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Valuing the past

Perceptions of archaeological practice in Lydia and the Levant

Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto, Canada, morag.kersel{at}utoronto.ca

Christina Luke

Boston University and Cultural Heritage Center, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, USA, cluke{at}bu.edu

Christopher H. Roosevelt

Department of Archaeology, Boston University, USA, chr{at}bu.edu

In both western Turkey and the Levant, archaeology has a long history, with the rise in interest and discovery beginning in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. While many have focused on the history of excavations in both of these areas, we approach historical analyses from a different perspective. Utilizing the voices of local actors, this article aims to understand the social reactions of local communities to the increasingly prominent role of people practicing archaeology — archaeologists, diplomats, explorers — through the lens of the antiquities trade over the last two centuries. Interlacing examples from Lydia and the Levant, we provide an overview of archaeological praxis and then offer the positions of the participants, gathered from archival and published materials as well as more recent interviews, conversations, and correspondences.

Key Words: archaeological practice • archives • Bedouin • Dead Sea Scrolls • diplomats • ethics • ethnography • looting • Lydia • museums

Journal of Social Archaeology, Vol. 8, No. 3, 298-319 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/1469605308095007


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