The Plundered Past

By Sheldon Greaves, Ph.D.

The scope of the problem
In Iraq, a band of nomads plunders ancient artifacts from a large mound that marks the site of an ancient city. Local authorities manage to drive the looters from the site after a pitched firefight. Despite their success, the site is covered with deep gouges and craters from the digging. In London, Southby's announces that it will shift the sale of ancient Greek, Roman, Indian and other Asian artifacts from its London office to New York because senior members of the London staff were engaging in the smuggling of illegal antiquities. In Cambodia, officials at the magnificent temple of Angkor Wat hammer small nicks and dings in the thousands of exquisite statues that encrust the temple complex to render them unappealing to plundering antiquities thieves. These are only a few incidents concerning a growing threat to humanity's cultural heritage: the looting and sale of ancient artifacts. This is a problem of enormous proportions; in terms of total value, the global black market in stolen and plundered artifacts is second only to the illegal drug trade.

This article is concerned primarily with the loss of scientific information that happens when artifacts are removed from their sites of origin without proper documentation. This almost always occurs as the result of looters or illicit antiquities dealers. As can be seen from the example above, even legitimate dealers walk a fine line when dealing with the sale of antiquities. Commenting on the Southby's case in the journal British Archaeology, Dr. Peter Addyman made the following observation: "The flow of exceptional artifacts unknown to scholarship cannot but suggest to dealers and auction house experts that illicit excavation and export has taken place. Some looted material is so well known that its inclusion in auction catalogues can only be disingenuous - or the result of less than diligence by the experts concerned."

Why looting takes place
The large-scale theft and illicit sale of antiquities is often the result of political or economic instability. The looters are usually local people who have come upon hard times and turn to looting to make ends meet. Sometimes when the local political structure is weak local officials will participate or accept bribes to look the other way. More often, however, official simply do not have the manpower or resources to stop looting. Probably the most dramatic example of this phenomenon is Iraq, located in what was once Mesopotamia, the "Cradle of Civilization." Prior to the invasion of Kuwait Iraq had an active, well-funded Department of Antiquities that kept a close eye on the many unexcavated tells (mounds marking the location of an ancient city) in the region. Their museums housed excellent collections where artifacts were well cared for and documented. Following the Iraqi army's march into Kuwait City the Iraqi's plundered the priceless collection in the Kuwaiti museum of Ancient Islamic Art. Most of these items were recovered and sent back to Kuwait after the war. After Iraq's defeat and the imposition of the UN embargo, the system that had protected Iraq's ancient heritage broke down. Writing in the 1993-94 report of the Nippur Expedition, McGuire Gibson describes the aftermath: "The embargo of Iraq drags on, making the life of ordinary Iraqi people increasingly desperate... One result of the embargo is a revival of illicit digging at archaeological sites on a scale that has not been seen since the Ottoman period. We hear reports of gunny sacks of cuneiform tablets being offered to antique dealers in Jordan. Much of the digging is being done by people who have lost their normal incomes as a result of the war or the embargo. They sell the objects for very little money to merchants who transfer them to antique dealers in Baghdad for a bit more money. Eventually, the items are smuggled out through Iran or Jordan for sale in the European, American, and Japanese markets. Thousands of newly excavated items are appearing in these markets alongside some of the three thousand antiquities that were looted from Iraq's regional museums during the uprising after the Gulf War."

An ironic twist to this picture is that many of the countries that are rich in cultural resources often are poor in the fiscal means to protect them. At the same time, many of the countries that have more money to spend on antiquities tend to have fewer salable cultural resources locally. The result is a flow of goods that runs from poorer to richer countries.

The damage done to science
The damage done to a people's cultural heritage by the destruction of archaeological sites is blatant enough. The scientific loss, however, is less obvious to the non-scientist. The problem arises from the nature of archaeological data and how it is accumulated. Artifacts and like pieces of a puzzle. They only make sense when you know where they fit. Even if many of the pieces are missing, you can infer the general shape of the picture if the pieces you have are in the right place. When archaeologists uncover an object, they are able to gather data that is impossible to record once the artifact has left the site. The locality, the depth at which it was found, the objects found in association with it all provide critical clues for reconstructing a culture. Another advantage concerns the question of authenticity. The forger's art is only slightly less old than the thief's. Forging artifacts is remarkably easy. Even the experts can be fooled by a careful and cunning artificer. A recent example is the Arslan Tash inscriptions that were accepted by scholars for decades as authentic Canaanite magical texts, only to be proven frauds after a careful research of their provenance. However, if the artifact is located and recorded in situ by skilled professionals, authenticity is no longer a problem.

What is being done to stop it?
Many legitimate art dealers are making more serious efforts to ensure that the provenance of a piece is verified before putting it up for sale, but this is not nearly enough as long as countries like the US, UK, Japan, and other major market countries do not enforce existing laws against the sale of illegal antiquities. International bodies have proposed new measures to help restrict the illegal artifacts trade. UNESCO has released some important documents on this problem that provide guidance for dealing with this problem on an international scale. They are available through the UNESCO home page at http://www.unesco.org/. As early as 1956 the Hague Convention established guidelines for the preservation of cultural heritage and artifacts in time of conflict. The US has never ratified this treaty.

The best solution is to help those involved understand what they stand to lose if the plunder of antiquities continues. One need not even appeal to the lofty ideals of science. Recently an extremely important Moche site in Peru was threatened with rampant plundering by poverty-stricken local villagers. A local archaeologist managed to persuade the villagers that this site was part of their heritage and that defiling it would be disrespectful to their ancestors. More pragmatically, the villagers and the archaeological team worked together to develop the site. Today, one of the men who was an illicit antiquities hunter now works there as a tour guide. The site has become a tourist attraction and a source of jobs and income for the local economy.

What amateurs can do to help
Amateurs are in a position to make a real difference in helping to solve this problem, if only because there are a lot of us. Here are some suggestions to help protect the scientific value of the world's cultural heritage. First of all, continue to participate in archaeological work. If you've restricted yourself to "armchair archaeology," maybe this is a good time to see how it's really done. Extra help lets professionals excavate more sites in less time. If you are in an area with a lot of local sites, the professionals may be in direct competition with the looters, so time is of the essence. With more workers, more can be saved.

Do what you can to raise awareness of the scientific value that is lost when an artifact is plundered without proper documentation. Talk to people, especially people who might be inclined to buy such artifacts. Other people with related interests, such as history, would probably be concerned about this problem.

Contact state and national lawmakers and urge them to pass laws that curb looting and selling illicit artifacts. Talk to community leaders and ask them to see that these laws are enforced.

Don't patronize dealers who sell in stolen artifacts, even if it is "legal" to sell them. If you buy antiquities, don't purchase anything unless the provenance is impeccable. Educate yourself and make sure you know the ins and outs of the antiquities business. At a recent gathering I met a gentleman who told me about finding antique clay sculptures from China in a nearby art shop. When he asked the shop owner about their legality, he glibly replied, "Oh, the Chinese didn't like them leaving the country, but it's legal to sell them here."

Support museums and other organizations that do legitimate work in antiquities curation, and sponsor professional excavations. Make contributions to their programs. If you own any antiquities or have a personal collection, consider donating that collection to a local museum so that more people can enjoy it. Much of its scientific value may be gone, but at least it can help others learn to appreciate the value of saving our cultural heritage.

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