Art History Evenings: Orientalism in Praxis – The History of Archaeology in the Middle East

BFAF’s art history lecture programme continues with Zayed National Museum director Peter Magee, exploring how the excavation and interpretation of archaeological sites in the ancient Near East was contoured by Orientalist thought and practice. In particular he focuses on the perception of ancient human habitation of desert areas as immutable across time and therefore unworthy of scientific analysis; by contrast, recent research in the Arabian Peninsula has highlighted a dynamic relationship between humans and the environment which resulted in fundamental shifts in human society and organisation.