Alternative Futures

This chapter explores heritage landscapes through the lens of extractive economies and jurisdiction of forests and archaeological zones. This new body politic rallies around economic profit that is bolstered by Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs, which enhance opportunities for social mobility and higher standards of living. Case studies explore the industries of marble and gold in the context of intangible and tangible heritage. Willful ignorance gives tacit approval for continued environmental degradation and erasure of archaeological heritage under the rhetoric of economic security. The evidence is contemporary, drawing from international fairs, ethnographic research, and the bureaucracies of heritage statecraft.

Reflections

This final chapter provides a reflection of the book. I bring together the key threads from each of the chapters to explore the contemporary context of heritage within the scope of ongoing development, from highways to solar fields. Among my primary points is that development and heritage have become increasingly entangled, yet heritage remains the underdog in this game. The scale of development reflects Turkey’s shifting position in the global landscape, particularly balancing EU agendas with those of Asia and the Middle East. Archaeology has a vexed position within these development schemes, and the practice of US citizens conducting archaeology in Turkey has become increasingly precarious. This is in part due to the entrenched position of the US Department of State not to support archaeological research linked to fieldwork. My goal here is to balance a summary of the book with some of these new themes.

Organic Lives

In this chapter, I offer critique of development diplomacy in Bin Tepe, the cemetery of Lydian kings and Turkey’s largest tumulus burial zone. The programs of the TVA, Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, and USAID promoted individual identity and sovereignty through private landownership that eventually led to entrepreneurship in organic agriculture. These organic fields are located in Bin Tepe. I juxtapose heritage policies and international recognition of cultural and natural heritage for Bin Tepe and the Marmara Lake Basin with those of the EU and the robust organic agricultural lobby in Turkey. This analysis shows that tacit approval for organic olives, building on the legacies of US water diplomacy, directly contributed to the erasure of archaeological data. Today the quagmire of organic agriculture versus cultural heritage presents a nexus of tensions that demonstrate the need for long-term planning and harmonization of regional, national, and international policies of development and management.

Open Intelligence

From the League of Nations’ International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation (ICIC) to the urban and rural planning of Le Corbusier and his colleagues, governments explored modernist templates and programs of social engineering, such as those presented in the Russian five-year plans and the United States Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). In this chapter, I investigate interwar and Cold War heritage through the lens of Izmir’s Kültürpark and the technopolitics of the Aegean-TVA. Grafted onto the face of the Gediz basin, the industrial heritage of the Demirköprü hydroelectric dam and irrigation infrastructure represents a window into the strategic nature of US foreign assistance to Turkey. Pivotal figures such as Ismet Inönü, Fezvi Lufti Karaosmanoğlu and Süleyman Demirel are discussed, as is the American consulting firm Tippetts, Abbett, McCarthy, and Stratton (TAMS).

Diplomatic Deliverables

US assistance programs under the 1954 Agricultural Trade and Assistance Act (Public Law 480) put excess currency toward archaeology. “Winning hearts and minds” included the preservation and rehabilitation of historical monuments in-situ. These open-air museums represented a US commitment to research and tourism infrastructure. Yet, the branding and prestige of Egypt’s Abu Simbel broke the bank and led to a major shift in US policy that cut future funding for archaeological fieldwork. This chapter analyzes the correspondence of Lucius Battle at the US Department of State and US representative to UNESCO, as well as archaeologists Dr. George Hanfmann of Harvard University and director at Sardis and Dr. A. Henry Detweiler of Cornell University and president of the ASOR. I demonstrate the catastrophic consequences of the US Congressional decision for the Archaeological Exploration of Sardis and their vision to realize one of the largest restoration programs in Turkey at the time: the reconstruction of the Bath Gymnasium and Marble Court.

Preference in Paris

The pursuit of knowledge, cultural relations and diplomatic practice are discussed in this chapter in the context of the Treaty of Sèvres, the framing the League of Nations, and the role of early twentieth-century philanthropy and academia. The boundaries of where European and US scholars and businessmen penetrated Anatolia are defined as much by the lure of antiquity, recalling the vision of the Megali Idea, as by political posturing and economic gain embedded in the Wilsonian agenda. I trace the strategic diplomacy of the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA), Learned Societies, and two members of the Princeton Expedition to Sardis, Howard Crosby Butler and William Hepburn Buckler, during the 1919 Paris Peace Conference and the Turkish War of Independence. I argue that colonial networks writ large framed the nineteenth-century Western gaze of entitlement that underwrote duplicitous claims to Anatolian soil between 1919 and 1922.

Introduction

This chapter frames the primary themes in the book through an investigation of the international landscape that shapes not only Turkish agendas but also the protocols of foreigners conducting research in-country. The area under study, which expands from the urban core of Izmir into the heart of the middle Gediz Valley, is presented through the lens of the policies, institutions, and funding mechanisms from the late nineteenth century to the present day analyzed in the book. I argue that entanglements of environmental activism, preservation politics, and the transformative futuristic landscape modifications are both disruptive and connective. The politicking that occurs when big industry confronts heritage spaces reveals contentious and strategic components of social agendas and identity politics embedded in diplomacy and cultural sovereignty. This introductory section explores these concepts and then summarizes each chapter.