Grave Robbery Victimizes Archeological Sites Renfrew

Loot, Legitimacy and Ownership: The Ethical Crisis in Archaeology, by Colin Renfrew. 2000

The Living Profit From the Belongings of the Dead: Not Only Poles From Jews!

The reader unfamiliar with archeology may be shocked, as I was, upon learning of the scale of looting of ancient artifacts. Jan T. Gross, in his ZLOTE ZNIWA (GOLDEN HARVEST), has (with the help of extensive media publicity) brought the matter of looting of the dead to public consciousness. Gross has led readers to believe that Poles were prone to loot the dead, and Nazi-German-slain Jews were particularly vulnerable as targets of looting. Renfrew’s book, elaborating on a different form of exploitation of the dead, soundly lays these notions to rest!

Of course, grave robbery and archeological looting are not exactly the same, but they do have much in common. In each case, we encounter the situation of buried objects, whose owners are no longer alive, surreptitiously taken by those who hope to benefit or profit from them. Moreover, such behavior is not limited to desperate circumstances, such as occur during or after wars.

THE SCALE OF LOOTING

Renfrew comments: “Just about every country in the world now suffers from the problem of the illicit excavation and the illegal export of antiquities. Surprisingly, perhaps, Britain and the United States, two of the worst offenders in the open sale of antiquities which have been looted overseas, are not themselves well protected against the commercial exploitation of antiquities uncovered upon their own land.” (p. 81). “Every continent has suffered extensive depredations in recent years to its archaeological sites, and in some cases the damage has been catastrophic. As noted earlier this has been the case for centuries.” (p. 52). “When one asks what may be done to curb the looting and the traffic in illicit antiquities, there is no single, simple answer.” (p. 74).

THE GEOGRAPHIC UNIVERSALITY OF LOOTING

This work features details on the looting of archeological artifacts in such places as Jordan, Turkey, Egypt, Iraq, China, and Meso-America. There are appendices that contain reprints of position papers, written by various institutions and organizations, condemning this form of looting. A bibliography is provided for further study.