mouthyheritage:

If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll probably have figured out that David Gill is our current golden boy in the cultural heritage blogosphere. Last week he accepted the Archaeological Institute of America’s Outstanding Public Service Award (aka the archaeology Oscar) and earlier this year he moved from Swansea University to be professor of archaeological heritage at University Campus Suffolk. His acceptance speech at the AIA awards did not mince words and directly called out institutions that have refused to take responsibility for their actions in supporting the illicit antiquities trade. Dr. Gill’s blog Looting Matters is one of the first blogs I turn to when I’ve been away from the news for a while. My reason for featuring Looting Matters isn’t just because you should absolutely be reading it if you’re at all serious about these issues, or because it’s one the first blogs to report on emerging topics as they happen (as opposed to days or weeks later when no one really cares anymore), or because Dr. Gill’s voice has never wavered in addressing these issues. It’s because it is also an astounding record of the illicit antiquities trade and cultural heritage issues that students can easily take advantage of for their research.