Pioneers to the Past: American Archaeologists in the Middle East. 1919-1920.

• Author: Beckman, Gary
• Position: Book review

Pioneers to the Past: American Archaeologists in the Middle East. 1919-1920. Edited by GEOFF EMBERLING, Oriental Institute Museum Publications, vol. 30. Chicago: THE ORIENTAL INSTITUTE, 2010, Pp. 160. illus. $34.95. [Distributed by The David Brown Book Co., Oukville, Ct.]

This attractive volume is a companion to a special exhibit running from January 12 through August 29, 2010 at the Oriental Institute Museum in Chicago and includes fine photos of all materials on display in the show, plus many additional images illustrating the journey through Egypt, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon taken by James Henry Breasted, first Director of the Institute, immediately following the end of the First World War. Accompanied by several of his students. Breasted reconnoitered the region for promising sites that archaeologists associated with his newly established research center might excavate. In addition, he was on the lookout for choice objects on the antiquities market, whose dealers had been unable to move much merchandise during the recent conflict.

The editor, Geoff Emberling, provides an introduction (chapter I), a discussion of the practice of archaeology in the Middle East prior to 1920 (chapter 2), and, together with Emily Teeter, an account of the expedition of Breasted and his companions (chapter 4, by far the longest in the book). Further contributions include James L. Gelvin's synopsis of the political situation in the former Ottoman lands in 1919-1920 (chapter 3), Morag M. Kersel's discussion of the antiquities laws of the nations of the Middle Fast from 1800 to 1930 (chapter 5), Orit Bashkin's consideration of the uses made of pre-Islamic history, including Breasted's own textbook Ancient Times, by early Arab nationalists (chapter 6), and Teeter's appraisal of the lasting results of Breasted's trip for the (Oriental Institute (chapter 7).

The work closes with a useful selected bibliography and three very interesting addenda: the text of Breasted's original proposal to John D. Rockefeller Jr. for funds to establish the Oriental Institute (appendix A), the Director's own report on the first expedition, including a listing of...