Thailand Still Thinking About Ratification of 1970 UNESCO Convention

Marisa Chimprabha, 'Thailand closer to ratifying UN convention on trafficking in cultural property' Thai PBS 20 Nov 2024.

Thailand has completed drafting legislation to prevent illicit activities involving cultural property, though the document has yet to pass cabinet and parliamentary scrutiny. Thailand, historically rich in cultural sites and artefacts, is one of six ASEAN countries which are yet to ratify the 1970 UN Convention. Only Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam have ratified it so far. Thailand is a major source of looted artefacts, as a source country as well as a major transshipment country (in particular to the USA) for looted artefacts from across the Middle East and beyond. It is also a source of an increasing number of fake artefacts purporting to be from these regions.

Coin Fondling "Independents": Two examples

Medal of Yavin (from Mint in box).

Ancient coin fondlers and other collectors like to imagine that by accumulating numbers of ancient artefacts ripped from their context and divorced from their findspots by documentation-discarding-dealers and middlemen  they are somehow participating in scholarship. When asked for any kind of textbook setting out a modern methodology of 'heap-of-loose-coins-on-a-table-numismatics' the proponents of this model fall into an embarrassed silence, before erupting in the typically dismissively aggressive response one would expect from this chip-on-the-shoulder milieu when asked for the specifics.

John Hooker (as he reminds us, 'FSA') decides to show us this brand of numismatics in action on the basis of the coins of Tarentum, and warns:

The complexities of mythology cannot be exaggerated, but whenever we have to add political and monetary history to this picture as is quite common in numismatics, it is no small wonder that the subject of numismatics can only be presented, academically, in an introductory fashion. No single work presents a complete picture of this coin, and the issues (including those of other cities) to which it is related. 

He then goes into a show-and-tell of a loose coin in a mode well illustrated here:

The medal of valor was engraved in [sic] a stylized flower that resembled an emblem used by the Galactic Republic of old. At its heart was a stylized a rising sun that symbolized the dawn of a new hope in the wake of the Alliance's victory over the Galactic Empire. [....] This medal was first seen being presented to Luke Skywalker and Han Solo by Leia Organa in Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. Chewbacca's not being awarded a medal in the film was a source of discontent for many Star Wars fans. While a number of stories now considered part of Star Wars Legends, such as The Day after the Death Star!, confirmed that Chewbacca did receive a medal, Smuggler's Run: A Han Solo  and Chewbacca Adventure is the first canon tale to confirm this.

The reverse is fairly plain, with an inscription helping to understand what it is and where it is from, like most of the coins "studied" by coin fondlers:

Carefully recreated from original archival materials and fully authorized and endorsed by Lucasfilm Ltd. Constructed from solid die-cast metal plated with 18-karat gold with a rich matte finish. Suspended from an olive-green ceremonial ribbon like the ones used for military medals of honor. [...] Certificate of Authenticity.

Mr Hooker FSA will no doubt be able to explain the 'difference' between this show-and-tell and his show-and-tell about Apollo Hyakinthios based on Robert Graves' mythology book ("avoid abridgements") and the dolphin riders of Taras with its "looks like" comparanda.

We see, also, that the story of Arion is also conflated with Phalanthos/Taras but I think that mythological "drift" rather than syncretism is the most likely reason. I have also seen the dolphin rider on the Gundestrup cauldron described as Arion, but his identity as Taras is certain. A lot of the confusion about the Gundestrup cauldron is due to a lack of mythological/iconographic knowledge (especially of the Greek). 

More "special knowledge" claimed by the collectors, and the alleged ignorance of everybody else. The rest of us see a picture of somebody riding a big fish which is probably not intended as a dolphin, and that is as far as you can go without unbridled speculation and guesswork.


Mr Hooker FSA makes reference to "John Francisco (an independent scholar and numismatist)" but documents no addresses or personal data "to place his writings in context" as both Mr Hooker FSA and an ANA/ACCG dealer apparently deem is totally necessary behaviour in numismatic circles. We do not hear what it is he is "independent" of, unless it is the necessity of supporting any his 'scholarly' statements with references unless to a single general coin handbook and a Loeb translation of Pausanius. He is also cited as an example of numismatists "taking into consideration the many weight standards under which Greek coins were struck and the connected political/historical implications". What we find under the link he supplies is mostly in this sort of vein:

Okay, good. Let's see if I can come up with something ;) First of all, am I sure that we have all the types of spread fabric staters amongst the five? Emotionally, I am sure, but logically we cannot be sure. We have enough mints that are represented by only one, two or three coins that we should not have total confidence that we have it all. However, with that caveat, I have got a set of theories that I am following until I am either satisfied with them, or until they (individually or collectively) explode!! And you all get to watch! :)  [...]  together they make up a really nice set in the Pythagorean cosmogony given in Hippolytus. Animal (Sybaris' bull), Vegetable (Metapontum's barley ear), Metal (we would say mineral, Kroton's bronze tripod). The force of strife or war, (antipathy, Poseidonia's Poseidon wielding a trident) and the opposite force of peace or love (sympathy, Kaulonia's Apollo purifying himself at the valley of Tempe). Animal, vegetable, mineral, war and peace  [...]  I think that the Pythagoreans had a plan concerning what types for coins they wanted, but I don't think that that plan survived unscathed and was implemented completely. Laos may be an abberation, it may mess the whole Pythagorean "message" up, but it couldn't do that if it wasn't incuse. It is like a little guy giving the great Pythagorean system, the finger. "Yes, there are great gods, but there are little gods too and we're going to support the little guy." 

and here we see the coiney doing the equivalent with his mumbo-jumbo surmises.  You can make your mind up whether the form or content consist of any form of scholareship known this side of the planet Tatouinne.

I think that, should coineys insist on employing their specious argument that regulating the no-questions-asked market which masks the flow of freshly-surfaced illicit antiquities would in some way hinder their own brand of 'independent coin-in-hand scholarship', it first behoves them to show that  'heap-of-loose-coins-on-a-table-numismatics'actually merits the use of the term scholaship. A discipline has - by definition a body of methodology that separates it from uncontrolled inventive imagination and speculation. Let us see a modern textbook (preferably textbooks) setting out the basis for considering fondling of loose coins (isolated from their contexts of deposition and discovery) any kind of an academic discipline, independent or not (cue: more personal attacks on the questioner, but no proper reply).


 

Bangkok Corruption Case

Some of the seized items on display

There is some kind of a palace purge in progress in Thailand. The monarch (King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 86)  is a potent symbol of national unity in a country that has been deeply divided politically for the past decade. There was a military coup there in May and the military leaders have vowed to reform the police, widely seen as one of the country's most corrupt institutions. Police Lieutenant General Pongpat Chayaphan, a former commissioner of the Central Investigation Bureau has royal connections (he is related to Princess Srirasm, the wife of Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn and the mother of Prince Dipangkorn Rasmijoti, the presumed heir to the throne after his ailing father). He was sidelined through a transfer to an inactive post earlier this month. He, together with another six police officers, have now been arrested on charges ranging from insulting the monarchy to money laundering, Pongpat has been accused of running illegal casinos, oil smuggling, money laundering and other crimes. He and his deputy, Police Major General Kowit Wongrungroj and Royal Thai Marine Police chief Boonsueb Praithuen are also accused of using the monarchy for personal benefit . Lt-General Pongpat Chayaphan appears to have been a keen collector of ancient sculptures among other things.

Police said a search of their homes revealed assets worth a total of more than a billion baht ($30.52 million). Police showed slides of goods they said were found at eleven safe houses in the capital Bangkok and around the country. One slide showed a large collection of what appear to be antique Buddhist statues and stacks of Thai currency on the floor. Other photographs showed rows of luxury cars parked in a garage, cases of gold jewelry, ivory tusks and paintings. More officers may have been involved in the range of offences under investigation, national police chief Somyot told a news conference. Those offences included bribery and extortion, he added.

Private collectors were forbidden from owning many of the items, violators face a maximum five-year prison term and/or a maximum fine of Bt500,000  (1 Thai Baht equals 0.030 US Dollar). It seems that "many of the statues and images were possibly brought to Thailand from a neighbouring country", rather than having been taken from existing Thai collections. The verification and authentication process of the approximately 20,000 items was expected to take about two months. Police and soldiers also raided an antique shop off Chaeng Wattana Road in northern Bangkok and seized a number of items suspected of being bought from Pongpat.
Another racket he seems to have been involved in was "dealing in protected species, part of the loot being rare animal hides and wood from endangered trees", reportedly 60 lorry loads of that.

The items seized from Pongpat were later announced to have  included ten Khmer pieces, and thirty antique Buddhas.Then it appeared that on closer examination by authentication experts that half of the art seized from Pongpat's collection turned out to be fakes:

The Fine Arts Department [...] chief Borvornvate Rungrujee was speaking to the media a day after fine art experts began examining the seized items to authenticate them. "At a glance, about half of all seized objects might be fake," he said. Mr Borvornvate said, however, 13 Khmer-style carved sandstone antiques found in Pol Lt Gen Pongpat's possession do not belong to Thailand, but are believed to have originated in Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos. He said the antiques were among 80 large-sized objects authenticated so far by fine art experts. He said the value  of the authenticated items stood at more than 50 million baht. "The 13 Khmer-style carved sandstone objects are mainly works of art from the early Buddhist era. "They should have. been kept at religious places or Khmer temples, and should not be owned by an individual. "These antiquities might have been brought into the country from Cambodia, Myanmar or Laos," Mr Borvornvate said.

The objects that appear to have come from other countries will be repatriated, but items that belong to Thailand will probably be put on display at the National Museum once the case is over.

The 50 items, dating back to Khmer, Lao, Burmese, Ayutthaya and Rattanakosin kingdoms, will be returned to their sites of origin, while an investigation is underway to find out how the former Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) chief acquired them. "These items cannot be possessed or owned without proof of import," Borwornwej said. Of the items, 13 come under the department's Category 1, comprised of deities and Buddha images built in Khmer style; while the remaining 37 come under Category 2, or Buddha images or Hindu deities built in different kingdoms at different times, he said. The artefacts are made from sandstone, wood or metal depending on where and when they were built. Another 100 items have been inspected and found to be imitations, though there are still more than 10,000 items awaiting identification and authentication, Bowornwej said. He estimated that the 50 items proved to be authentic, so far, should be worth about Bt50 million in total.

The photographs of all seized items will soon be posted on the department's website, www.finearts.go.th, for the public to view.

Part of Pongpat collection

US to Maintain Temporary Vigilance on Cambodian Antiquities

 

Just two countries in the region...

 The Federal Register has announced an extension of current import restrictions on Cambodian cultural goods for yet another five years.  Antiquities and ethnographic items imported to the US from neighbouring Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Indonesia,  Borneo, Bali, Sulawesi, Sumatra, Vietnam, Laos, Papua New Guinea, Timor and Java are not similarly protected, leaving US-bound artefact smugglers ample room for manoeuvre.

Stolen works still a Concern for Ethical Buyers

With a flood of newly looted antiquities appearing in the market place from conflict zones in Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq and Syria, as well as antiquities stolen from places such as Cambodia, India, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal and Vietnam, those seeking to purchase "untainted" cultural objects face a formidable task. It is to be hoped that our leading public institutions, such as the NGA, will in the future set a much higher benchmark than they appear to have done in the past when evaluating the legitimacy of objects being brought into their collections.

Duncan Chappell, 'Stolen works still a concern for galleries' The Australian August 27, 2013

South Californian Museum Raids: Aftermath

 "I'm baffled," said Stephen Urice, a professor at the University of Miami law school who has written
 critically of the raids. "Given the amount of illicit
antiquities moving through the U.S. borders, these
guys are really hacks. Surely there must be
more significant people out there."

Back in January 2008, four Southern California museums (the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena, the Mingei Museum in San Diego and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art) were raided by US federal authorities.

Acting on evidence gathered during a five-year undercover probe, investigators seized more than 10,000 artifacts at the museums and more than half a dozen other locations in California and Illinois. The objects had allegedly been illegally excavated from sites across Southeast Asia [...]  according to search warrant affidavits. 

Jason Felch ('Stolen-artifacts case has cost much, yielded little, critics say', Los Angeles Times May 18, 2013) has written an article about the situation five years on. The case has languished in the U.S. attorney's office, and the money spent on the initial investigations and setting up the raids, has been squandered. Several people allegedly involved in the case, Bowers curator Armand Labbé, antiquities dealer Joel Malter and pottery expert Roxanna Brown, died during the 11-year investigation (the latter, shockingly, while in Federal custody). Even now, no museum officials or collectors have been indicted and the case against them and the alleged smugglers remains in limbo. There has been one development though:

Days before the statute of limitations on criminal charges was about to expire in January, a federal grand jury indicted two men in the case. Robert Olson, an 84-year-old Van Nuys man, and Marc Pettibone, a 62-year-old American living in Thailand, are both accused of one count of conspiracy and one of trafficking in stolen goods. If convicted, they could each face up to five years in prison. Two peripheral players in the alleged scheme pleaded guilty to similar charges last year.

Olson was arraigned in April and pleaded not guilty, Pettibone remains in Thailand and is not expected to face extradition. The criminal case against Olson and Pettibone is set to go to trial in June. Olsen was a dealer in antiquities which he would sell to clients. In Olsen's warehouse, investigators found many artefacts including those coming from tomb-robbing, most tellingly "ancient bronze bracelets still attached to human arm bones". According to federal authorities, between 2004 and 2008, Olsen several times "offered an undercover agent with the National Park Service illegally imported ancient swords, jewelry, bells and ceramic vessels ranging in value from $800 to $20,000". Olsen was unrepentant about his activities: 

In a 2008 interview with The Times, Olson said he had been dealing in recently excavated Thai antiquities since the 1970s, at times receiving three or four shipping containers a year. He said he knew exporting the objects was against Thai law but he thought it was legal to sell them once they were in the United States. "The people I got it from weren't doing the digging, they were buying from the diggers," he said. 

[Oh, so that makes it OK, does it?]. It is alleged that Pettibone was the source of at least some of the objects traded by Olsen. The indictment alleges that in 2006, Olson told an undercover agent with the National Park Service investigating the case that  he had purchased $300,000 worth of items from Pettibone over the last eight years:

According to the indictment, Pettibone traveled across Thailand and Cambodia buying objects from local looters. Many of the objects came from Ban Chiang, a UNESCO world heritage site in northern Thailand, just south of the border with Laos [...] one of the most important archaeological sites in the region. Pettibone would offer the looted objects to Olson by sending photos of them by email, the indictment alleges. Once Olson had agreed to buy something, Pettibone allegedly bribed Thai customs officers to look the other way and at times labeled the objects with "Made in Thailand" stickers to make them look like modern handicrafts. Olson received the shipments and took them to storage areas in Anaheim and Cerritos before selling them to customers in the United States and elsewhere.

The main interest of the US authorities in this case was always (pace Tompa) that some of his customers were taking their purchases to appraisers who were assigning them an inflated value, and with that in hand they then went along to one of these museums and donated the object. By US law, such donations entitle them to a healthy tax kick-back, dependent on the value. By getting inflated valuations, the handling of stolen and smuggled artefacts became quite profitable for these "investors". The affidavits allege that some museum officials knew about the source of the donations and accepted them anyway. Reportedly the directors and curators of several of the museums investigated had all visited Olson's warehouse.

It is also alleged that Olson may have sold on some of the items in his stock to other dealers, such as  Los Angeles art dealer Cari Markell (whose clients also donated many of the objects to local museums). Another client is alleged to have been Barry MacLean (a wealthy Chicago collector and trustee of the Art Institute). "MacLean's storage unit and personal museum and the Markells' house and gallery were among the sites raided in 2008, but none of these people has been charged with a crime". This however might serve as a warning to other collectors, that the items in their collection may be subject to scrutiny should one of the dealers they have been patronising come under investigation.

UNESCO “Common Heritage of Cambodia, Laos and Viet Nam”

The opening of a new exhibition “Our Common Heritage: Exploring the World Heritage Sites in Cambodia, Laos and Viet Nam” took place at the National Museum, Phnom Penh on 19th February 2013. This exhibition is the fruition of efforts made under the UNESCO-Japan Fund in Trust project, “Revitalizing World Heritage Site Museums in Cambodia, Laos and Viet Nam”.

The exhibition is composed of four groups of panels – The first introduces the concept of the World Heritage Convention, its history and the location of the participating World Heritage sites and museums, as well as the Outstanding Universal Values of these sites; the second and third panels will showcase the commonly developed themes such as “Nature and Myth” and “Trade and Exchange.” The last group shows a theme specially created by the national museum itself – Khmer Ornament. The aim of this exhibition is to provide visitors with new narratives by shedding light on the historical interconnection between various World Heritage sites and related populations of sub-region. 

It is a shame though that it reportedly does this only through the medium of highlighting - as if that were at all necessary - the sites embodying "Outstanding Universal Values" rather than the more numerous ordinary archaeological sites of these regions and what they can tell us about society as a whole, not just the elite that built the palace and temple complexes of the colonial architecture. This is a problem which results from the UNESCO-approach to the heritage which plays down the importance of archaeology by emphasising the more visible built heritage, portable antiquities and written documents as identity-building elements.  Dumbed-down disneylandism over scholarship.

Cambodia two WHL  sites (Angkor, Temple of Preah Vihear - Koh Ker on "tentative list"),

Lao People's Democratic Republic, two WHL sites  (architecture in colonial Town of Luang Prabang, 'Champasak Cultural Landscape ',

 Vietnam, WHL sites (Imperial Citadel of Thang Long - Hanoi, Citadel of the Ho Dynasty, Complex of Hué Monuments, Hoi An Ancient Town, My Son Sanctuary)

Vignette: Wikipedia.

Where is the Stolen Buddha Heritage of Laos Ending up?

Luang Prabang is an ancient city on the Mekong River about 425 kilometres north of Vientiane, in north-central Laos. It was the capital city of Lan Xang kingdom, which was established in the 14th century, and is now a World Heritage Site. Students of Minobusan University in Minobucho, Japan are helping restore the Buddhist statues of this site. These are wooden Theravada Buddhism statues made in the 14th century or later, and are of high historical value. Originally the number requiring work was not precisely known, so in 2001 they began a survey of the statues and in 2007 reported to the Laotian government that the study had confirmed the presence of 1174 statues. In the past few years more than a tenth of them have since been stolen presumably by illegal artefact hunters for collection or for sale to collectors both inside the country and abroad. A survey conducted in 2009 revealed that 100 statues were missing from 35 temples. In 2010, another 20 statues were found to be missing. While monks at the temples have begun keeping guard over the statues by sleeping at the temples, Minobusan University students have distributed brochures at the Luang Prabang National Museum to sound the alarm over the property loss and to call for increased security in the city.

This problem is not restricted to a single region. According to figures from teh ao Ministry of Culture and Information, between September 2008 and February 2010, more than 200 Buddha statues were stolen from temples in the southern Lao province of Savannakhet.

Social changes in the country - one of the poorest in Asia - are leading to the breakdown of old attitudes and an increasing awareness of the financial rewards available for looting such items. There had not previously been a tradition in Laos of having anybody be able to deal in Buddhist art. The attraction of money from the art market in Thailand, often a staging point for artifacts on their way to collectors in the West, is strong enough to attract would-be thieves regardless of concerns about desecrating religious sites.

Mark Pratt, a retired U.S. diplomat who served in Laos during the 1960s and 70s, said foreigners could be creating demand for the artifacts. “Foreigners … in Laos would certainly be susceptible if someone [selling artifacts] came around and banged on their door,” Pratt said. “Most likely these are persons working on behalf of people outside who can get the stuff [sold] on elsewhere in the world”. [...] The trade in Buddhist artifacts thrives in the markets of Southeast Asia—from Bangkok’s River City district to the high-end boutiques of Hong Kong and Singapore—making the theft of such items extremely lucrative.

Justin McDaniel, a professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of California-Riverside is quoted as saying:

“The problem is not what they’re selling. The problem is what people are buying. There generally needs to be a broader education about this issue,[...] If you see a beautiful image in an antique store, no matter what they tell you, there is a very good chance that it was stolen ”.

Sources:

Joshua Lipes Buddha images stolen in Laos AFP March 10, 2010
Norimasa Tahara Thieves loot Lao city's Buddha statue heritage Sydney Morning Herald, March 13th 2010 (Heads-up From Museum Security Network)

LUANG PRABANG, Laos: Lao monk displays a wooden carving of a Buddha.
.

"Credible Market-value Rewards and Outreach"

There has been very little discussion in British archaeological circles of the latest PAS conference (though, tellingly, there was some on the detecting forums). Rick Witschonke, longtime friend and behind-your-back-informant of the PAS was however at their conference and via Peter Tompa has produced a "report" which concludes (quelle surprise):

Clearly, if the proper recording of finds is the objective, those systems which most closely follow the TA/PAS approach of credible market-value rewards and outreach are the most successful.

Well, first of all of course one is bound to ask whether conservation of a finite resource is only about "recording of finds", or whether there is a bit more to it than that. Would that not be like making sure we have digital records of all the illuminated initials of the manus cripts in a library while we let the roof leak and allow mice to make nests out of the books themselves?

Witschonke notes that "the UK metal-detecting establishment was well represented and quite supportive. The anti-detecting/collecting lobby did not seem to be present". It is quite unremarkable that the tekkies filled the conference room, PAS conferences are their traditional get-together venue, what is interesting is that the American thinks there would be an "anti-detecting/collecting lobby" in the UK and they would be there in their "I hate tekkies" scarves throwing bottles at the metal detectorists seated in the front rows. Would Mr Witschonke recognise an opponent of current UK policies of metal detecting by the colour of their skin or what? What I assume he means is nobody spoke about the problems involved in British policies. Perhaps they simply felt, given the venue, there was no point. Or perhaps they couldn't be bothered to come to a conference where it was clear from the outset what would be said by whom. We've heard it all so many times before.

Anyway Roger Bland's talk was supposed to be: The English and Welsh approach to portable antiquities: a perfect system or fundamentally flawed? Was it? I do not get the impression from Witschonke's account that he was listening when Bland delivered the bit about the "flaws" of his PAS. His presentation of the Scottish system is somewhat superficial, presumably he was not familiar with the copious literature the TTU has produced which the UK audience would have been more familiar with. I was however struck by his account of "the Northern Ireland (sic) approach". In particular in that I have myself had enormous problems getting any information out of those people who have ignored every single polite letter I have sent them asking for statistics on metal detecting there. It seems I am not the only one (below).

Cormac Bourke (Ulster Museum) explained [....] There is no state ownership of finds, but, by law, all excavators must be licensed, all finds reported, and metal detecting is illegal. Not surprisingly, illegal metal-detecting is prevalent, and only c. 2 finds per year are reported.

Now leaving aside how one defines "state ownership of finds", just compare that with what the multi-kilo-quid national "Nighthawking Report" said about illegal metal detecting in Northern Irelend. That there is none. None. Yet here we have a guy from Ulster Museum saying quite the opposite. Those of us who say that the Nighthawking Report is not worth the paper it is not printed on (and I am one of them) could I think find no more telling indictment of the conclusions.

Moving on, Witschonke is sceptical of Eamonn Kelly's claims that the Republic of Ireland does not have a significant problem with artefact hunting and collecting by observing "the presence of Irish material on eBay calls this into question". I am not quite sure how he can recognise "Irish materal" and whether it is from Northern Ireland or not, but that is by-the-by. Remarks like this interspersed in the text suggest that Mr Wirtschonke came to London determined to hear what he wanted to hear.
Proof of this is in his conclusion. Northern Ireland and Scotland both have "credible market value rewards" - a fact he omits to mention in his account. They do not have a PAS, because the legislation does not require one. They have museums which do archaeological outreach (and much PAS "outreach is done precisely through museums). What they do not have to the same degree as England and Wales are metal detecting clubs and commercial metal detecting rallies. I'd like those who keep plugging compromise with exploitive collectors as per the PAS as the way forward for all other countries to reflect on what this means for the PAS. Sadly you will not get it from PAS statistics just how important rallies and club meetings are for the "number of items recorded", but it clearly is significant. I'd like to ask Mr Witschonke, should archaeological outreach in states such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Laos, Utah set up commercial artefact hunting rallies to "get more finds recorded"? Should we set up "artefact digging clubs" in these countries so people can go along to them and record what people have dug up? We'll get lots more "finds recorded" sure, but then as i asked at the beginning, is that what we are aiming for in our dealing with the exploitation of archaeological sites as a source of collectables?

Our reporter seems to have tired of noting the details in the further parts of his account. I noted though he states, without comment, that in the Netherlands there is no PAS but "there are 5,000 metal-detectorists and 100,000 finds/year", but a lot is not reported and the institution of "outreach" is planned. In Britain, there are ten thousand metal detectorists (so twice the number in the Netherlands), and considerably fewer finds a year are reported. The statistics have only now after eleven years reached 400 000 objects in total.

Poland, I would dispute much of what is reported of what Alek Bursche said, but suspect it's misreported. I'll talk about Poland another time when the material of the conference is published (Mr Witschonke, the co-speaker's name was Rudnicki ['-ski, not -ikky]).

So, all in all, no surprises there. I bet Mr Witschonke was not the only person to leave the conference venue apparently believing firmly that the PAS is the way forward for all countries so that collectorsan continue to enjoy their "rights" to fresh dugups and archaeologists, well, they can have "more finds recorded". Diggers get financial rewards for digging into archaeological sites and finding things. Everybody's happy, yes?

Mr Witschonke, Mr Tompa, if you believe that, get the Arhaeological resources Protection Act and similar legislation abolished, and get a PAS instituted in America as quickly as possible. Starting in Utah, there are lots of finds being dug out of the ground there by members of the public which US archaelogists are "not recording" before they are sold off. Why do the coineys join up with the pot-diggers and send a lobby group along to the AIA to suggest it?