The Price of a Pot

How do Early Bronze Age (3600–2000 BCE) pots from Jordan end up in Canadian institutions – and why does it matter? These particular pots are from sites along the Dead Sea Plain in Jordan, which have been identified as the “Cities of the Plain” mentioned in Genesis. One of the sites, Bab adh-Dhra’ is thought to be, by some, the original city of sin – biblical Sodom. “Who doesn’t want a pot from the city of sin?” declared one interviewee when I asked why they were purchasing (legally) what most would consider a fairly unattractive, non-descript pot. Over 15 years of investigation have led to interesting insights related to why individuals and institutions want to own artifacts from the Holy Land. Tracing how pots move (both legally and illegally) involves archaeological survey, aerial investigations using unpiloted aerial vehicles, archival research, and ethnographic interviews in order to understand better the competing claims for these archaeological objects and the often deleterious effects of demand on the landscape. In this talk, I will look at how artifacts go from the mound to the market to the mantelpiece or museum vitrine and why this matters.