Another interesting article in Science News which discusses the complexity of the issues surrounding looting and and ancient site destruction.
Of particular note:
“Not knowing what archaeologists actually do, locals regard the outsiders as looters who operate above the law, according to interviews conducted by Luke and colleagues. To beat the competition, local residents take Lydian objects to dealers and collectors in nearby cities, often working on retainer fees.”
MY COMMENTS: As is the case with most “source countries” it is the local population that is doing the “looting”. Again, reasonable laws similar to the British Portable Antiquities Scheme would allow finds to be recorded, studied and also treat locals (which are often barely able to feed their families) fairly.
“To make matters worse, farmers routinely smash Lydian monuments and bulldoze land to erase ancient remains, Luke’s group found. Their goal is to skirt a Turkish law banning farming or building on land that contains major archaeological sites. In some cases, looters threaten farmers who would inform the government of an ancient site.”
MY COMMENTS: This is not only a problem for “poor” nations and peoples. In supposedly more “enlightened” nations this happens regularly! When visiting family in Italy, at dinner at a table of Italians stories were being told of how construction crews routinely bulldoze finds to avoid the costly delays associated with the legally required reporting of such discoveries. I have heard second hand reports of similar things happening in Greece and even Egypt. I guess the ability to earn a living and put food on the table trumps severe penalties and the “satisfaction” of helping to understand the past without any form of compensation.
“…Wealthy collectors and museum officials, knowingly or unknowingly, often buy looted or stolen art and antiquities, Kersel says…Palestinian women from the West Bank town of Hebron supply Mohammed’s product, unearthing ancient coins while gathering produce. To Jerusalem they bring not only their produce, but also hidden coins to sell to Mohammed.”
MY COMMENTS: Archaeologists continue to refer to this as “looting”, but the word looting implies theft. I take issue with this. Looting would be to steal or to break in to a known archaeological site to search for items. While what the Palestinian woman may be doing MAY be illegal, the ethical and moral issues are far from clear cut. Part of the CULTURAL identity of many of the peoples from this region is to search for such items and either use them or sell them for their survival.
Science News / Networks Of Plunder.
I was not impressed by Kersel’s paper “From the Ground to the Buyer: A Market Analysis of the Trade in Illegal Antiquities”. In that paper she discusses poor Palestinian women selling ancient coins found in their herb gardens for 2% of their market value to a shady middleman.
It turns out Kersel doesn’t actually know if the Palestinian herb gardeners got more or less than 2% — in a footnote she divulges “No one in the interview would divulge the price paid for the coins.” !!!
Perhaps I should review that paper, from which the article you link to draws upon, for an online, pro-collecting publication?
In the article you link to she says “Mechanisms currently in place to combat the illegal excavation of archaeological sites do not appear to be acting as deterrents.” She neglects to mention that Palestinian archaeology is forbidden by the 1954 UNESCO Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. Archaeology students at the Palestinian Birzeit University cannot dig… but rogue Israeli army officers are known to dig on occupied lands! She focuses on poor women selling coins from the own gardens!
Any theory that poor disenfranchised and indigenous peoples don’t deserve their own antiquities smacks of colonialism and, if the disenfranchised group is an ethnic minority, seems racist.
I don’t believe Ms. Kersel is herself racist, merely that her love for orderly procedures in archaeology blinds her to the possibility that confiscation is only one of many policies that may curb looting. Confiscation may not be the best policy for all stakeholders.