John Carman, Against Cultural Property: Archaeology, Heritage and Ownership. London, Duckworth, 2005. Pp. 145. ISBN 071563402X. 11.99 pounds sterling.

Carman is a latecomer to archaeology. He worked in areas such as finance, law, and commercial administration and is thus well acquainted with legal and business issues otherwise outside the reach of ordinary archaeologists and even heritage scholars and managers. Thanks to his unique background, Carman acknowledges from the start that archaeology does not exist in a vacuum; and notions from law, finance, economics, environmental science, and management are deeply intertwined with archaeological heritage. Starting with illicit antiquities and Merryman's arguments for licit trade in antiquities, the American lawyer argues that this promotes the values of the objects itself and of its traffic across the globe over those of the individual nation state from which it derives. The whole book by Carman is to dispute this approach, challenging the notion of ownership itself, because it is considered to be the problem in our treatment of ancient remains.