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Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology & the Ancient World
Brown University
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While doing the readings for last week I was struck by one particular passage in Holloway's introductory article:
"One comes away from this survey of engaged biblical and ancient Near Eastern studies with a sense that innumerable opportunities for constructive historiography were shirked due to a combination of confessional presuppositions, Orientalist prejudice, the politics of nationalism, and a distinctly uncritical exercise of comparative religions" (Holloway 2006, 25)
Holloway is giving his analysis of one of the many chapters within this volume (this one written by Lowell Handy), in his summary however, he distills a lot of the points made throughout our readings on the history of Assyriology. The Confessional presuppositions are tightly bound with the biblical "expectations" of early explorers/archaeologists. The Orientalist prejudice is apparent throughout but especially clear in the early work on women in the court and the transposition of idealized Ottoman harems into the Neo-Assyrian court. The politics of nationalism naturally plays into the hand of Nazi archaeology. And finally the uncritical exercise of comparative religions, tightly bound to the first and second criticism, influenced the concept of Pan-Babylonianism as well as the concept of the static Islamic middle east.
- Confessional presuppositions: Frahm in his article talks about the doubts that research in Assyriology started to instill in devout members of the clergy, "As early as 1847, a member of the Anglican church protested against the further prosecution of the excavations in Assyria, being alarmed at the idea that the annals of the Assyrian kings might test the credibility of biblical history." (Frahm 2006, 78-79) It is clear from many of the articles that presuppositions did much to inform and illuminate discoveries in the minds of researchers and the public, but also functioned as blinders preventing information not directly within the realm of revelation from being discovered or associated with recent finds.
- Orientalist prejudice: The majority of our readings incorporated at least some critique of the influence of Orientalism on the study of the Ancient Near East on particularly salient example is that of Ernst Weidner's reading of the Middle Assyrian palace decrees through the lens of a mythological western narrative of 'hyper-sexual' royal women. Particularly interesting is Weidner's claim that "everywhere in the Orient where the extension of western civilization could not penetrate, not much had changed up until the twentieth century." (Holloway 2006, 38)
- The politics of nationalism: Nationalism was a, if not the driving force behind much of the early archaeology in the Near East. Instead it might interesting to examine it on a micro-scale, that of the competition between institutions such as the colleges of New England in the 19th century, "Can you without too great trouble to yourself or them persuade some of your brother missionaries at Mosul to procure for your Alma Mater some mementoes of the Ancient Cities now opened on the Tigris? Williams College has, from some of her graduates received some." (Cohen and Kangas 2010, 7)
- Uncritical exercise of comparative religions: What the theory of Pan-babylonianism needed was some hard critical review from the start, something it seems to have lacked. Holloway credits the idea to "sweeping neo-romantic diffusionist models" (Holloway 2006, 19). To some degree the lack of critical comparative religious studies was due to the emphasis on biblical basis and truth. Pab-Babylonianism represented a break but not a retrospective break so much as a new frontier.
Holloway's initial quote although in the middle of his introduction serves very well to sum up the trials and tribulations of the history of Assyriology. Each of these four criticisms served both to hinder the field as well as propel it onwards at times.
References:
Posted at Oct 02/2011 09:52PM:
omur: These four issues do summarize really well especially the scholarly weaknesses in the study of the ancient Near East. One component that seems to me left out is the question of modernity itself intimately linked with nationalism. I am referring to modernity that attempts to link itself to the distant, ancient past while breaking ties with the recent, immediate history and eradicating the powerful singularity of place ad locality. The relief sculpture traveling across the Atlantic becomes "world heritage" through its uprooting to museums and academic institutions. This is the process, the incorporation of Assyrian sculpture into narratives of human history, is what is crucial about the long-distance travels of palace orthostats. Likewise Gottfried Semper's incorporation of them into his architectural treatise on architectonics and style.