Real Archaeologists Silent on Context Issues of Another Repatriated Looted Antiquity

   Repatriated ivory spoon    

 

In the first time the United States has repatriated a cultural object to the Palestinian Authority, US and Palestinian officials held a ceremony in Bethlehem on Thursday to mark the return of a looted ivory antiquity seized from the collection of a Jewish American billionaire (US gives Palestinians looted antiquity owned by Steinhardt, in 1st such repatriation, Times of Israel 6 January 2023). Hooray, eh? The usual speeches were made:

George Noll, head of the US Office of Palestinian Affairs, gave the “cosmetic spoon” to the PA’s Tourism and Antiquities Minister Rula Maayah. According to Maayah, the tool — which is from between 700-800 BCE — dates to the Assyrian civilization and was used to pour incense. Citing information from US investigations, Maayah said the artifact was stolen from an archaeological site near the southern West Bank city of Hebron. “This artifact is important as it acquires its real scientific and archaeological value in its authentic location,” she was quoted as saying in a statement from the US Office of Palestinian Affairs. Noll touted his office’s role in returning the spoon, which he called “an example of Palestinian cultural patrimony.” “This is a historic moment between the American and Palestinian people and a demonstration of our belief in the power of cultural exchanges in building mutual understanding, respect, and partnership,” he said. According to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, which had confiscated the object from hedge fund manager Michael Steinhardt as part of a criminal probe, the spoon first appeared on the market in 2003. A statement from the district attorney’s office said Steinhardt purchased it that year from Israeli antiquities dealer Gil Chaya.

While we may be gratified by this much belated US recognition of Palestinian rights, and that both the dealer and collector are named - highly unusual in a fluff piece like this - we wonder where the archaeologists are. No, a loose object does not "acquire its real scientific and archaeological value" by just being transported back to the country it was taken from, even if that is "its authentic location". Part of the site was trashed so dealer Chaya could hobnob with the moneyed clients and profit from that destruction of the evidence (by pretending it is revealing "ancient art"), the context of teh object and all the other objects and information it was taken from among are lost forever. Instead of being happy that another piece of recently looted art has been "repatriated"| we need to work on ways to stop the ongoing commerce in the products of looting and DEpatriation and letting asinine comments like that in the public domain go unchallenged is a start on the road to that. But there it seems most archaeologists who know the truth, fall silent. Shhh eh?