Panayiotis Stamatakis (E ́tienne & E ́tienne 1992: 90–1; Petrakos 1990). These
are only a few names of an increasingly numerous group of local archaeolo-
gists working in the archaeological services and in an ever-growing number of
museums. Although most of their eVorts focused on the classical era, other
types of archaeology were being developed such as prehistoric, church and
medieval archaeology (Avgouli 1994; Guidi 1988; Loney 2002; Moatti 1993:
110–14). Of special interest is the development of the so-called sacred archae-
ology, inspired by the interest of the Italian lawyer Giovanni Battista de Rossi
(1822–94). On the basis of a study of the description of the Rome catacombs
provided in documents, he was able to locate many of them starting with
those of Saint Calixt in 1844. His eVorts received backing from Pope Pius IX,
who in 1852 created the PontiWcal Commission for Sacred Archaeology. 1
Under this institution the discoveries of other monuments related to the
Christian Church in the past continued. Yet, the more general histories of
archaeology are mute in describing the accomplishments of Italian archae-
ologists.
Because of the ban on the export of antiquities, countries were unwilling to
Wnance excavations, although there were some exceptions that will be dis-
cussed later on. This meant that most foreign archaeologists focused their
studies on already excavated sites and onWnds. It is interesting to note that the
work of experts came together with that of other consumers of antiquities; in
addition to painters and other artists in the 1860s another type of Westerner
would be interested in antiquity: the photographer. Photographs increased
the circulation of images of antiquity and facilitated the visual experience of
the classical model (Hamilakis 2001): one in which the ancient monuments
were isolated from their modern context, and emphasized in size and gran-
diosity, symbolizing knowledge, wisdom and, more than anything else, the
origin of Western civilization.
Positivism, the philosophy that raged throughout the academic world in
the second half of the nineteenth century, resulted in this period in the
production of catalogues. Positivists brought to extremes the eighteenth-
century empiricist understanding of knowledge. This should be empirical
1 In brackets it should be said that sacred archaeology would have an inXuence not only in
other Catholic countries such as Spain, where members of the Church included the Catalan
priest Josep Gudiol Cunill (1872–1931), who organized museums and obtained the chair of
sacred archaeology in the inXuential Seminary of Vic in 1898. In Britain a movement to study
religious buildings had started in the 1840s (Piggott 1976) and continued for most of the
century. Events in Britain had parallels in all Europe (De Maeyer and Verpoest 2000), and
included other churches such as the Orthodox Church (Chapter 9). Members of the Church of
England started studies on religious architecture in the 1840s (Piggott 1976) and throughout the
nineteenth century the Church itself managed to avoid legislation imposing state control on the
buildings it owned (Miele 2000: 211).
104 Archaeology of Informal Imperialism