Alice Stevenson
I am an Associate Professor at University College London's Institute of Archaeology where my research and teaching is primarily based on the intersections of archaeology and museum studies. Much of this builds on my experience as Curator of the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology (2013-2016) and as Researcher in World Archaeology at the Pitt Rivers Museum (2009-2012). Museum collections and archives have formed the primary departure point for my research. Utilizing these resources I have explored a range of themes in prehistoric archaeology and Predynastic Egypt, including burial rituals, social identities, long-distance exchange and material engagement. These collections and archives have also formed departure points for my related interest in the histories of museums, archaeology and anthropology. These areas of research inform each other and I am interested in taking a comparative and historically informed approach to my writing and analysis. In Museum Studies I have interests in the history of museums and collections, museum archaeology, critical collections management and access, museum storage and ethical practice.
I am currently leading an AHRC-funded project entitled 'Mobilising Collections for Institutional Change: Egypt at the Horniman Museum' (2022-2025) and a British Academy Funded project looking at contemporary art practice and museum displays of Egypt. Previous projects include 'Egypt' dispersed heritage: views from Egypt' (2019-2020) with Heba Abd el-Gawad building on my 'Artefacts of Excavation: the international distribution of artefacts from British excavations in Egypt, 1880-1980' project (2013-2017), which explored the historical relationship between museum practice and international archaeological fieldwork. This research has led me to a reconsideration of the ethical stewardship of these collections today and the role that museums can take in tackling the illicit antiquities trade. This is the basis of my book ‘Scattered Finds’ published by UCL Press (2019).
I was involved in a joint, Leverhulme-funded project that established a new Bayesian radiocarbon chronology for the Egyptian late 5th through to early 3rd millennium BC. Building on this latter project I have written around the subjects of the archaeology of time, ritual and state formation.
I am currently leading an AHRC-funded project entitled 'Mobilising Collections for Institutional Change: Egypt at the Horniman Museum' (2022-2025) and a British Academy Funded project looking at contemporary art practice and museum displays of Egypt. Previous projects include 'Egypt' dispersed heritage: views from Egypt' (2019-2020) with Heba Abd el-Gawad building on my 'Artefacts of Excavation: the international distribution of artefacts from British excavations in Egypt, 1880-1980' project (2013-2017), which explored the historical relationship between museum practice and international archaeological fieldwork. This research has led me to a reconsideration of the ethical stewardship of these collections today and the role that museums can take in tackling the illicit antiquities trade. This is the basis of my book ‘Scattered Finds’ published by UCL Press (2019).
I was involved in a joint, Leverhulme-funded project that established a new Bayesian radiocarbon chronology for the Egyptian late 5th through to early 3rd millennium BC. Building on this latter project I have written around the subjects of the archaeology of time, ritual and state formation.
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Books by Alice Stevenson
Scattered Finds explores the politics, personalities and social histories that linked fieldwork in Egypt with the varied organizations around the world that received finds. Case studies range from Victorian municipal museums and women’s suffrage campaigns in the UK, to the development of some of the USA’s largest institutions, and from university museums in Japan to new institutions in post-independence Ghana. By juxtaposing a diversity of sites for the reception of Egyptian cultural heritage over the period of a century, Alice Stevenson presents new ideas about the development of archaeology, museums and the construction of Egyptian heritage. She also addresses the legacy of these practices, raises questions about the nature of the authority over such heritage today, and argues for a stronger ethical commitment to its stewardship.
Praise for Scattered Finds
'Scattered Finds is a remarkable achievement. In charting how British excavations in Egypt dispersed artefacts around the globe, at an unprecedented scale, Alice Stevenson shows us how ancient objects created knowledge about the past while firmly anchored in the present. No one who reads this timely book will be able to look at an Egyptian antiquity in the same way again.'
Professor Christina Riggs, UEA
Edited Volumes by Alice Stevenson
Papers by Alice Stevenson
This article seeks to bring attention to this issue and to suggest possible responses from the profession in terms of ethics and stewardship. In addressing this problem, however, we also have to confront the complex history and legacy of ‘partage’, a system that permitted the export of legally-excavated material by foreign nations, but which frequently leaves more questions than answers concerning ownership and possession of cultural heritage in the present. I would argue, therefore, that stewardship principles need to be established with a view to radical transparency and with a flexibility that allows archaeologists to engage in critical dialogues on a case-by-case basis.
Scattered Finds explores the politics, personalities and social histories that linked fieldwork in Egypt with the varied organizations around the world that received finds. Case studies range from Victorian municipal museums and women’s suffrage campaigns in the UK, to the development of some of the USA’s largest institutions, and from university museums in Japan to new institutions in post-independence Ghana. By juxtaposing a diversity of sites for the reception of Egyptian cultural heritage over the period of a century, Alice Stevenson presents new ideas about the development of archaeology, museums and the construction of Egyptian heritage. She also addresses the legacy of these practices, raises questions about the nature of the authority over such heritage today, and argues for a stronger ethical commitment to its stewardship.
Praise for Scattered Finds
'Scattered Finds is a remarkable achievement. In charting how British excavations in Egypt dispersed artefacts around the globe, at an unprecedented scale, Alice Stevenson shows us how ancient objects created knowledge about the past while firmly anchored in the present. No one who reads this timely book will be able to look at an Egyptian antiquity in the same way again.'
Professor Christina Riggs, UEA
This article seeks to bring attention to this issue and to suggest possible responses from the profession in terms of ethics and stewardship. In addressing this problem, however, we also have to confront the complex history and legacy of ‘partage’, a system that permitted the export of legally-excavated material by foreign nations, but which frequently leaves more questions than answers concerning ownership and possession of cultural heritage in the present. I would argue, therefore, that stewardship principles need to be established with a view to radical transparency and with a flexibility that allows archaeologists to engage in critical dialogues on a case-by-case basis.
the 1960s UNESCO rescue campaigns in Nubia was a stone
structure associated with late 4th millennium BC A-Group
material at Afyeh. It remains the only substantial A-Group
settlement known and it has long been cited as evidence
for significant social complexity in Nubia at this time. More
recently its A-Group character has been downplayed in favour
of an interpretation that proposes an Egyptian origin
for these structures. Assessing such claims has been made
problematic in the past by the brevity of the published reports
of work at the site. Fortunately, the records associated
with the Egypt Exploration Society’s (EES) involvement
were recently made part of the Society’s Lucy Gura Archive
and include more detailed documentation of Afyeh’s initial
investigation. This provides the opportunity to evaluate the
site’s significance more critically, reassert its Nubian affinities
and question interpretations of social organization based
upon permanent architecture."
Stewardship of collections entails responsibilities and obligations of trust. The sale destroyed public trust in the borough council: Northampton Museum was stripped of its official museum accreditation and barred from public funding in an impressive display of unity by the Museums Association, Arts Council England and the Heritage Lottery Fund. Nevertheless, the sale tarnishes the international reputation of the country and its museums.
Despite the heroic efforts of the Save Sekhemka Action Group, the government export bar expires today. In the museum, the statue was safe under national law: it is about to leave the protection of a public museum and enter private hands without legal safeguards. We may never see it again.
In the long term, new legislation on the responsibilities of ownership could protect objects held in public trust, even after such sales. Yet clearly this statue should never have been sold in the first place. Can the public, museums and media act on these issues? Or must we prepare for further losses from our public collections?
This Thursday 2 October 2014, the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) St Louis Society intends to sell Egyptian antiquities at the London auctioneers Bonhams. We condemn this sale in the strongest possible terms.