Jennifer A. Baird

Re-excavating the houses of Dura-Europos

‘Big digs’ of the earlier part of the 20th c. produced a vast amount of evidence, much of which was never published, but the archives can hold a wealth of information. One such site is Dura-Europos on the Syrian Euphrates (fig. 1). Almost a third of the site was exposed: limited work was conducted by F. Cumont in 1922-23 before in 1928 Yale University and the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres began 10 successive seasons of work under the scientific direction of M. Rostovtzeff. The excavation of houses was largely incidental to the expedition’s objectives. Amongst a range of motives for undertaking a difficult and expensive excavation was that of procuring items (especially inscriptions, parchments and papyri, and paintings) for museums in the West, in this case mainly the Yale University Art Gallery. Uninhabited since its demise at the hands of the Sasanians in the mid-3rd c.,1 Dura obliged on all counts.

SHOPPING, EATING, AND DRINKING AT DURA-EUROPOS: RECONSTRUCTING CONTEXTS

The site of Dura-Europos, excavated in the 1920s and 30s but never completely published, has long been of archaeological interest for its exceptional preservation. This article questions the original identifications of the excavators of houses and shops, explores what can be learned about commercial buildings at the site from the re-contextualisation of artefacts, and examines how this information can add to our understanding of life at Dura.

Framing the past: situating the archaeological in photographs

Archaeology continually reproduces its own images. Speaking archaeology’s visual language is one way we prove membership in the discipline. Many aspects of this visual language have become so naturalized within archaeological representation as to be almost unquestionable: the cleaning of the site, the use of scale, and particular framings and perspectives. How, then, is the production of particular photographic images of archaeology related to the practice of archaeology? Does archaeology look a certain way (in photographs) or are archaeologists reproducing an archaeology according to the way it is thought it should look? Using examples of early photographs from Latin American archaeological expeditions, this article investigates not only photography as an applied technology for scientific recording, but also its power to situate archaeological knowledge. Drawing on recent reflective and critical developments in both the history of archaeology and visual anthropology, it uses five focal points – trace, objectivity and authenticity, sight/site, still lifes, and still lives – to argue that early-twentieth-century archaeological photographs of Latin America participated in the generation of an ‘authentic’ past rather than simply paid testament to it.

Competitive Archaeology in Jordan. Narrating Identity from the Ottomans to the Hashemites

men and their lives using sources that rarely survive and which have not been the subject of previous research (Part 5: Daniel Z. Noorian: The Afterlife of an Interpreter; Part 6: Solomon Negima: A Dragoman and His Clients). This is where the story becomes particularly interesting and refreshing. In the introduction to the book, Mairs and Muratov stress that most of the information concerning dragomen comes from Western sources and that consequently the voice of the individuals themselves is, in most cases, lost. Through sources such as newspaper articles, letters and indirect evidence (in the case of Noorian), and using recommendations written by satisfied Western clients collected in a testimonial book on Negima, the authors succeed in giving back individual voices to the dragomen themselves. Each chapter follows the different careers of these two individuals and how their interactions with, in particular, American tourists and archaeologists ended up influencing their lives in a significant way. That sources such as those used by Mairs and Muratov are still available and can be explored in the ways they are employed in this book is, perhaps, the most important contribution of this study and one that is worth pursuing in future research on the topic. It is perhaps in parts 5 and 6 in particular, that the limited size of the volume can be seen to work against the authors. The reader is left with the impression that a lot more could have been said on these topics and on specific individuals, that would have added greater depth to their interpretation. We are told in the conclusion that the book is the result of an on-going research project, so more can be expected in the future. Mairs has very recently published a volume that exclusively covers the life of Soloman Negima, and which promises to flesh out the story presented in the present volume (Mairs 2016). Despite these drawbacks/faults, this is a thoroughly enjoyable, approachable and thought provoking volume looking at how a Western clientele, primarily interested in an ancient past, but with often highly romanticized ideas of the present, was introduced to and navigated contemporary Middle Eastern cultures in the later 19 and early 20 centuries.