From Archaeology to Spectacle in Victorian Britain
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A01=Shawn Malley
artifacts
assyrian
Assyrian Architecture
austen
Author_Shawn Malley
Belshazzar's Feast
Belshazzar’s Feast
british
Byron's Sardanapalus
Byron's Text
Byron’s Sardanapalus
Byron’s Text
Category=AB
Category=DSBF
Category=N
Category=NHB
Category=NHTQ
Category=NK
Category=WTHM
Colonial Administration
Crystal Palace
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eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
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eq_isMigrated=2
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Fast King
galleries
Gigantic Head
henry
Home Work
Horror Movie
Human Suffering
ILN
Kean's Production
Kean's Theatre
Kean’s Production
Kean’s Theatre
Lascaux II
layard
Layard's Discoveries
Layard's Excavations
Layard’s Discoveries
Layard’s Excavations
museum
Osman Hamdi
Public Engagement
sculpture
Shatt Al Arab
Sydenham Crystal Palace
UCL Press
Verse Lines
Young Man
zainab
Zealous Exertions
Product details
- ISBN 9781409426899
- Weight: 544g
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 28 Feb 2012
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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In his examination of the excavation of ancient Assyria by Austen Henry Layard, Shawn Malley reveals how, by whom, and for what reasons the stones of Assyria were deployed during a brief but remarkably intense period of archaeological activity in the mid-nineteenth century. His book encompasses the archaeological practices and representations that originated in Layard's excavations, radiated outward by way of the British Museum and Layard's best-selling Nineveh and Its Remains (1849), and were then dispersed into the public domain of popular amusements. That the stones of Assyria resonated in debates far beyond the interests of religious and scientific groups is apparent in the prevalence of poetry, exhibitions, plays, and dioramas inspired by the excavation. Of particular note, correspondence involving high-ranking diplomatic personnel and museum officials demonstrates that the 'treasures' brought home to fill the British Museum served not only as signs of symbolic conquest, but also as covert means for extending Britain's political and economic influence in the Near East. Malley takes up issues of class and influence to show how the middle-class Layard's celebrity status both advanced and threatened aristocratic values. Tellingly, the excavations prompted disturbing questions about the perils of imperial rule that framed discussions of the social and political conditions which brought England to the brink of revolution in 1848 and resurfaced with a vengeance during the Crimean crisis. In the provocative conclusion of this meticulously documented and suggestive book, Malley points toward the striking parallels between the history of Britain's imperial investment in Mesopotamia and the contemporary geopolitical uses and abuses of Assyrian antiquity in post-invasion Iraq.
Shawn Malley is professor of English at Bishop's University, Canada.
