commission’s work. Not all written work, however, would see the light.
Manuscripts whose position was not in accordance with the oYcial line
followed by the French state encountered diYculties with publication or
were never printed. This was the case of the volume produced by one of
the members of the commission, Lacroix, whose markedly positive attitude
towards the local population has been seen as a possible cause for its non-
appearance in printed form (Fre ́maux 1984: 35).
In 1853 12 the Inspection Ge ́ne ́rale des Monuments Historiques et des
Muse ́es Arche ́ologiques (the state Service for Monuments and Archaeological
Museums) was created. This was an oYcial institution intended to deal mainly
with classical archaeology in the colony (Oulebsir 2004: 19). It could perhaps
be seen as the result of the policy of assimilation as it followed the prototype
created in France in the 1830s (in Paris, Prosper Me ́rime ́e (1803–70) had been
given the post of General Inspector of Antiquities in 1834 and in 1837 a
Commission of Historical Monuments had been created, see Chapter 12). In
North Africa the Inspection’s work would depend heavily on the eVorts of the
learned societies (Erzini 2000; Fre ́maux 1984; Gran-Aymerich 1998; Nordman
1998: 73; Oulebsir 1998; 2004: 17–19).
Settlers were in an ambivalent position, for although they felt superior in
the colony, within colonial discourse they were seen as subaltern, as inferior,
in relation to the metropolis experts. An analysis of the composition of the
learned societies clearly shows that the production of knowledge was under-
taken by a group of experts that were far from being a well-deWned, mono-
lithic community. Besides the members of the commissions, who came from
the academies in France, most archaeological investigation was undertaken by
people living in the colony. These were non-professional archaeologists con-
nected with associations such as the Archaeological, Historical, and Geo-
graphical Society of Constantine, and the Algerian Historical Society, both
of which published journals. The extent to which colonial ideology operated
within the profession is an issue pending examination. Most notably, a study
of the contributors to theJournal of the Archaeological Society of Constantine
between 1853 and 1876, whose main interest was archaeology—especially
Roman archaeology—sheds light on the diverse professional base of those
interested in antiquities. In addition to army oYcials, theWve other groups
mentioned are doctors, teachers, colonizers, clergy, and explorers, all mem-
bers of a diaspora of mainly French citizens who settled in the colonies
(Malarkey 1984: 141). From them all the major engagement in the archae-
ology of the area was undertaken by individuals working for the army,
especially the oYcers, some of whom had received education by experts in
12 Nadia Erzini (2000: 73–4) provides a date of 1847 for the creation of this institution.Russian Empire and French North Africa 267