Paper short abstract:

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Paper long abstract:

This paper will explore how archaeological and historical significance of cultural manifestations comes to be recognised as an important resource for tourism, and in what way different agencies (e.g. nation-states, archaeologists, mass media, and the locals) articulate significance of 'cultural property' for claiming the control over such objects. For this purpose, it will focus on the case of Zeugma in southeast Turkey, where a huge number of extremely well-preserved Roman mosaics discovered through the salvaging excavations in 2000. The discovery of these mosaics stimulated both Turkish and international media attention, and through this the Zeugma mosaics were recognised as one of the world's greatest mosaic collections both in size and in quality, and as one of important cultural property of Turkey. In this process, the Zeugma mosaics became the important resource for the local tourism industry, which also entailed a shift in the local attitudes towards these mosaics. This shift was indicated when the Roman mosaics of Zeugma were again featured by the Turkish (and some international) mass media in 2004.

Analysing the ways in which the Zeugma mosaics were recognized Turkey's important cultural property, this paper will examine how different groups involved in this case, Turkish state agencies, Turkish and foreign archaeologists, and the locals, came to claim the significance of the mosaics as 'cultural property.' In so doing, the paper will focus on the role of the idea of protection, which was deployed by these agencies to express their attitudes towards significance of these mosaics. It will suggest that difference between articulations of cultural property by different agencies was made distinct through the idea of protecting cultural property, which was considered to be a good in itself.

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