This article explores the multiple visual presences of antiquity in the first half of the twentieth century and connects visual histories to the history of empires. It shows how archaeology mediated between the newly discovered material civilizations of the ancient Mesopotamian empires and experiences of modernity in the British Empire, the world’s largest modern empire. The article demonstrates how the materiality of antiquity enabled its visualization in a variety of forms, from illustrations through black-and-white and color photography to aerial photography, and in three-dimensional reconstructions in museums. The article focuses on the spectacular archaeological discoveries at Ur, Tell Al-Muqayyar, in Southern Iraq, which exposed to mass audiences the unknown Sumerian culture. Ur was represented and constructed as the place of origin of monotheism, a site of a rich material culture, and, at the same time, as barbarous.

中文翻译：

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Ur：帝国，现代性和两次世界大战之间的古代形象

本文探讨了二十世纪上半叶的古代视觉多重存在，并将视觉历史与帝国历史联系起来。它显示了考古如何在新发现的古代美索不达米亚帝国的物质文明与大英帝国（世界上最大的现代帝国）的现代体验之间进行调节。本文展示了古代的重要性如何以各种形式实现其可视化，从插图到黑白和彩色摄影再到航空摄影，再到博物馆的三维重建。这篇文章重点介绍了伊拉克南部特尔·穆卡耶尔（Ul，Tell Al-Muqayyar）的壮观考古发现，该发现向大众传播了未知的苏美尔文化。