As indicated by the book's title, the editors consider the included works to be united by a common desire to question the dichotomy between the licit and the illicit. This order is characterised by the link between the academic development of archaeology as a discipline and the legal system governing the objects and artefacts that fall within its scope of interest, i.e. "archaeological heritage". In response to this exclusion, the editors note that some of the outlawed actions related to archaeological objects and the past reflect forms of logic and connections other than those hegemonically imposed by modernity. The editors have divided them into two broad parts. In that country, archaeological objects are in the public domain, regardless of whether they are