the promulgation of theWrmer legislation regarding antiquities in 1875 (Arik
1953: 7).
The authorities’ reaction was not strong enough to counter-alleviate the
Europeans’ greed for classical objects. From 1827 Greece’s ban on the export
of antiquities had left the Anatolian Western coast as the only source of
classical Greek antiquities to furnish European museums. This would obvi-
ously aVect the provinces of Ayoin and Biga, as well as the Aegean islands then
under Ottoman rule. The European endeavour centred on ancient sites such
as Halicarnassus (Bodrum), Ephesus (Efes), and Pergamon (Bergama) on the
mainland and on islands such as Rhodes, Kalymnos, and Samothrace. During
the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries British, Germans, and others
would divest this area of its best ancient classical works of art, an appropri-
ation to which later in the nineteenth century its Islamic heritage would be
added. Western intervention, however, was increasingly viewed with mistrust
by the Ottoman government, and a growing number of restrictions were set
to control it, backed by ever-tighter legislation.
France had an early but short-lived interest in Anatolian archaeology that
resulted in Charles Texier’s (1802–71) expedition funded by the French
government in 1833–7 (Michaelis 1908: 92). During the central decades of
the nineteenth century Britain became the main contender in Anatolian
archaeology (Cook 1998). The sound political and economic relations be-
tween the Ottoman Empire and Britain constituted an ideal background for
the intention of the British Museum Trustees to enrich the collection of Greek
antiquities, enabling the organization of several expeditions (Jenkins 1992:
169). TheWrst, led by Charles Fellows (1799–1860), a banker’s son who
indulged in travelling, took place in the early 1840s (Stoneman 1987: 209–16).
A permit was obtained to collect the antiquities at Xantos on the island of
Rhodes for they were ‘lying down here and there, and...of no use’. It was
granted ‘in consequence of the sincere friendship existing between the two
Governments [Ottoman and British]’ (letter from the Grand Vizir to the
Governor of Rhodes in Cook 1998: 141). It would only be after the next major
excavation, that of Halicarnassus, that resistance would begin from the Ottoman
government towards this European appropriation.
Restrictions started with the dig excavations at Halicarnassus, and con-
tinued with that of Ephesus. In 1856 a permit was obtained to remove the
sculptures suspected of belonging to the ancient mausoleum at Halicarnassus
in the Castle at Bodrum. In this case the British Museum commissioned
Charles Newton (1816–94) to undertake theWrst work in theWeld, in the
1860s supported by others (Cook 1998: 143; Jenkins 1992: ch. 8; Stoneman
1987: 216–24). One of theWrst clashes between the Ottoman government and
the excavators sent by the European imperial powers happened here. In this
112 Archaeology of Informal Imperialism