The Image of Arab Museums. Some Considerations about the Presentation of Arab Museums in Internet Sites

The Archeology of the Near East started nearly 200 years ago with Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt, so archaeology was associated with colonial European movements, which usually considered the ‘Orient’ and its civilizations as an alien, vague object. This led to a general definition of the main peculiarities of the ‘Orient’, as a complex of cultures and civilizations totally separate from the ‘Occident’. Now, after 200 years of Oriental Archaeology, how do the Arabs present themselves? This article analyses the presentation of some Arab museums, focusing on the utilization of the internet, with an attempt at examining the languages used and the effects of the ideology of the State as a reaction against colonialism in the languages used, as well as examining the effects of globalization on these museums.