Paper short abstract:

This paper aims to explore the visual representation of archaeology in the Turkish Republic through the medium of photography. Based on images found both in official publications and archives, this research investigates how archaeological knowledge was created and presented to the general public.

Paper long abstract:

The discipline of archaeology underwent a profound transformation after the foundation of the Turkish Republic. It became one of the main fields of investment for the government that was aiming to create a national Turkish identity and to legitimise the new Republic of Turkey. The Kemalist idea was to found a new state with new traditions, a new shared common heritage within the Turkish boundaries. The basis of this idea of nationalism was to reject the multi-cultural past of the Ottoman Empire and to construct a new cultural identity. Numerous excavations were conducted in Anatolia starting in the 1930s and photography became one of the primary tools to represent the past and make it available in front to a wider audience.

This paper aims to explore the relationship between photography and archaeology in the Turkish Republic in relation to the historical and cultural transformations that occurred in Turkey after the establishment of the Republic in 1923. Images in popular magazines and books contributed to the construction of knowledge about the past that was aimed at a wider audience both in Turkey and abroad, and the role of these images in promoting Turkish heritage has been largely neglected. Unofficial images from a private archive will also be taken into consideration to examine how the contemporary cultural climate of the Republic influenced many different aspects of the pictures kept in this archives, from the choice of the subjects to the recurrent themes included in the collection.