Occupying Eden: Continuities in Western Narratives on Ancient and Contemporary Mesopotamia

The following thesis conducts a primary-source analysis of Anglo-American travelogues to identify narrative continuities regarding ancient Mesopotamia and how that legacy is reflected in the contemporary region of Iraq. It uses  Discoveries among the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon by Sir Austen Henry Layard of the nineteenth century, Ur of the Chaldees by Leonard Woolley of the twentieth century, and Thieves of Baghdad by Matthew Bogdanos of the twenty-first century to highlight continuities in three narrative strands spanning three centuries. Those narrative strands are characterizations of the contemporary region as static and desolate, attempts to situate Mesopotamia into the Western canon through either a Judeo-Christian legacy or as the ‘origin of civilization,’ and the desirability of controlling either the Mesopotamian legacy or the physical space it once inhabited. I will argue that these characterisations inform a broader goal of Western hegemony: to take ownership of Mesopotamian history as their own and use the resulting authority to justify occupation of the physical space it historically claims, thereby returning the region to its ‘former glory.’ To alleviate colonialist biases regarding Mesopotamia, I recommend that future academics tackling the region focus on individual perspectives rather than grander narratives, make the hybridity of Mesopotamian identity explicit, and incorporate more Iraqi perspectives in the literature in what I term a "multi-vocal" approach.