During the First World War and the Allied occupation that followed, the Allied and Central Powers brought not only soldiers to the Ottoman Empire but their archaeologists too. This paper argues that the availability of manpower, from humble soldiers to celebrated professors, combined with new war technologies like airplanes, acted as a catalyst for archaeological activities and necessitated the development of many protection schemes by all of the belligerents involved during the war and the following occupation of the Ottoman Empire (1914-1923). The new war technologies unleashed a wave of destruction of cultural heritage. For example, the Ottomans used archaeological sites as quarries to build barracks. Belligerents dug trenches and threw bombs that severely altered landscapes. Soldiers used archaeological monuments for target practice and collected some archaeological artifacts as souvenirs or to sell back home. However, all these destructive activities combined with the presence of available manpower created what one British official called “an exceptional opportunity” to engage in archaeology. The war conditions also meant that there was virtually no Ottoman supervision of archaeological activities conducted by the Allied powers. However, these destructive activities and opportunities had to be coupled with protection measures. This was due to the development of international public opinion vis-a-vis the protection of cultural heritage as a marker of civilization during the war. The Ottomans and Germans created monument protection units in Europe and the Middle East. The Ottomans, along with the Russians, British, French, and Italians, issued regulations and laws to limit the destructive effects of the war on cultural heritage artefacts and monuments. This paper, by using sources from Ottoman, British, French, and Italian archives, along with secondary sources, traces the parallel developments of protection measures created by all of the belligerents of the war. This study underscores the entangled history of archaeology and cultural heritage protection schemes with the First World War and emphasizes the interconnected development of the ideas and practices of protection amongst all of the sides of the war. Multifocal lenses employed in this paper allow a larger and more united narrative about the development of the concept of protection of cultural heritage in Europe and in the Ottoman Empire. Finally, the paper aims to contribute to our understanding of the interplay between archaeology, technology, international law, and war that is still relevant today.