Abstract

Is it possible to colonize ›time‹, which, unlike territories or people, is not immediately visible and abstract? The article addresses this question in the context of the German-speaking 18th century and through Johann Joachim Winckelmann’s engagement with antiquity. To do so, it first draws on theories from Global Epistemologies by Philippe Descola (on the nature-culture divide) and Boaventura de Sousa Santos (especially the ›epistemicide‹) toestablish a theoretical framework for speaking about a ›colonization of the past‹. The article then examines Winckelmann’s construction of a colonial antiquity in his letters and in the History of Art in Antiquity. The rhetoric and metaphors of the letters reveal the idea of an antiquity that can be colonized and that is designed as an ›untouched field‹ or capturable territory. Similarly, in the History of Art, this corresponds to the structuring of the past and the construction of history through epistemicides, which expel the ›other‹ from the colonial space of antiquity.