and on how excavations impact the lives and opinions of local inhabitants (Steele 2005). Egyptology, in particular, has remained almost untouched by self-critical approaches or community involvement strategies. In Egypt, the Quseir al-Qadim project (Moser et al. 2002) provides an isolated example of possibilities for Community Archaeology in the Middle East (Steele 2005). Construction of local museums has been a typical long-term goal for many Community Archaeology projects around the world, as museums can profitably act as hubs for public outreach and local collaboration. However, local museums may still be locally inaccessible, and museums hosting major collections of objects from a local community territory are sited in far-off Western countries.
The project MAKAN investigated the formative phase of Egyptian Archaeology through direct access to various archive resources, in order to build a self-critical history of the discipline and to understand the dynamics of knowledge production and appropriation. This research resulted in a critical assessment of Western archaeology in Egypt and Sudan as it is conducted today, linking with the production of a self-critical diary of the daily life on excavations in those countries. The MAKAN project aimed as well to create productive fora to raise awareness on the importance of the involvement of local communities and to formulate new strategies for re-connecting them with their own expropriated Past, investigating whether local and distant museums can be accessible spaces for community expression and exchange. The main specific objectives of the project were:
1. Archaeology Past: to produce a self-critical history of Egyptian Archaeology, highlighting structures potentially active in present-day "neo-colonial" archaeology;
2. Archaeology Present: to evaluate current theory and practice towards Decolonization of Egyptology;
3. Digital Museum Present and Future: to establish a non-hierarchical dialogic contact zone between site- and objects-resident communities;
4. Archaeology Future: to implement a multi-site ethnography research and research guidelines for Egyptian Archaeology;
A thorough archival research has been conducted, focussing around the most important figure for Egyptian archaeology in its formative period, the British archaeologist W. M. Flinders Petrie (1853-1942), whose papers are now kept in the archive of the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology at University College London. The importance of Petrie for the discipline is not only connected to his impressive record of excavations and scientific publications, but also to the fact that he produced one of the first "manuals" on excavation techniques and he trained on the field a whole generation of Egyptologists. The unlimited access to Petrie's diaries, notebooks and letters during the two years has allowed a highly detailed analysis of the archaeologist's methods and aims, but also social attitudes, convictions and idiosyncrasies. Complementing this research with study of other archive collections (National Archives, Wellcome Institute, British Museum, Liverpool University) has led to the delineation of general trends affecting the development of the discipline: first, the shift from an archaeology dominated by the collecting imperative to one built around the archaeological context and artefact, while strongly maintaining the main focus of attention on "the objects"; secondly the progressive marginalization of the human landscapes surrounding the archaeological sites, with the local people moved out of the frame of interests of Egyptology.
Among the important outcomes of the archive research must be included the digitization of great portions of the documental and photographic material relating to Petrie and the production of a digital App for Android tablets presenting some of the most interesting themes evidenced during the research to the general public.
A critical approach to current and past Community Archaeology projects carried on in different countries has demonstrated threee major problems for the applicability of the methodologies of this quite recent discipline in Egypt:
a. The identification of a "community" to interact with. This, which seems to be a main issue in Western countries as well, is made even more difficult by the cultural distance and the lack of knowledge of the local social structure and dynamics.
b. The Community Archaeology projects currently tend to follow a top-bottom approach, which will lead in countries like Egypt or the Sudan to yet another external imposition, not linked to the local social environment (see point a.) and therefore hardly sustainable.
c. The local interest of a community for its Past or its Heritage is generally taken for granted. Any Community Archaeology project should instead include a preventive deep study of the local interest, of the local point of view and especially of the local specific attitude towards the Past. It is extremely important to take into account the ways in which different communities relate to their Past, in order to avoid the overlay of an unquestioned Western perspective and narrative.
An integral part of the MAKAN project has also been the participation in an exhibition project entailing the display of 200 objects from the Petrie Museum in the premises of the Egyptian Cultural and Educational Bureau (ECEB) in London, with the involvement of Egyptians living and working in London as non-specialist co-curators. This experience has worked as perfect complement of the workshop organized in Egypt in December 2012 and of the discussions with Egyptian and Sudanese people working in archaeological excavations conducted in various occasions during the fieldwork campaigns in these countries. All these encounters have allowed greatly enriching insights into the multifaceted approaches to the Past experienced by very different groups of the Egyptian and the Sudanese societies in different contexts as well as having provided invaluable occasions to discuss and reflect on guidelines for the future of Nile Valley archaeology.
Bibliography cited:
Moser S. et al. 2002 Transforming Archaeology through Practice: Strategies for Collaborative Archaeology and the Community Archaeology Project at Quseir, Egypt, World Archaeology, Vol. 34, No. 2, Community Archaeology, pp. 220-248.
Steele C. 2005 Who Has Not Eaten Cherries with the Devil? Archaeology under Challenge, in S Pollock, R. Bernbeck (eds.), Archaeologies of the Middle East. Critical Perspectives, Oxford, pp. 45-65.
In recent initiatives to develop reflexive field methods in archaeology, reflexivity has been defined as "the recognition and incorporation of multiple stakeholder groups, and the self-critical awareness of one's archaeological truth claims as historical and contingent" (Hodder 2003: 56). Nevertheless, prominent archaeological journals (World Archaeology, Journal of Social Archaeology, Public Archaeology) still tend to avoid topics directly related to the politics of archaeology; there is a dearth of studies on intercultural interactions on Middle East excavations and on how excavations impact the lives and opinions of local inhabitants (Steele 2005). Egyptology, in particular, has remained almost untouched by self-critical approaches or community involvement strategies. In Egypt, the Quseir al-Qadim project (Moser et al. 2002) provides an isolated example of possibilities for Community Archaeology in the Middle East (Steele 2005). Construction of local museums has been a typical long-term goal for many Community Archaeology projects around the world, as museums can profitably act as hubs for public outreach and local collaboration. However, local museums may still be locally inaccessible, and museums hosting major collections of objects from a local community territory are sited in far-off Western countries.
The project MAKAN investigated the formative phase of Egyptian Archaeology through direct access to various archive resources, in order to build a self-critical history of the discipline and to understand the dynamics of knowledge production and appropriation. This research resulted in a critical assessment of Western archaeology in Egypt and Sudan as it is conducted today, linking with the production of a self-critical diary of the daily life on excavations in those countries. The MAKAN project aimed as well to create productive fora to raise awareness on the importance of the involvement of local communities and to formulate new strategies for re-connecting them with their own expropriated Past, investigating whether local and distant museums can be accessible spaces for community expression and exchange. The main specific objectives of the project were:
1. Archaeology Past: to produce a self-critical history of Egyptian Archaeology, highlighting structures potentially active in present-day "neo-colonial" archaeology;
2. Archaeology Present: to evaluate current theory and practice towards Decolonization of Egyptology;
3. Digital Museum Present and Future: to establish a non-hierarchical dialogic contact zone between site- and objects-resident communities;
4. Archaeology Future: to implement a multi-site ethnography research and research guidelines for Egyptian Archaeology;
A thorough archival research has been conducted, focussing around the most important figure for Egyptian archaeology in its formative period, the British archaeologist W. M. Flinders Petrie (1853-1942), whose papers are now kept in the archive of the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology at University College London. The importance of Petrie for the discipline is not only connected to his impressive record of excavations and scientific publications, but also to the fact that he produced one of the first "manuals" on excavation techniques and he trained on the field a whole generation of Egyptologists. The unlimited access to Petrie's diaries, notebooks and letters during the two years has allowed a highly detailed analysis of the archaeologist's methods and aims, but also social attitudes, convictions and idiosyncrasies. Complementing this research with study of other archive collections (National Archives, Wellcome Institute, British Museum, Liverpool University) has led to the delineation of general trends affecting the development of the discipline: first, the shift from an archaeology dominated by the collecting imperative to one built around the archaeological context and artefact, while strongly maintaining the main focus of attention on "the objects"; secondly the progressive marginalization of the human landscapes surrounding the archaeological sites, with the local people moved out of the frame of interests of Egyptology.
Among the important outcomes of the archive research must be included the digitization of great portions of the documental and photographic material relating to Petrie and the production of a digital App for Android tablets presenting some of the most interesting themes evidenced during the research to the general public.
A critical approach to current and past Community Archaeology projects carried on in different countries has demonstrated threee major problems for the applicability of the methodologies of this quite recent discipline in Egypt:
a. The identification of a "community" to interact with. This, which seems to be a main issue in Western countries as well, is made even more difficult by the cultural distance and the lack of knowledge of the local social structure and dynamics.
b. The Community Archaeology projects currently tend to follow a top-bottom approach, which will lead in countries like Egypt or the Sudan to yet another external imposition, not linked to the local social environment (see point a.) and therefore hardly sustainable.
c. The local interest of a community for its Past or its Heritage is generally taken for granted. Any Community Archaeology project should instead include a preventive deep study of the local interest, of the local point of view and especially of the local specific attitude towards the Past. It is extremely important to take into account the ways in which different communities relate to their Past, in order to avoid the overlay of an unquestioned Western perspective and narrative.
An integral part of the MAKAN project has also been the participation in an exhibition project entailing the display of 200 objects from the Petrie Museum in the premises of the Egyptian Cultural and Educational Bureau (ECEB) in London, with the involvement of Egyptians living and working in London as non-specialist co-curators. This experience has worked as perfect complement of the workshop organized in Egypt in December 2012 and of the discussions with Egyptian and Sudanese people working in archaeological excavations conducted in various occasions during the fieldwork campaigns in these countries. All these encounters have allowed greatly enriching insights into the multifaceted approaches to the Past experienced by very different groups of the Egyptian and the Sudanese societies in different contexts as well as having provided invaluable occasions to discuss and reflect on guidelines for the future of Nile Valley archaeology.
Bibliography cited:
Moser S. et al. 2002 Transforming Archaeology through Practice: Strategies for Collaborative Archaeology and the Community Archaeology Project at Quseir, Egypt, World Archaeology, Vol. 34, No. 2, Community Archaeology, pp. 220-248.
Steele C. 2005 Who Has Not Eaten Cherries with the Devil? Archaeology under Challenge, in S Pollock, R. Bernbeck (eds.), Archaeologies of the Middle East. Critical Perspectives, Oxford, pp. 45-65.