A History of Archaeological Tourism

This book examines the relationship between archaeological tourism and professional archaeology. It will do so by looking at this connection – most visibly through nationalism and global capitalism - from the its origins in the early modern period until World ar II. How separate is the development of archaeological tourism from that of the formation of archaeology as a discipline? And do the fields operate in two different worlds? Scholarly discussions have largely treated them as distinct fields with no connection. Histories of archaeology, in particular, have focused their attention on aspects such as the history of archaeological discoveries, archaeological thought and, more recently, the political relationship between archaeology and nationalism and other ideologies. Largely missing from all these accounts has been an examination of how archaeology has been inserted into society, for example through something that all humans enjoy – leisure – in the form of archaeological tourism. Moreover, just as histories of archaeology have largely ignored the connection between archaeology and tourism so, too has tourism in the reverse direction. Recent studies on tourism have centered on topics such as economy (sustainable and recession tourism) and new types of tourism (including ecotourism and medical tourism).​