ISAC Lecture

Jordan, like many nations, faces a persistent and complex problem of looting driven by the demand for cultural artifacts. The illicit excavation and trade of illegal antiquities from Jordan is fueled by a network of looters, intermediaries, and collectors who often acquire objects without scrutinizing their origin stories or the legality of their acquisition. Regardless of robust efforts by local communities, the Ministry of Culture, the Department of Antiquities, and various cultural heritage NGOs, the destruction of archaeological landscapes continues unabated. Sites are pillaged, invaluable historical data is lost, and local communities are increasingly alienated from their own heritage. An integrated approach to assessing the issue of looting includes archaeological evidence, archival documents, ethnographic interviews, and pedestrian and aerial surveys using unpiloted aerial vehicles (drones), provides valuable lessons regarding looting, loss, and landscape at a series of Early Bronze Age sites (3600–2000 BCE) along the Dead Sea Plain in Jordan. This is an examination of how archaeological material goes from the ground to the consumer (individual and institutional), the various pathways artifacts take, the laws and policies in place which facilitate or hinder the movement, and the consequences of demand for archaeological objects.

Morag M. Kersel is an archaeologist who works in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age periods. Morag is professor of anthropology and former director of the Museum Studies Minor at DePaul University. She earned a PhD in Archaeology from the University of Cambridge. She also holds a Master of Historic Preservation (with Distinction) from the University of Georgia, a Master of Arts in Near Eastern Studies from the University of Toronto, and a Bachelor of Arts (Honors) in Classical Studies from Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada. In addition to participating in archaeological excavations and surveys in Egypt, Greece, Israel, Jordan, Palestine, and Turkey, Morag is interested in the relationship between cultural heritage law, archaeological sites and objects, the antiquities trade, and local interaction with heritage. She also works on the public display and interpretation of archaeological artifacts in institutional spaces. She has published a number of articles and is the co-author (with Christina Luke) U.S. Cultural Diplomacy and Archaeology: Soft Power, Hard Heritage (2013), co-editor (with M.T. Rutz ) of Archaeologies of Text: Archaeology, Technology, and Ethics (2014) and co-editor (with N.J. Brodie and J. Rasmussen) of Variant Scholarship. Ancient Texts in Modern Contexts (2023).

Host or Publisher The Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures