Christina Luke - Böcker

Known as "the Pearl of the Mediterranean," Izmir invokes a city and countryside blessed with good fortune; it is known to many as the homeland of Ephesus, Bergama, and Sardis. Yet, Turkey's third largest city has an especially vexed past. The Greek pursuit of the Megali Idea leveraged Classical history for 19th century political gains, and in so doing also foreshadowed the "Asia Minor Catastrophe." Princeton University's work at Sardis played into the duplicitous agendas of western archaeologists, learned societies, and diplomats seeking to structure heritage policy and international regulations in their favor, from the 1919 Paris Peace Conference to the League of Nations. A Pearl in Peril reveals the voices of those on the ground. It also explores how Howard Crosby Butler, William Hepburn Buckler, and William Berry penetrated the inner circle of world leaders, including Woodrow Wilson, Lloyd George, and Eleftherios Venizelos. On the smoldering ashes of Anatolia's scorched earth, foreign intervention continued apace with plans for large-scale development. A Pearl in Peril tackles the untold story of Julian Huxley's admiration of the US Tennessee Valley Authority's "principals of persuasion" in the context of the industrial landscapes and pursuit of modernity in the Aegean. The promise of UNESCO, too, brought diplomacy dollars deployed to foster "mutual understanding" through preservation programs at Sardis. Yet, from this same pot of money came support for "open intelligence" at the international fairs held in Izmir's Kültürpark, a turnkey battleground of the Cold War. Ironically, it was UNESCO's colossal Abu Simbel project in Egypt that led the US to abandon their preservation initiatives in Turkey. Five decades on, groves of organic olives, marble quarries and gold mines not only threaten the erasure of sacred landscapes, but also ensure the livelihood of local communities. Ultimately, A Pearl in Peril offers a bold assessment of diplomatic practice, perspectives of contemporary heritage, and the challenges of unprecedented expansion of city and countryside.

Archaeology’s links to international relations are well known: launching and sustaining international expeditions requires the honed diplomatic skills of ambassadors. U.S. foreign policy depends on archaeologists to foster mutual understanding, mend fences, and build bridges. This book explores how international partnerships inherent in archaeological legal instruments and policies, especially involvement with major U.S. museums, contribute to the underlying principles of U.S. cultural diplomacy. Archaeology forms a critical part of the U.S. State Department’s diplomatic toolkit. Many, if not all, current U.S.-sponsored and directed archaeological projects operate within U.S. diplomatic agendas. U.S. Cultural Diplomacy and Archaeology is the first book to evaluate museums and their roles in presenting the past at national and international levels, contextualizing the practical and diplomatic processes of archaeological research within the realm of cultural heritage. Drawing from analyses and discussion of several U.S. governmental agencies’ treatment of international cultural heritage and its funding, the history of diplomacy-entangled research centers abroad, and the necessity of archaeologists' involvement in diplomatic processes, this seminal work has implications for the fields of cultural heritage, anthropology, archaeology, museum studies, international relations, law, and policy studies.

Archaeological artifacts have become a traded commodity in large part because the global reach of Western society allows easy access to the world's archaeological heritage. Acquired by the world's leading museums and private collectors, antiquities have been removed from archaeological sites, monuments, or cultural institutions and illegally traded. This collection of essays by world-recognized experts investigates the ways that com-modifying artifacts fuels the destruction of archaeological heritage and considers what can be done to protect it. Despite growing national and international legislation to protect cultural heritage, increasing numbers of archaeological sites--among them, war-torn Afghanistan and Iraq--are subject to pillage as the monetary value of artifacts rises. Offering comprehensive examinations of archaeological site looting, the antiquities trade, the ruin of cultural heritage resources, and the international efforts to combat their destruction, the authors argue that the antiquities market impacts cultural heritage around the world and is a burgeoning global crisis.