Buying Power: The Business of British Archaeology and the Antiquities Market in Egypt and Sudan 1880-1939

购买力：1880-1939 年英国考古事业以及埃及和苏丹的古物市场

• 批准号: AH/W005328/1
• 负责人: Daniel Potter
• 金额: $ 12.71万
• 依托单位: National Museums Scotland
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FW005328%2F1
• 关键词: Buying; Power; Business; British; Archaeology

Many members of the public who visit the ever-popular displays of ancient Egyptian and Sudanese objects in UK museums are unaware of how they came to be in these collections. Some assume that they were all obtained through scientific excavations, while others believe that their presence is the result of looting. The role of the antiquities market is rarely considered. This route was complex and encompassed both sanctioned excavations and illicit activities, opportunistic sellers and licensed vendors. A past focus on heroic narratives of archaeologists has obscured the reality that many of them were openly active in the antiquities market, buying, and selling objects for potential profit. This business-like side of their work may have helped to support them, and their excavations financially, but also led to many less well-provenanced objects entering museums across the UK, Europe and North America. This project focuses on several individuals who intersected the roles of excavator and dealer, who were active in British-led excavations in Egypt and Sudan 1880-1939. This project will assess how expansive their activities were, how and why they purchased objects in the field, how they viewed these transactions ethically, and will explore the impact of their activities on museum collections today. Egyptological work in this area has often focused on excavations, or discrete elements of collecting such as individual auctions or collectors. Although there is a growing body of work that recognizes the complex historic realities of collecting, the entanglement of archaeology and the antiquities market in Egypt and Sudan has not been fully investigated. This is the first project which makes explicit the connection between excavation, the antiquities market and museum collections. This project will transform our understanding of the provenance of many collections of Egyptian and Sudanese held in British museums and offer a methodology for future research. By focusing on individuals and their activities as case studies, it will provide a fuller and more transparent narrative of diverse colonial collecting practices. The project combines detailed object provenance research primarily based at National Museums Scotland with additional collections and archival research conducted in Edinburgh, London, Oxford, Liverpool, and Manchester, as well as UK-related archives in Toronto. The project focuses on selected individuals whose acquisitions entered the Scottish national collection, as a lens to examine the broader phenomenon. It will focus on curator Edwin Ward, collector-for-hire Charles Trick Currelly, and archaeologists/academics John Garstang and William Matthew Flinders Petrie. Their purchases, sales and brokering activities will be examined, and considered in relation to each subject's socio-economic status and ethical views. 1880-1939 saw the zenith of archaeological activity in Egypt and Sudan, the formation of many museum collections and varying degrees of imperial/colonial control, and alterations to export rules. This period provides the best opportunity to contextualize individual actions in relation to colonial history and museum collecting narratives. The project will share information and insights with archive holders, museums and universities, during research visits, and online through the NMS research repository, providing rapid dissemination of the project's aims, themes and insights to researchers and students. The project is partnered with the Egypt Exploration Society, World Museum (Liverpool), and the Petrie Museum and the project's findings will be integrated into the knowledge databases of these institutions. The project includes several public events and an academic symposium to focus attention on the subject, opening greater discussion on historic collecting practices in Egypt and Sudan and how these collections are dealt with in museum practice today.

许多参观英国博物馆中古埃及和苏丹文物展览的公众并不知道这些文物是如何被收藏的。一些人认为它们都是通过科学发掘获得的，而另一些人则认为它们的存在是抢劫的结果。古董市场的作用很少被考虑。这条路线很复杂，既包括经批准的挖掘活动，也包括非法活动、投机卖家和持牌商贩。过去对考古学家的英雄故事的关注掩盖了一个事实，即他们中的许多人公开活跃在古物市场上，买卖文物以获取潜在利润。他们工作的这种商业化的一面可能有助于支持他们和他们的挖掘工作，但也导致许多不太可靠的物品进入英国、欧洲和北美的博物馆。这个项目的重点是在1880-1939年英国领导的埃及和苏丹发掘活动中活跃的挖掘机和经销商角色的几个人。这个项目将评估他们的活动范围有多广，他们如何以及为什么在现场购买物品，他们如何看待这些交易的道德，并将探索他们的活动对今天的博物馆藏品的影响。这一领域的埃及学工作通常集中在挖掘，或收集的离散元素，如个人拍卖或收藏家。尽管越来越多的工作认识到收藏的复杂历史现实，但埃及和苏丹的考古学和古物市场之间的纠缠尚未得到充分调查。这是第一个明确挖掘、文物市场和博物馆藏品之间联系的项目。这个项目将改变我们对英国博物馆中许多埃及和苏丹藏品来源的理解，并为未来的研究提供一种方法。通过将个人和他们的活动作为案例研究，它将为不同的殖民收集实践提供更全面、更透明的叙述。该项目结合了主要在苏格兰国家博物馆进行的详细物品来源研究，以及在爱丁堡、伦敦、牛津、利物浦和曼彻斯特进行的额外收藏和档案研究，以及在多伦多进行的与英国相关的档案研究。该项目重点关注那些被挑选出来的个人，他们的藏品进入了苏格兰国家收藏，作为一个审视更广泛现象的镜头。展览将重点关注策展人埃德温·沃德、收藏家查尔斯·特里克·柯瑞利、考古学家/学者约翰·加尔斯坦和威廉·马修·弗林德斯·皮特里。他们的购买、销售和经纪活动将被审查，并考虑到每个主体的社会经济地位和道德观点。1880-1939年见证了埃及和苏丹考古活动的顶峰，许多博物馆藏品的形成，不同程度的帝国/殖民控制，以及出口规则的改变。这一时期提供了将个人行为与殖民历史和博物馆收藏叙述联系起来的最佳机会。该项目将在研究访问期间与档案持有人、博物馆和大学分享信息和见解，并通过NMS研究存储库在线分享信息和见解，为研究人员和学生提供项目目标、主题和见解的快速传播。该项目与埃及探索协会、世界博物馆（利物浦）和皮特里博物馆合作，项目的发现将被整合到这些机构的知识数据库中。该项目包括几次公共活动和一次学术研讨会，以集中关注这一主题，并就埃及和苏丹的历史收藏做法以及当今博物馆如何处理这些藏品展开更多讨论。

项目成果

Looking Closer at Collection Stories

近距离观察收藏故事

• 发表时间: 2022
• 作者: Author Unnamed, Researcher Attributed