Thursday, 5 November 2020

PAS "discovered by" or "Hunted for"? The UK and the Valetta Convention.

 The PAS was set up to in some way satisfy Article 2 of the Valetta Convention... "the mandatory reporting to the competent authorities by a finder of the chance discovery of elements of the archaeological heritage and making them available for examination". In practice, the organisation acts against the whole Valetta Convention . In particular articles 9 and 10 (Promotion of public awareness and Prevention of the illicit circulation of elements of the archaeological heritage):

 Article 9 Each Party undertakes: to conduct educational actions with a view to rousing and developing an awareness in public opinion of the value of the archaeological heritage for understanding the past and of the threats to this heritage [...]
Article 10 Each Party undertakes: [...] to restrict, as far as possible, by education, information, vigilance and co-operation, the transfer of elements of the archaeological heritage obtained from uncontrolled finds or illicit excavations [...] 
The UK pays only the most cursory lip service to these principles, and on the PAS website we see that there is even an expensive government-funded body that is going precisely in the opposite direction. 



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