For its first study day, the International Chair in Turkish and Ottoman History has chosen to address a subject that cuts across several interests and disciplines: the archaeological discovery of Phoenicia in the 19th century, with a particular focus on the site of Sidon, today the Lebanese town of Saida, some 40km south of Beirut. First of all, archaeology and history, that of archaeology and collections, of course, but also that of the Ottoman Empire and more specifically of Lebanon, at the heart of what has been called the Eastern Question. This gave rise to a form of rivalry between France, which was gaining increasing influence in the region, culminating in a mandate after the Great War, and the Ottoman Empire, which was trying to maintain its authority in a province with complex demographics, increasingly intertwined in a quasi-colonial context. Finally, a history more focused on the men who were the main players in this "discovery": Ernest Renan, historian, philologist and professor at the Collège de France, whose mission to Phoenicia (1860-1861) played a pioneering role in the wake of the first discoveries at Sidon; but also Osman Hamdi Bey, whose excavations in 1887 brought to light a rich necropolis whose sarcophagi, which made headlines, provided him with the means to propel Ottoman archaeology and museology to the forefront of the international scene. There were also "secondary" players whose role was minor and often ambiguous, such as members of the Durighello family, "antiquities hunters", and local notables like the engineer Bechara Deb or the local Jumblatt and Arslan dynasties.
From excavation to excavation, from sarcophagus to sarcophagus, specialists in this vast and complex subject will unveil and examine the twists and turns of this fascinating history, leading us to the question of the management and perception of this heritage from the colonial collapse to the present day. We'll also have the pleasure of closing the day with an unusual intervention, Uncanny Encounters, by internationally-renowned Beirut artist Akram Zaatari, who will revisit the 1887 excavations in his hometown of Saïda.