Salah Al-Houdalieh, A Professor of Archaeology and Cultural Heritage/The Institute of Archaeology at Al-Quds University, earned a doctorate in archaeology from the Institute for Pre- and Early History and Near Eastern Archaeology, Heidelberg University, Germany. Al-Houdalieh's research interests are Palestine’s cultural heritage, antiquities looting and looters, professional ethics, Roman-Byzantine architecture and mosaic, the ethics of heritage discipline, and the stratigraphy of the Early Bronze Age in the Middle East. Al-Houdalieh has carried out several field work and research projects in Palestine, Jordan and Germany, and has published a large number of books and articles in peer reviewed journals.
Ian Lilley is Professor in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies at the University of Queensland. He has worked in Australasian and Indo-Pacific archaeology and cultural heritage for 35 years and has just a major project examining Indigenous issues in World Heritage management. Ian is Convenor of the International Heritage Group, a heritage capacity-building initiative, as well as Secretary-General of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association, the region’s peak professional body. He is also Secretary-General of the ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on Archaeological Heritage Management, and an ICOMOS World Heritage Assessor. ICOMOS is the statutory Advisory Body to UNESCO on cultural heritage. In addition to his World Heritage assessments, Ian has assisted with the development of World Heritage nominations in Cambodia, Japan, Malaysia, the USA and Viet Nam. He has been Secretary of the World Archaeological Congress and President of the Australian Archaeological Association. He is also a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and of the Australian Academy of Humanities, and a member of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. His interests include ancient migration and trade, the development of social identity, archaeological ethics, and the role of archaeology and heritage in contemporary society. His most recent books are a heritage-management volume on Early Human Expansion and Innovation in the Pacific (ICOMOS 2010) and the textbook Archaeology of Oceania: Australia and the Pacific Islands (Blackwell 2006).
Akira Matsuda is a lecturer at the School of Art History and World Art Studies, the Univeristy of East Anglia. He completed his PhD in public archaeology at University College London in 2009. Previously, he earned his first master degree in Cultural Heritage Studies at University College London, and the second master degree in Cultural Resources Studies at the University of Tokyo. He worked as a project-based consultant in UNESCO’s Division of Cultural Heritage in 2004-05, and was a Handa Japanese Archaeology Fellow at the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures in 2009-11. Recently, he co-edited the book New Perspectives in Global Public Archaeology (Springer, 2011). He is the Secretary of the World Archaeological Congress.