James F. Goode, Negotiating for the Past: Archaeology, Nationalism and Diplomacy in the Middle East, 1991–1941 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2007). Pp …

Based on archival sources in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, English, French and German, this book provides a riveting narrative of the connections between archaeology, diplomacy and the rise of nationalism in four Middle Eastern countries in the first half of the twentieth century: Turkey, Egypt, Iran and Iraq. The story that emerges in all four cases is one of breathtaking archaeological discoveries whose significance in the scientific field is blighted by the shameful machinations of archaeologists and diplomats to rob the emerging countries of the Middle East of the treasures of their hidden past. A visit to the British Museum, the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum of Art or the Oriental Institute Museum at the University of Chicago is sufficient to show the extent to which this process of plundering the East to enrich the West with archaeological objects of great antiquity has been practised by archaeologists who were aided and abetted by diplomats, rich patrons and political figures. The book provides a highly readable account of these systematic acts of cultural theft against the background of rising nationalism that in the end led to a stop in the outflow of these objects under the guise of agreements that made `robbery' a legal act.