Itinerant Objects

Engaging with demand and destruction

“…Most, if not all, want to act responsibly by purchasing their artefacts in licensed shops in Israel. There, they can receive a certificate of authenticity and an export licence, legally entitling them to take home their fragment of the Holy Land (see Kersel 2019). For the most part, they do not want to break laws and, like stewards, they love to speak with archaeologists about the artefacts in their possession.…”

“…When interviewed about the connection between their demand for an object and the looting of an archaeological site, collectors see no direct association. A collector in the Old City of Jerusalem who wants a pot from "the city of sin" (to quote one interviewee), however, will be provided with a pot recently looted from one of the Dead Sea Plain sites in Jordan (see Kersel 2019). A recent headline from The Guardian, "Illegal metal-detecting at English Heritage sites doubles in two years" (Brown 2020), suggests that, perhaps, the UK public is unacquainted with the distinction between night hawking and legal metal detecting.…”