Abstract
Austria-Hungary ruled Bosnia and Herzegovina, which had previously been under the Ottomans, from 1878 to 1918, under circumstances often described as ‘colonial.’ Austro-Hungarian rule was accompanied by extensive archaeological activities. This paper investigates how that archaeology was colonial in its purpose and practice. The Austro-Hungarians regarded Bosnia-Herzegovina as an archaeological ‘El Dorado,’ largely inaccessible in Ottoman times. While their occupation opened it up, archaeological remains now had to be saved from modernisation works as well as the ‘ignorance’ and ‘vandalism’ of local inhabitants. The new government emphatically supported the collection and excavation of archaeological objects across Bosnia-Herzegovina. It decreed their protection, while encouraging subordinate authorities and private citizens to make and report discoveries. Moreover, it established a Provincial Museum in the capital of Sarajevo, which exhibited and published prehistoric and Roman remains, and medieval tombstones. The objects were to teach the population their supposed Bosnian, pro-Habsburg identity, legitimise the Austro-Hungarian rulers as the new Romans, and demonstrate to Europe and the world the success of Austria-Hungary’s ‘civilising mission’ in an ‘oriental’ country. This ‘civilising mission’ under military occupation was the strongest indicator of an Austro-Hungarian colonialism. The individual archaeologists, most of whom came from other parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, worked in that colonial situation, whether they supported it or not. Although their finds were not exported to the imperial capital of Vienna, and their archaeology openly relied on local assistance, the science of archaeology served the government as one of the non-violent tools for its soft-power style of rule.