On Saturday 29 September, the Society hosted a 'webinar' to discuss the issues which surround the interaction between the (legal) trade in antiquities and the academic discipline of Egyptology.
The panel included Marcel Marée, Curator in the Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan at the British Museum, Madeleine Perridge, Head of Antiquities at Bonhams, Heba Abd el-Gawad, PhD candidate at Durham University and recipient of an EES Centenary Award, and Keith Amery, PhD candidate at City University, writing his thesis on the antiquities trade and legislation. Keith kindly stepped onto the panel at the last minute when Prof. David Gill of University Campus Suffolk was unable to attend.
The panel had been selected to represent various aspects and points of view on the antiquities trade and Egyptology, and put forward a number of different views and experiences. The webinar began with brief presentations from each panel member, setting out their views and experiences on the questions at hand. This part can be viewed in the video below:
Interaction, in the form of questions submitted in real time via Ustream's chat function and Twitter, was very lively, and after a brief break, participants took some of these questions. Sadly, there were a few technical difficulties, which resulted in the first ten or so minutes being recorded as individual videos (see below), but once these had been rectified, a very useful and informed discussion followed.
The discussion continued even after the webinar had finished, with this thought-provoking review by Paul Barford, author of a blog called Portable Antiquity Collecting and Heritage Issues:
http://paul-barford.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/ees-webinar-autumn-2012-good-bad-ugly.html
http://paul-barford.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/ees-webinar-autumn-2012-good-bad-and.html
Despite the minor technical issues, this experimental dip into 'web-only' events seems to have been successful and the Society hopes to continue to put on events such as these, which are accessible to audiences who may not be able to attend certain events in person.