Spreading the word: 200 000 hits today

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Today the counter says this blog has now had some 200 000 hits, it was not so long ago I noted it had received 150 000 views. It is heartening to note that Looting Matters receives very many more hits a week (he's much more polite than I am) but one of the more active of the rival ones has had 12700 hits in the same period, so lagging far behind.

Personally I like to think this shows the considerable interest in the issue of protecting the cultural heritage from those that see it as a commodity. The Crosby Garrett helmet certainly generated a lot of hits, over one thousand on the day the Grauniad mentioned this blog (even my Thatcherite Mum looked in quickly I hear). If I were being honest, I do note that one of the posts that has retained its popularity however is nothing to do with antiquities but one I did a while back about somebody buying me a Zahi Hawass hat which still has its devotees (and one about a little boy holding something, but I suspect the gentlemen coming to that from a search engine are looking for something else). :>0

It is nice to see a spread between one-off casual visitors and those who seem (from the tracking software) to be coming back. Some of the servers are identifiable, the British Museum peeps in, the US State Department too, several universities. A lot are probably coineys and tekkies - goodness knows what they are seeking here. Interestingly also a number of legal firms (should I be worrying about that?). Others try to hide their identity. Many people just read the top post or two, others search deeper. I'd like to thank everyone for their interest, even if you don't agree with some or any of what I say or the way I say it.

UPDATE: See also David Gill's post on Looting Matters: "RSS Subscriptions and Cultural Property Blogs". The coineys do not seem to do too well in that either. Good. David says "I have combined the latest figures (red) with those for July (blue) to give some idea of how subscriptions have changed", note which ones are growing, and which ones have been static over that period. It's the archaeology ones rather than the coiney naysayers which continue to attract attention. Although this is a small sample of one aspect of the discussion, I interpret this as suggesting that the cultural property naysayers seem to be in the minority and losing ground, that is becoming more and more isolated from public opinion. Maybe the politicians who support no-questions-asked collecting as a vote-catcher might like to look at this and reconsider whether they are in fact backing the right horse.

Vignette: Spreading the word about what the collectors and dealers don't want talked about.