"Antiquity-dealing-business on a large scale": The Business of Egyptian Archaeology and the Antiquities Trade
Resource type
Presentation
Creator (person)
Potter, Daniel M
Abstract
Egyptological histories have often focused on the scientific heroism of archaeologists, obscuring the reality that many of these same heroes were also highly active in the antiquities market, buying and selling objects freely. Their symbiotic work in excavations and on the market supplied a vast quantity of objects to museums and collectors across the world, impacting what we see in collections today, and thus what is available for scholarly study.
This lecture will discuss the results of research into the entanglement of archaeology and the market during the Egyptian antiquities rush, 1880-1939. It takes three archaeologists as its focus, each of whom took part in British-led excavations in Egypt and Sudan, engaged in the antiquities market and helped build the collections of National Museums Scotland. They are Canadian collector-for-hire Charles Trick Currelly, the "business-like" archaeologist John Garstang, and the so-called "father of Egyptian archaeology" Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie. It will explore some of their transactions as a way of examining the practices of these excavator-suppliers, and will discuss some of the narratives these men and their colleagues used to justify the commercial aspects of their work that may conform to 'dealing'.
Project(s)
Buying Power: British Archaeology and the Antiquities Market in Egypt and Sudan 1880 - 1939
Event title
Liverpool Egyptology Seminar
Publisher
University of Liverpool
Rights statement
In Copyright