Thread by @LivAncWorlds

Evening all. This will be a thread of tweets on the ACE Flagship Seminar (convened by @benjcartlidge and @preshitorian) featuring Prof Bonnie Effros of @LivUniHistory #aceflagship

Fred Hirt (@LivAncWorlds) introduces the seminar. We are discussing the history of our disciplines (esp #Archaeology tonight) and how it interacts with #colonialism in #Algeria.

The main theme: Monuments and the "mission civilisatrice" : French encounters with Roman Lambaesis. #ACEflagship

How does the history of colonialism interact with contemporary archaeological reports? What gets to be reported?

Lambaesis: S of Constantine in Algeria, mountain site. Mostly known from classical geographers. #ACEflagship

Lambaesis: Substantial settlement, not a single camp (includes aquaducts). Sharp decline in the 390s,but reason for abandonment not known.

Known but not excavated till 1835. Inscriptions privileged over other remains : site linked by Roman epigraphy to other aspects of Roman history. #ACEflagship

Almost a transition : Roman-ness of the site being incorporated into its new situation in a French context.

Roman remains acted as a mirror for French exponents of the "mission civilisatrice" (some irony there one feels).

Lambaesis houses French prisoners from 1848: again, sense of a role of civilisation. #aceflagship

Effros: early drawings of Lambaesis from 1720s reflect the imagination of the remains by Peyssonnel. #ACEflagship

Effros: actually a Brit, Thomas Shaw, who used his classical education in commenting on the Kabyles and the Algerian context: lighter skin tone linked to the Vandals...

BE: In other words, colonisation had already happened, leaving its imprint on the country (skin tone and martial spirit). But had the Vandals been in Lambaesis? #ACEflagship

BE: Shaw actually trying to argue that the Kabyles were the *enemies*of Rome - ie both European and barbarian. Key component of the 19th c Kabyles myth laid in the 18th c already. #ACEflagship

BE: deeper French involvement of the mountain regions. Increasingly violent reprisals against resistance to French rule. #aceflagship

BE: French approach to Lambaesis strategically motivated :guarding routes within Algeria #aceflagship

BE: French wreck local mountain economy by the violence of their attacks (burning of olive groves etc) #ACEflagship

BE: excavations at Lambaesis conducted by military personnel out of interest. Gaining understanding of Roman colonial strategy in figuring out their own. Christian sites comparatively neglected. #ACEflagship

BE: ruins used as a source of stone - early drawings therefore very precious for showing what was there pre-destruction. #ACEflagship

BE: Guyon (1852) "I never saw such a vast field of ruins" #ACEflagship

BE: site described as empty by Guyon - but he also notes that there were people who entertained them! People in the landscape being disqualified from history #ACEflagship

BE: Carbuccia the next character. (Corsican, NB) Controversial figure : devoted to the military. Assigned to Batna, gets interested in archaeology (diverts resources to it) #ACEflagship

BE: Carbuccia gives drawings of Lambaesis as landscape with ruins with Aures in the background. Excellent cartography, maps with archaeological sites marked #ACEflagship

BE: Carbuccia finds and extracts temple of Asclepius- key importance of the site. Temple paraded. Moved from Lambaesis to Batna #ACEflagship

BE: Carbuccia's interests allegedly leads to improved morale along soldiers : learning discipline. Romans as inspiration for the Foreign Legion #ACEflagship

BE: Carbuccia protective of the site even while he was destroying it. Local vandalism of a site leads to conduct of a razzia against a tribe. #ACEflagship

BE: Carbuccia delivers some valuable info on the archaeology - but the top brass were not thrilled by this use of military resources. #ACEflagship

BE: Carbuccia places the penitentiary at Lambaesis. #ACEflagship

BE - NB place of prison determined by availability of cut stone #ACEflagship #entanglement

BE: as a result, the prison permanently changes the whole aspect of the site #ACEflagship

BE: why were the French in Algeria? Because of the Latin inscriptions. French as heirs of the Romans have the right to N Africa cos inscriptions were Latin not Arabic #ACEflagship

BE : even the political prisoners held in the Lambaesis prison wrote poems about the glorious mission that Roman Lambaesis might represent.

Brilliant paper from Bonnie Effros! Responses coming now from Zosia Archibald and Serafina Nicolosi. #ACEflagship

ZA: links between historical process and contemporary archaeological practice. #ACEflagship

ZA: Erdoğan threatens NZ with reprisals, drawing on activity in Gallipoli. Gallipoli an interesting comparison with Effros' study of N Africa. #ACEflagship

ZA: rhetoric embedded in the past - history a political weapon #ACEflagship

ZA: Partisanship of modern history - not the open ended approach of the Renaissance. #ACEflagship

ZA: Tissot: 1880s. N Africa as "an annex of Europe" (a widely quoted view). Control of space : how are maps drawn and territories parcelled up. #ACEflagship

ZA: 19th c - history a matter of who to take as a model for the modern world. #ACEflagship

ZA: Central figure of 19th c history : Grote: partisan, non - comparative: rejecting the 18th c interest in comparison for an emphasis on conflict and the "Other". #ACEflagship

ZA tracing the rise of orientalism in historiography #ACEflagship

ZA - Greece and Macedonia: problem created by the WW1 trenches #ACEflagship

Now Serafina Nicolosi (@LivAncWorlds) compares Prussian use of the Pergamon altar in Berlin #ACEflagship

SN : self definition of Prussian monarchy (Wilhelm I) Turriff Hellenistic monarchy (Eumenes II): Prussian "gods" vs foreign "Titans" #ACEflagship

SN: ancient world: Miletus #ACEflagship

SN: Local population have more of a say in their history. Carian populations have some contribution to Ionian culture #aceflagship

SN: is there any evidence for local populations' experience of the French in Lambaesis? #ACEflagship

Floor now open for questions! #ACEflagship