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The Problem of LootingRound the world there is a problem of the looting of archaeological sites What can be done about this? This can best be approached by applying the usual economic analysis, and consider first the problems of supply, and then look at demand First however it is important to emphasise the over-riding importance of provenance. To archaeologists, much of the value of any object comes from its provenance. We need to know not only where it comes from - the site - but where within that site it comes from. Often by knowing the layer and exact location we can learn far more about the object - its date and use and function. Our overwhelming need as archaeologists is to preserve this provenance. Demand The demand for archaeological objects is increasing - largely fuelled by our own success as archaeologists. This is something that is wholly desirable: we want people to see objects from the past and from round the world so they can find out how other people lived - and hopefully learn tolerance as a result. As archaeologists we have a duty to educate. The main problem is to consider a rational distribution of objects: between public and private, local and national, between national and international. I discussed this in my book "Who Owns the Past": click here for further reading. Supply If demand is increasing and supply is at best static, the result will be looting. The main problem here is that most countries in the world have 'nationalised' the past, declaring that all antiquities are public property. Thus if a farmer finds ancient objets, he has every incentive to sell them on the black market: if he declares them he will receive nothing for them - indeed he will often be put to considerable trouble and expense by the 'interfering' archaeologists. The first essential in tackling the problem of looting is to get the locals on our side. We also need to do is to increase the supply. In the past this was often met by a system of division of finds: if a foreign mission under took an expedition abroad, it was normal to divide the finds between the host country and the visitors. Unfortunately this has been largely abandoned with the senseless nationalism that now permeates archaeology (though not one should note in England). This question of a division is not without its problems, and these need to be discussed. Trade There is nothing wrong with trade, providing the needs of provenance are met. The pure collector should indeed be discouraged - or rather he should be encouraged to to become a proper archaeologist. But where there is illicit trade, the problem mainly lies with the laws that make this trade illicit. All countries should be encouraged to repeal laws which ban all trade in antiquities and instead see themselves as trustees of the past and try to ensure that it is maintained and studied for the good of all mankind.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ We should look at the related problem of The Archaeology of Nationalism. Here, as archaeologists, we are quite illogical. On the one hand we think that Nationalism is wrong: on the other hand we encourage states to nationalise their past, and retain all the objects from their past within their own territory, so that the world museum cannot exist. We need to sort out our own ideas on this one.
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