Buying Power: Archaeologists as Dealers in Egypt and Sudan.

Exhibitions and displays of Egyptian objects in museums across the world continue to inspire awe and fascination for millions of visitors. As museums tell the stories of the ancient world, they also tell their own collecting stories of how the objects came to be part of their collections. These narratives have focused on the heroic, scientific achievements of individuals. This approach has meant that another part of history has been ignored, hidden, or simply downplayed as the very same archaeological heroes were often involved enthusiastically in buying and selling antiquities. This lecture will begin by exploring the activities of several excavator-collectors who impacted the formation of Scotland's national collection: curator Edwin Ward, archaeologists/academics John Garstang and William Matthew Flinders Petrie, and the Canadian collector-for-hire Charles Trick Currelly. It will share the stories of their purchases and sales in full, linking their work in Egypt to Scotland, Europe, and Canada. The lecture will also start to answer some key questions for the history of Egyptology and museums: How did these individuals engage with the antiquities market? How did they view their transactions ethically? And importantly, how does this hidden collecting history impact what we see in museum displays today?

About the Speaker: Dan Potter is Assistant Curator of the Ancient Mediterranean at National Museums Scotland. He studied for his BA, MA and PhD at the University of Liverpool. He has conducted research focussing on the Ramesside language of religion, ancient prosopography and the history of Egyptological collecting and museum display. Having worked as a Continuing Education lecturer at the University of Liverpool and as a Curatorial Assistant at the Garstang Museum of Archaeology, he joined National Museums Scotland, where he worked to deliver the 'Ancient Egypt Rediscovered' gallery which opened in 2019. He was the Lead Curator of 'Discovering Ancient Egypt', a 2019–2021 National Museums Scotland touring exhibition exploring the history of Egyptology in Scotland. During this time, he also produced a review of Egyptian objects in Scottish museums as part of an innovative NMS national programme. He is the Principal Investigator in the AHRC funded 'Buying Power: The Business of British Archaeology and the Antiquities Market in Egypt and Sudan 1880-1939'.