national heritage, increased steadily throughout the century. The post of
General Inspector of Antiquities was created in France in the 1830s, and
following in the footsteps of several antecedents there was an explosion in
the number of museums from the 1840s throughout Europe. Moreover, the
Wrst few permanent chairs speciWcally dedicated to archaeology appeared
around 1850 in the context of the schools formed to train administrators in
libraries, archives and museums.
In Chapter 12 it will be explained how the shift in emphasis from civic to
ethnic nationalism, i.e. from a nationalism based on individual rights, the
sovereignty of the people and popular freedom, to another one founded
on common history, race, and language, was accompanied by a similar
transformation in archaeology. This was no coincidence. Until around the
mid nineteenth century the past undisputedly acknowledged as at the root of
the nation was classical antiquity, its monuments and other remains. From
the second half of the century, although radical liberals did not cease to
believe in the nation, they focused their attention on other causes, such as
limiting the power of the Church and, to some extent, the aristocracy, and
Wghting to extend civil liberties and the vote. Conservatives then appropriated
nationalist discourse as the ideology’s more ardent proponents. At this time
the power of nationalism had become obvious to many. Its might resided in
people’s willingness to identify with their nation, which in most cases meant
with their state, as they imagined themselves as members of a society with
deep historical roots, whose character was epitomized by a common lan-
guage, race, and culture. From the second half of the nineteenth century,
therefore, ethnic nationalism came to the fore. With it, the study of one’s
own national archaeological heritage became an important pursuit that
both prosperous individuals, and, more importantly, the state, encouraged
and subsidized. What was novel was the extent to which the state was
prepared to pay for the study and display of archaeological remains—to
start with mainly of Greek and Roman sculptures and exceptional objects
and monuments, but, soon after, also of national antiquities. Specialized
museums—or departments within the existing ones—were opened (and
not subsequently closed, as had happened in the case of the Museum of
French Monuments, created during the French Revolution). In universities,
the teaching of the national past on the basis of its archaeological remains
made itsWrst timid appearance throughout Europe. Yet, more than a century
would elapse until allWelds of archaeology becameWrmly established in higher
education. It was also in the period discussed in Chapter 12 (1820s–60s)
that key developments in the discovery of the antiquity of humanity took
place. A section has been included about this, but the space dedicated to this
topic contrasts with the priority given this subject in other more general
An Alternative Account 21