Multilateral possibilities: Decolonization, preservation, and the case of Egypt

This paper explores the relationship between post–World War II multilateralism, decolonization, and practices of preservation in the context of Egypt. Multilateral aid enabled non-Egyptian practitioners to emphasize their continued right to operate in the country via a postwar modernization rhetoric of collaboration and technical skill transfer. Focusing on the aftermath of one collaborative excavation, this paper shows, however, that multilateralism's growth in importance also allowed the Egyptian government to assert its own wishes by making the preservation of particular types of ancient material culture a boundary object around which foreign practitioners were forced to interact.