Heritage destruction in context: the case of the Roman mosaics from Zeugma, Turkey

Abstract

Needs for protecting cultural manifestations marked as ‘heritage’ are often claimed when they are at the risk of destruction or when they are being destructed. Considering destruction as opposed to protection, groups concerned with heritage, such as the state agencies, archaeologists, and the locals, tend to emphasise the value of heritage. Focusing on the case of the Roman mosaics discovered in Zeugma, southeast Turkey, this paper explores the ways in which the destruction of heritage is perceived and understood, and what aspect of destruction is emphasised to claim its significance for heritage. Analysing in what way destruction of the Zeugma mosaics is problematised, this paper also considers the political aspects of presenting the destruction of heritage, in particular, in campaigns for heritage preservation. Through this, the paper examines how stories of destruction work to produce and enhance the distinction between protection and destruction, and suggests how the fragmentary or ruined state of heritage objects can be alluring.

Keywords:

• heritage value
• destruction
• museum exhibition
• Turkey

Notes

1. In September 2005, the president of ICOMOS sent an official letter to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the current Turkish Prime Minister, to protest against a dam project that would affect Allianoi, an archaeological site in western Turkey where a unique Roman bath complex had been discovered (Petzet 2005). Despite these campaigns to save Allianoi, the Turkish authorities decided to cover the site with sand and started filling the reservoir in 2010.

2. For example, the number of archaeological sites registered by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in 2003 were 5218, but the number increased to 7766 in 2009 (Bonini Baraldi, Shoup, and Zan 2013, 733; Saraç 2003, 70).

3. A foundation (vakıf in Turkish; waqf or wakf in Arabic) is a Muslim endowment set up in the Seljuk and Ottoman periods, typically denoting a building or a land for religious or charitable purposes (T.C. Başbakanlık Vakiflar Genel Müdürlügü 2011). However, many of the foundations that the Directorate General of Foundations oversees are not historical, and have no connection with heritage.

4. In August 2010, Turkish authorities arrested individuals who were believed to be implicated in illegal diggings at an ancient tomb near Milas. The tomb was later identified by archaeologists as the mausoleum of King Hekatomnus. He was Father of Mausolus who was buried in the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Recognising its historical importance, the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism decided to transform the site into an open-air museum (Hürriyet Daily News 2010).

5. The Keban Project was a government-led rescue excavation programme for archaeological sites in the Euphrates basin that would be affected by the Keban Dam reservoir, which was carried out for a decade from the mid-1960s (Arsebük 1983, 70–71). The Tigris-Euphrates Archaeological Reconnaissance Project was conducted in 1988 in order to report the archaeological importance of the sites found in the future reservoir areas and the necessity of further and more intensive archaeological excavations (Algaze 1989, 254).

6. Hasankeyf is a town on the Tigris with a number of architectural remains dating from mediaeval times. In the 2000s, the conservation of the town’s architectural heritage became one of the foci in the Turkish domestic politics (Shoup 2006, 245). This is because the completion of the planned Ilısu Dam in the downstream would affect the town. Calls for the protection of its architectural heritage attracted both national and international media attention from the late 1990s (e.g. Chapman 2000; Shukman 2000; Young 2000). Despite such strong oppositions, the construction of the dam started from 2007 with financial support from the Turkish banks while the Turkish state is conducting rescue excavations and documentations of the historical buildings.

7. Archaeologist Maggie Ronayne wrote a report for Kurdish Human Rights Project, a London-based NGO that specialises human rights issues in the Kurdish regions. The report illustrates cultural and environmental impacts of the GAP construction projects upon cultural heritage of the region (Ronayne 2005).

8. The Turkish government planned the construction of the Birecik Dam in 1986.

9. Section A was submerged on 27 June (Hürriyet 2000b), and Section B by 5 October 2000 (Cumhuriyet 2000). Section C is not affected by the dam waters.

10. The GZP originally consisted of 23 local organisations including the Gaziantep Artisans Associations Union, Gaziantep Lawyers Association, Friends of Gaziantep Museum, Gaziantep Tourism Association, and the Architects Society Gaziantep Office. The number of participating organisations later increased (see Gaziantep Anadolu Ajansı 2004b).

11. Approximately 1700 square metres of the mosaics were excavated from the remains of the Roman and Byzantine churches and monasteries in the surrounding regions of Gaziantep.

12. I interviewed them in September 2011.

13. I interviewed him in Gaziantep in September 2005.