| Date | 2-3 October 2025 | |
| Time | 9:00-17:30 | |
| Venue | Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, Copenhagen |
The conference Excavating cities and archiving knowledge: Revisiting the rediscovery of “Lost Cities” in the Late Ottoman and early Mandate periods aims to shed light on the archaeological activities and practices from 1869 to 1946 by re-examining archival and photographic materials along with archaeological and historical publications. Through a set of invited papers, the conference seeks to uncover how current urban archaeological approaches and methodologies have been, often unknowingly, shaped by the paradigms established during this period. The conference takes two intertwined views on the meaning of “lost cities”: a) lost ancient cities, which were in fact never lost to the local societies, but are framed as being “rediscovered” by colonial and occupying powers in the late 19th and 20th centuries; and b) knowledge about these cities lost through the way in which they were explored and the ways in which the knowledge about them was archived/kept/documented or not. Through three lenses the conference will (1) investigate how now lost ancient cities were explored, but not comprehensively documented or published, (2) re-examine archaeological and historical publications from the period and examine unpublished archival material to trace the development of urban archaeology; and (3) start a discussion to develop a new framework for understanding and documenting the loss and subsequent ‘re-excavation’ of knowledge about these urban sites – a loss driven by past and present agendas, methodologies, and practices.
The geographical area covered in the conference was part of the Ottoman Empire in the past and was unified administratively. In present day, the area covers south-west Türkiye, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Jordan and Iraq. Now, as in the past, it hosts numerous distinct cultural, ethnic, linguistic, political, and religious communities for whom the ancient, ruined cities form part not only of their geographical but also of their cultural landscape, as well as the ways that they understand and express their identities. The sites that will be investigated will broadly cover this area, but will focus on places, where largely unexplored archives are accessible to investigate. The ‘universal value’ of those ancient cities, however, adds stakeholders to the sites that are not from the communities or the countries to which the cities now belong. Their involvement can range from initiatives viewed as constructive, in the form of excavations and preservation projects, to destructive, as was the case with ISIL in Palmyra to mention one poignant example.
The presence, however, of diverse stakeholders has always shaped the historical narratives of ancient cities. While the ruins were part of the lived experience of the local populations in or near them, travellers, explorers, invaders, colonialists, imperialists, and archaeologists, especially from Western countries, dismissed their present and immediate past, and set about discovering their ‘ancient’ past. This ‘ancient’ past was shaped not by the ruins themselves but to a high degree through the excavation and record practices or especially the western archaeologists, who were active in the period from 1869, when the first Ottoman law on antiquities came into place, to the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire (1918), and until 1932, when the British Mandate for Iraq ended and 1946, when the British Mandate for Palestine and Transjordan and the French Mandate for Syria and Lebanon, ended.
Recent research on the shaping of attitudes towards ancient cities by early western explorers and archaeologists, and the measures taken for the management of antiquities by the various powers in the region (Ottoman, British and French Mandates), has explored the cities’ foundations, prosperity and abandonment. The ensuing publications contributed to multi-layered understanding of the sites and further revealed the entanglement of modern processes to the formation of narratives about the past. The conference draws on this research conducted under a decolonizing lens, but also pushes for further engagement with the material culture produced in the shape of excavation documentation in all its facets (including private letters, photographs and diaries) to move beyond an exclusively decolonization approach and embrace all of the above-mentioned aspects to bring out the complexities in the shaping of the “rediscovery of lost cities”.
For invited speakers we will cover travel (economy class only) and up to 3 nights of accommodation. Please book your own travel to Copenhagen, and we will reimburse you after your stay (please book your ticket directly through an airline and not via a travel search engine). We would appreciate it, if you could book sooner rather than later in order to get a reasonably priced flight.
You will receive a link to Aarhus University's travel reimbursement form. Please keep your receipts as you will be asked to upload documentation for your expenses.
NOTE: As soon as you have booked your flight, please forward your itinerary to Sine Saxkjær (saxkjaer@cas.au.dk), so that the hotel booking can be finalised.
Comfort Hotel Vesterbro
Vesterbrogade 23/29
1620 København
Website
A speakers’ dinner will be held 2 October, and we will of course cater for you during the conference.
If you have any dietary restrictions (incl. allergies), please let Sine Saxkjær (saxkjaer@cas.au.dk) know no later than 1 June, so that the restaurant/caterers can be notified.
