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New deals for the past: the cold war, American archaeology, and UNESCO in Egypt and Syria

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dc.contributor.coauthorMeskell, Lynn
dc.contributor.departmentDepartment of Archaeology and History of Art
dc.contributor.kuauthorLuke, Christina
dc.contributor.schoolcollegeinstituteCollege of Social Sciences and Humanities
dc.date.accessioned2025-01-19T10:32:55Z
dc.date.issued2023
dc.description.abstractFrom the 1930s to the late 1970s, American archaeologists pursued a paired agenda of science and salvage such that their focus on logical positivism converged with US foreign policy towards international technical assistance. River basin salvage archaeology, pioneered in the US by the Tennessee Valley Authority and exported to the Middle East in the 1950s, was a prime example of American Cold War techno-politics that accompanied other international aid and technical assistance programmes. Amphitheaters of archaeology along the Nile and Euphrates were fertile testing grounds for the development of what became known as the ‘New Archaeology’, but also new deals, new science, infrastructure, and agriculture within a Cold War setting, so that monumental heritage and dam projects became flashpoints between American visions for the Middle East and attempts by UNESCO to maintain the spirit of internationalism. © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
dc.description.indexedbyWOS
dc.description.indexedbyScopus
dc.description.issue2
dc.description.publisherscopeInternational
dc.description.sponsoredbyTubitakEuN/A
dc.description.sponsorshipFunding text 1: In contrast, Syria never embraced the TVA-style development packages and explicitly rejected large-scale assistance under Point IV. Turning to Soviet aid during a period of rising US power in the Middle East created problems for raising emergency funds for salvage archaeology along the Euphrates. The UN had entered a diplomatic quagmire. Unlike the Egyptian case, European and American publics were far less captivated by a past scarcely known to them and in a region hostile to American presence. The Syrian regime played a delicate game by partnering with the Soviets and Eastern Bloc countries for infrastructure and technical expertise (funded in part by the UN), yet also holding steadfast to Arab nationalism and anti-Zionist agendas. When the Tabqa Dam became a reality, archaeological salvage along the Euphrates was guaranteed through the efforts of Middle Eastern experts like Robert Braidwood, Ralph Solecki, and Maurits van Loon, advancing the New Archaeology paradigm and backed by the US National Science Foundation. Technocratic approaches to irrigation and agriculture abroad under the banner of progress justified the expenditure by the US agency for US academics. Additional support from European institutions and private funders on both sides of the Atlantic was directed towards understanding the initial phases of human settlement and agriculture in river basins of the Middle East. When tensions emerged to undermine these funding streams, the UN was able to justify their renewed support through technocratic assistance by means of the World Food Program. ; Funding text 2: Christina Luke would like to thank Carol van Driel-Murray and Oliver Nieuwenhuijse at Leiden University as well as Fokke Gerritsen at the Netherlands Institute in Turkey for their time in discussing records and their work in northern Syria. Jeffery Cumonow at the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago was extremely helpful with James Braidwood records and OI newsletters. Lynn Meskell would like to thank Sang Phan at the UNESCO archives in Paris. Access to the Dutch sources was made possible by the tireless work of Gertjan Plets and Marin Kuijt at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Geralda Jurriaans-Helle assisted with the van Loon archive held by the Allard Pierson Museum, Amsterdam. The Dutch National Archive in The Hague provided access to the NEDECO materials. Finally, we are grateful to Tara Ingman and Annalisa Bolin and two anonymous reviewers for the helpful direction on our paper.
dc.description.volume34
dc.identifier.doi10.1080/02757206.2020.1830769
dc.identifier.eissn1477-2612
dc.identifier.issn2757206
dc.identifier.quartileQ1
dc.identifier.scopus2-s2.0-85092794627
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.1080/02757206.2020.1830769
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14288/26503
dc.identifier.wos579811900001
dc.keywordsAgricultural revolution
dc.keywordsEuphrates
dc.keywordsMiddle east
dc.keywordsNile
dc.keywordsPoint IV
dc.keywordsTVA
dc.keywordsWorld Food Program
dc.language.isoeng
dc.publisherRoutledge
dc.relation.grantnoMiddle Eastern experts like Robert Braidwood, Ralph Solecki; Tara Ingman and Annalisa Bolin; National Science Foundation, NSF; Universiteit Leiden; Universiteit Utrecht, UU
dc.relation.ispartofHistory and Anthropology
dc.subjectArchaeology and history of art
dc.titleNew deals for the past: the cold war, American archaeology, and UNESCO in Egypt and Syria
dc.typeJournal Article
dspace.entity.typePublication
local.contributor.kuauthorRoosevelt, Christina Marie Luke
local.publication.orgunit1College of Social Sciences and Humanities
local.publication.orgunit2Department of Archaeology and History of Art
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relation.isParentOrgUnitOfPublication.latestForDiscovery3f7621e3-0d26-42c2-af64-58a329522794

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