Homer and Troy during the Final Years of the Empire

Government efforts to protect antiquities increased rapidly in the years after the revised antiquities code came into effect in 1884, forbidding archaeologists to take original Ancient objects out of the Empire. ¹ The Antiquities Law was made even stricter in 1907. Not only had it become difficult to obtain permission to excavate on Ottoman soil, visits to archaeological sites were also restricted; foreigners needed formal permission from the Foreign Ministry to visit historic sites and monuments.