Coloniality and Communications: Airpower and Myth in Mesopotamia (Episode 3)

This episode features Sebastian James Rose and Burçe Çelik discussing an aerial image of Mesopotamia that brings together myth and air power in the formation of popular representations of the region in the early twentieth century. From the late nineteenth century onwards, Mesopotamia increasingly entered public imagination as the “cradle of civilisation,” a landscape whose ancient past was made visible through archaeology. This narrative was often accompanied by contrasting portrayals of the region’s contemporary condition, frequently framed in European sources as stagnant or underdeveloped under Ottoman rule. Within this context, British involvement was commonly represented as a civilising and humanitarian endeavour, associated with the introduction of modern science, technology, and infrastructure. The aerial image discussed in this episode reflects how visions of a mythic past and a technologically mediated future were brought together in visual culture, illustrating the ways colonial logics were embedded in representations of air power and modernity.© the creators