A ‘Belgian compromise’ of Science and Empire along the Nile
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 04/02/2021

For decades, heroic tales of brave archaeologists, eulogies on champions of decipherment, and mind-blowing reports of mysterious discoveries dominated our view on the history of Egyptology. Only recently, the field has taken the first steps in a long expected process of critical self-reflection and initiated the writing of a multifaceted disciplinary history (Reid, 2003; Carruthers, 2014). Despite the widespread involvement of all sorts of Belgian actors in and around the making of Egyptology, most of the accounts only had an eye for the traditional major imperialist powers (Bavay et al., 2015; Warmenbol, 2012) This contribution makes the case for a profound analysis of the entanglements between Belgian diplomacy and the making of Egyptology before the First World War.


As I will argue, a better understanding of this intertwined web will result in a more profound insight in the cultural dimensions of imperial diplomacy and Belgian informal empire in Egypt in general. Moreover, it will explore the role played by the cultural sphere of Egyptology as a place of inter-imperial contention, a meeting ground for both national as well as transnational imperial elites, and the instrumentation of the discipline for imperialist purposes (Trümpler, 2008; Gady, 2005). I will argue why well-known diplomatic actors serving Belgian interests such as the Zizinia’s, the Eids’ and Mustapha Aga Ayat, but also actors which were neglected so far deserve to be investigated from their position within the web of archaeology, diplomacy and imperialism.


Gert Huskens, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and Ghent University