Needles from the Nile: Obelisks and the Past as Property

In the hearts of London and New York stand their two oldest public monuments, Cleopatra’s Needles, the last of a series of obelisks from Ancient Egypt to be moved abroad during a period of over two thousand years. This book uses the Needles to examine how objects embody the cultures that create them, and how the use, value, and meaning of these objects change as they are transferred between cultures by gift, sale, barter, or theft. It explores the way in which obelisks functioned as imperial trophies, how their transfer was part of the complex political manoeuvring between European powers, America, the Ottoman Empire, and the semi-autonomous rulers of Egypt, and how their acquisition reflected the relative power of these parties. In contrast, it also examines the crucial role that private individuals and finance played in the acquisition and transport of the obelisks, and how popular understanding of them, and of the culture they came from, often differed from those of social and
professional elites. It also relates the Needles to contemporary debates about the ownership of cultural artefacts, the legacy of colonial history, and the nature of reception as the process of understanding and valuing the past and its surviving material and immaterial culture.

Dr Chris Elliott is a Visiting Fellow, Department of Archaeology, University of Southampton. He is the author of Egypt in England (English Heritage Publishing 2012) and a writer on Egypt and architectural history.