The Ottoman Empire of the XIX Century as an Object of Expansion of the Western Powers in the Field of Archeology in the Context of the Search for the Ottoman Supranational Identity

The article examines the archaeological aspect of the expansion of Western European powers (primarily Great Britain, Germany and France) into the Ottoman Empire in the XIX-th century, as well as the attempts of the Ottomans to block it. It is shown that the expansion was carried out (in the terminology of B.G. Trigger) in two forms - colonial and imperial. Colonial expansion was carried out in the areas of ancient Eastern civilizations: in Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Palestine. In these territories, the search and removal of archaeological artifacts was carried out mainly with the aim of replenishing the national museums of Western European countries, without Europeans searching for their national or historical and cultural roots there. On the territory of Anatolia, where many monuments of Greco-Roman culture have been preserved, the expansion of the Western powers was of an imperial nature. Its goal was not only the export of valuables, but also the reconstruction of a "historical and cultural bridge" between modern European civilization and its ancient predecessors. The study of the Byzantine monuments of Constantinople, which for a long time did not attract the attention of European scientists, stands apart in this expansion. Among the European intellectual and political elite, the point of view formulated by the French Enlightenment and E. Gibbon dominated that Byzantium is a negative example of historical degradation and does not stand in the chain of worthy predecessors of European civilization. Therefore, the study of Byzantine monuments on Ottoman territory began much later than the Greco-Roman and ancient Eastern ones. It is shown that until the 1980s, the Ottoman authorities actually indulged in the export of antiquities from their territory, and sometimes even initiated it, using the archaeological heritage as an instrument of foreign policy. Prussia (then the German Empire) was most generously presented as the closest military-political ally and economic donor of the Ottomans. It was possible to organize ideological and legal resistance to the archaeological expansion of the Ottoman Empire only by the 80s of the XIX century. The creation of a national museum in 1846 and the introduction of a ban on the export of antiquities in 1884 were accompanied by attempts to introduce an ideologeme about the inseparable connection between the history and culture of the modern population of the Ottoman Empire and the peoples who lived in ancient times on its territory. However, this narrative was mainly broadcast to the outside world, rather than instilled into the minds of the masses, and could not contribute to the creation of a supranational Ottoman political community.