How valuable are ancient objects and inscriptions that are unprovenanced (see First Publication: A Newly Discovered House Shrine)? They come from the antiquities market rather than from a professional archaeological excavation, and they may have been looted.Consideration must also be given to whether unprovenanced finds are forgeries.
Scholars hold diametrically opposing views.
According to Othmar Keel, a Biblical scholar and historian of religion from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland: “I don’t think we can write a history of the ancient Near East without relying on unprovenanced material.”2
Andrew Vaughn, executive director of the American Schools of Oriental Research and a professor at Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minnesota, takes a different view:
“Finds that originate on the antiquities market may be glamorous, but their importance is indeed minimal.”3
How valuable are ancient objects and inscriptions that are unprovenanced (see First Publication: A Newly Discovered House Shrine)? They come from the antiquities market rather than from a professional archaeological excavation, and they may have been looted.Consideration must also be given to whether unprovenanced finds are forgeries. Scholars hold diametrically opposing views. According to Othmar Keel, a Biblical scholar and historian of religion from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland: “I don’t think we can write a history of the ancient Near East without relying on unprovenanced material.”2 Andrew Vaughn, executive director of the American Schools of Oriental Research and […]
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Quoted from Hershel Shanks, “An Interview with Othmar Keel” in Update: Finds or Fakes, BAR, July/August 2005.
2.
Andrew G. Vaughn and Carolyn Pillers Dobler, “A Provenance Study of Hebrew Seals and Seal Impressions: A Statistical Analysis,” in Aren M. Maeir and Pierre de Miroschedji, eds., I Will Speak the Riddles of Ancient Times (Amihai Mazar Festschrift, vol.2) (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2006), p.757.
