jug, unknown maker from Jordan

What do you see when you look at this jug? Just a jug, right? Just a plain, simple jug with no defining features. Nothing special. Something you probably just look at and walk away, right? You probably don't even know where it came from. Even I, the person who is writing a whole speech on it, took maybe 2 seconds on my first pass by. After all, what is there to look at? All that it is is just an old jug, right? But then why would I be writing this? Maybe there is something unique to this old jug. This piece came from Jordan. It was made in around 3,000 BC and it was found in a tomb. Nothing special. But I think this jug speaks to a much larger problem in the art community. After all, why does the Spencer museum of Art in a small Kansas town in the US have this Jordanian pot? It wasn’t taken from the oldest semitic cemetery in the world or something, right? Oh, wait… This piece was taken from the Bab Edh-Dhra’ cemetery group, which is the oldest semitic burial site we’ve discovered today, and one of the oldest burial sites in the world. In your mind, you must be thinking that there must be some cultural significance to this pot, or maybe what it was used for 5,000 years ago, right? These questions run through the minds of people across the globe as the battle over art repatriation rages. Some of the most famous museums in the world, including the Metropolitan museum in New York, and the British museum are facing massive controversies over art repatriation. People around the world think that art stolen during nations’ ages of colonialism and brought across oceans and continents should be returned to their native homes, but others think that the art may be better taken care of in museums, or that we simply need to “get over” our world’s colonialist pasts. It’s been debated all around the world from many different nations. The argument of repatriation is heated, with many different points of view being expressed and debated throughout the world. This issue is so deep and layered that there might not be one single solution to make everybody happy. I mean, what would be in the museum if nothing was from another country or culture? In my personal opinion, I think these pieces are not a right, they were not lawfully taken from their home country. Heck, it’s become an internet meme that the British museum stole everything in it from indigenous peoples! I think that the refusal to give these pieces back to their native homes is proof that we never ended our colonial age, and that we still view all of these cultural items as trophies. I hope that, if nothing more, this pot should serve not as a thing to look at for half a second and move on, but something to inspire thought, even some small question like “How did this get here?” can mean something infinitely more meaningful than what it appears at the surface level. This has been Carter with another Bulldog Art Tour.