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http://www.archaeological.org/news/nad/10775?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
and http://www.archaeological.org/events/10009
Photo: AIA Finds tent in Texas
hat-tip to Heritage Action, thanks
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A blog commenting on various aspects of the private collecting and trade in archaeological artefacts today and their effect on the archaeological record.
METAL detector enthusiasts armed with spades have been targeting a historic North-East site hunting for hidden treasures under the cover of darkness. Almost 25 holes have been found in the grounds of the Roman fort of Longovicium, near Lanchester, County Durham, The land owner, Nick Greenwell, said damage to the site had been carried out in the last two weeks. He said: “It is people using metal detectors coming in at night. “It is an historic site and whatever that has been taken could be of great value.”
He said: “By informing people what heritage sites are in their community we have got a chance of protecting those sites and if offences do happen we have got a better chance of catching those offenders."Got a chance"? Because otherwise there is no chance? So, English Heritage are telling the local police what has been happening under their noses. Why are the police not informing EH that they have thwarted an attempt to illegally hunt artefacts on a site in their 'patch'? If Britain cannot police the few sites which are protected by law, what hope for other states like Iraq, Bulgaria or Utah where such sites are in remote areas? The British seem to want to rely on curtain-twitching locals spying on artefact hunters, but then how is a concerned member of public to know (and from a distance too) what the difference is between a "responsible" metal detectorist in Farmer Scraggs' field, and a dayhawking thief in Farmer Brown's lower ten acres? When is Britain going to get its act together over large-scale unregulated and erosive artefact hunting?
On a recent paid - for dig, £10 per head via a digging club, one member found a sestertius The father of the farmer turned up saw it and said I would like that and took it from the bemused finder. was it not for the paid for aspect obviously it would be for the landowner to decide but I believe the limit before anything is split is if its treasure or worth over £2000 with that club's agreement.Responses so far have been pretty unanimous:
- He took my money, I keep what I find on his landLet us note that the name of the hobby metal detecting is a misnomer, suggesting the fun is in the finding - when in fact this example shows very well that for every one of those commenting, finding is not the lure, it is getting to keep what is "detected" that is the real aim. This is not "metal detecting" but "artefact hunting" and is a form of antiquity collection. The farmer presumably thought that metal "detecting" is exactly what the name implies - but it is a name deliberately employed to mislead.
- Seems like there was no written agreement which was down to the organiser
- No written agreement (Regardless of what verbal may have been agreed) all finds belong to the landowner. Answer= Always use a written agreement (After the fiasco of the lantern I always do)
- On mine that I organise it is always the finder unless treasure under the Treasure Act.
- Did he get his tenner back ? Sounds like a funny old carry on if you ask me
- i bet hes gutted, makes you wonder how many will just be sliding stuff in their pockets and keeping their mouth shut from now on?.......sad carry on
Today we are asking for continued prayer for Candi and Marc and a new prayer request. Please guard your hearts and minds and be careful what you say in reference to what you may read or hear about her situation.[...] Please remember this when gossip starts flowing and whispers are spoken. All we ask is that you pray that Candi is represented fairly and that God is honored through this trial. God Bless!
Now that its over, what exactly happened
Mary Pankey: "Only our Heavenly Father, who loves us regardless, could have worked this MIRACLE, in HIS timing......... PRAISING GOD... and Giving Thanks to HIM for your release........."
But she gets brushed-off with the stock phrases:
well, whether one "has a clue" or not, breaking the law is, surely breaking the law, no? Jane, however reads newspapers:
Jane Lazevski: "If you say so. Though I don't know how you can mistake [ ] about 260 antique coins for buttons".She later adds the information:
Angela, she was found guilty for trying to smuggle 260 coins, some dated II centuries BC and given 5 years probation as well as a 10 year ban to enter Macedonia. The other option was for her to spend 2 years in prison in Macedonia. The judge decided to let her go because she has a family and children that live outside the country. I'm not trying to antagonize her, she might have made an honest mistake but you have to be extremely naive to do that, if you ask me. My opinion, of course...Another Facebooker too sees a hole in the page's offered explanations:
Angela Hester: "Tilley I realize she is lucky to be out of jail there. but no one has said exactly what the verdict was and how much stuff she had on her worth How much.? Grapevine has it at thousands of dollars worth of rare antiquities. How could you not know there was something wrong with taking that from the people. I thought she had been on a mission before. Just asking.??"But that question will not be answered, not in that milieu:
Reid Garrett: "This is all just a HUGE misunderstanding no matter how you look at it. The fact of the matter is that Candi is FREE and our prayers have been answered!".Mr Garrett seems unwilling or unable to actually justify the interpretation of this as merely a "misunderstanding" instigated by foreign Agents of Satan fought off by effective American prayer (and President Obama's State Department). Suzy Faulkner also is not interested in discussing what happened:
"Lets focus on the most important thing that she is finally with her husband and going home to her family. Thank you Jesus".Jesus sat with tax inspectors, so today perhaps he'd sit with the artefact smugglers? Linda Burcham Chancellor warns:
Again, unless you were there and know all the facts, do not judge. Some things that could be worthless may be made into something valuable in a corrupt situation [...].Worthless for whom Linda, and by whose system of values? I really wonder why when the Macedonians were merely enforcing the law it is called corrupt" by the Meridians. Is it not a fact that in court Mr Dunlap admitted the coins were indeed in her bag as she tried to leave Macedonia? What is "corrupt" about a country trying to protect the cultural heritage from being smuggled onto foreign markets? Just because the USA makes virtually no effort at all to do this (largely because it has no cultural heritage of its own that is not mass-produced) does not mean to say that any other nation that attempts this is necessarily "corrupt". I would rather say that the corruption lies with US dealers, museums and collectors who turn a blind eye to the fact that goods they handle have no documentation of licit and legal export - or worse (SLAM). Though I do not expect Americans expressing xenophobic ideas like Facebook's Linda Burcham Chancellor would be too bothered about any of that.
organized for the purpose of conducting research on topics of interest to the numismatic community and offering educational and research opportunities to members of that community through in-house seminars, study groups, and guided research projects. The concept offers a range of activities heretofore unavailable to independent scholars and collectors of ancient coins.They are organizing seminars with groups of six to eight participants "working as a team in an interactive environment led by an experienced professional numismatist", in Gainesville, Miss, which just coincidentally happens to be where Wayne Sayles lives. This Institute is housed in an historic building at the corner of Harlin Dr and 4th street, just two blocks away from ACCG headquarters in Elm Street. This was "a former WPA Community Center built in 1935", so built quite early on in the 'Works Progress Administration' activities [WPA was a Depression era job-creation scheme operating 1935-1943]. It was promised that additional details of the seminars would be posted on the website as the Institute is developed. Mind you, it was set up over a year ago, so they are slow getting it off the ground. Nothing is said about the publication of the results of the coiney research, does the ANRI have a publication series planned? What about the origins of the material in its teaching collection, has it published its acquisition policy? I am not sure about housing ancient metal objects (or library materials) in a building without a damp course and such a high ground level on the west side.
CoinProject.com is the first truly collaborative, non-commercial educational website that uses numismatics (study of coins) as an aid in the study of history and historic events spanning the period of time during which coinage has been produced (just under three thousand years).and he wants money for it. He also intends to register it as a "not-for-profit 501(c3) corporation". The number of supporters this site has should give food for thought.
Bulgaria hosts some of the most unique and vulnerable cultural resources in Europe. In addition to the numerous Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Bronze Age settlement mounds, there are significant remains of Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine urban centers. Perhaps most notable among Bulgarian antiquities are the remains of the Thracians, a powerful warrior kingdom conquered only by Alexander the Great and the Roman Empire. The best known Thracian remains in Bulgaria are tombs and burial mounds which contain stunning gold and silver work.All this is of course hotly desired by collectors all over the world.
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Ruins at Archar |
Ancient sites were protected during communist times by a strong fear of the omnipresent police and harsh punishments for any law-breaking activity. Since the collapse of the totalitarian system, many have taken up looting to earn a living. Organized by local mafia, looting squads that have mushroomed all over the country are well equipped with metal detectors, bulldozers, tractors and even decommissioned army vehicles. [...] In early October, some 5,000 Roman items were handed over to the National History Museum in Sofia. They were seized at a border crossing with Serbia, just few miles (kilometers) west of Ratiaria. [...] Coins and other treasures found by looters are sold to people who smuggle them abroad. Roman items from Ratiaria can be found in auction houses and antiquity collections around the world [...] Experts say they have no way to gauge the extent of the pillaging. "There are hundreds of tombstones and statues in local museums, but what we don't know exactly is how many more such relics were smuggled out of the country and are now in Italy, Munich or Vienna," said Rumen Ivanov, Roman History professor at the National Institute of Archaeology. .Certainly in a region which is one of the poorest in the European Union there is a huge temptation for local inhabitants to dig at the site to see what can be found. This however can only be a viable manner of raising money when there is somebody willing to buy the proceeds of this illegal activity. Archaeologist Krasmira Luka, who directs current excavations here is well aware of hgow the procedure goes. She told the story:
...of three men from the nearby village or Archar, who had found a golden coin and sold it to smugglers for 1,500 euro, which equals the amount of four monthly average salaries in Bulgaria. "Months later the same coin was sold in Germany at a price many times higher," Luka said. "But it is not only the looters with the shovels who are responsible," Luka said, "there are a lot of people up the chain, and they enjoy the highest protection."In other words, not the looters but the dealers and collectors who buy from them. It is well worth taking note of just with whom it is that the middlemen and dealers who handle this material are themselves doing business. Again Krasmira Luka has been looking into what has been happening on her doorstep:
Over the last two decades, she said, organized crime groups have constantly bribed police officers, prosecutors and local officials who have sheltered their illegal activities. Those who usually get caught and sentenced, however, are from the lowest level of the well-organized scheme. With more than 50 percent of the 2,700 inhabitants of Archar jobless, Mayor Emil Georgiev seems unable to stop the daily attacks of looters seeking the treasure that is supposed to change their life. "Usually they work late at night or at weekends or holidays," the mayor said, adding that some 20 villagers have been convicted over the last year and ordered to serve different terms of probation by performing community service.Recently the local government received government funds that providing jobs for eight people to work as guards at the archaeological site, but this is clearly an inadequate number to protect such a large area.
Police reports indicate that every day up to 50,000 people are engaged in treasure hunting raids across Bulgaria, a country of 7.3 million. According to Angel Papalezov, a senior police officer, hundreds of thousands of artifacts are smuggled out of the country every year, with dealers hauling in up to $40 million.Dealers and collectors are willing customers of this destructive commerce. 50 000 in a population of (recte) 7,037,935 is one in 141 people. So how many productive archaeological sites would there have to be (have had to have been) in Bulgaria to sustain such a level of activity?
"by rough estimates, some 3,500 people are actively engaged in treasure-hunting in this country..."
officials emphasized the healthy partnership between the two countries, at least when it comes to hunting down and returning stolen art. Homeland Security Investigations Assistant Director Janice Ayala touted the “teamwork and cooperation” between the countries, while Mexican Consul General Jacob Prado thanked U.S. officials for returning items “which are a part of the cultural heritage and the historical memory of the people of Mexico.”Among the items on display in this show of international friendship were more than 4,000 pre-Columbian artifacts including: at least five pre-Columbian statues (one a Chinesco Nayarit figurine), 26 pre-Columbian pottery vessels, Pre-Columbian metates, manos, an Aztec-era whistle, copper hatchets etc. A U.S.-Mexico treaty of cooperation regarding the recovery and return of stolen archaeological, historical and cultural properties, which was negotiated by the U.S. Department of State and enacted in 1970, restricts the importation of pre-Columbian artifacts and colonial-era religious objects into the United States without proper export documents.
sheds important light on the way in which archaeological looting in poorer "source" countries is driven by the demand side in wealthy "market" countries -- and not just spontaneously, but in some cases intentionally as an organized business10) Most of the relics returned on Thursday resulted from a string of seizures in West Texas in 2009, following a tip about relics illegally entering the US at a border crossing in Presidio, Texas. As a result of the tip-off undercover agents were led to Fort Stockton, a Texas town about 230 miles south east of El Paso. Here they reportedly found a man who was in possession of a number of artefacts including 200 that it was alleged had been stolen in the Mexican border state of Coahuila.
Homeland Security special agent Dennis Ulrich said authorities executing a search warrant in Fort Stockton found the largest portion of the cache. And further investigation revealed that the two men who organised the artefacts' smuggling were involved in drug trafficking from Mexico to the US, he said. Mr Sanchez said some of the relics found in Fort Stockton were stolen from a private collection at the Cuatro Cienagas museum in the Mexican state of Coahuila. The items also include arrows, hunting bows and even extremely well conserved textile items such as sandals and pieces of baskets.
[...] Later in November 2009, Texas Department of Public Safety troopers assisting HSI special agents stopped the same individual in a vehicle for a traffic violation and observed artifacts in the vehicle that the driver admitted were undeclared when he entered the United States at the Presidio (Texas) Port of Entry. After HSI special agents seized the artifacts, they opened a second investigation associated with the seizure of more than 4,000 artifacts including arrowheads, bows, rabbit sticks, axes, spears, tomahawks, statuettes, sandals and beads, all relating to the same conspiracy.There is also mention of a raid in Mexico City, in coordination with Mexican law enforcement agencies.
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A clay statue was among some seized artifacts returned to Mexico (AP/The El Paso Times, Mark Lambie) |
... will come as no surprise to Mexican officials and others who follow the widespread illicit trade in Mexican cultural artifacts. Noah Charney, the founding director of the nonprofit Association for Research Into Crimes Against Art, or ARCA, noted last year that Mexico had reported more than 2 million art objects stolen between 1997 and 2010, according to figures from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology. Charney wrote that the yearly average of stolen items in Mexico surpasses the yearly average in Italy -- the country with the most stolen art reported each year in Europe -- by a factor of five. The comparison, he added, is probably somewhat flawed, since the Italian pieces tend to be more substantial works and Mexican antiquities “may include fragments or very low-value” items. But the problem is serious enough that the Mexican ambassador to France last year asked for UNESCO to consider strengthening its 1970 Convention on Protection of Cultural Property, which set international standards to help prevent the plunder of precious cultural items."Fragments or very low value items" or not, Charney is guilty of falling into the trap of object-centrism, it is not what was dug out of the holes and how much profit that can be made out of it that is of central importance to the question of the looting of sites (its the holes that are the problem not what comes out of them). In any case, over on Looting Matters today David Gill is talking precisely about "fragments" (of Classical pottery in the Met collections). That aside, Charney's point is that huge numbers of holes are being dug in Mexico's archaeological record to find and then hoik out lesser numbers of artefacts which enter the collectors market. Many collectors are glad to get their grubby hands on even "fragments" and those of them collecting-on-a-budget are very eager indeed to bulk out their collections with the lower-value items. They have no room in their dens for big objects, but a few pots, heads knocked off figures and framed bits of textile will create the desired effect.
These kinds of 'art on the table' news conferences are quite common. But [...] the underlying problems endemic to the antiquities trade itself are not treated or targeted [...] the more of these returns I see (and there are a lot of them) the more frustrating it becomes as well. Because these investigations target the objects. There is no mention of arrests, prosecutions or of much of anything which would produced sustained compliance on the part of the art trade.[...] The trade itself and art buyers need to step up at some point and correct a market which routinely accepts these looted and stolen objects. But that kind of sober reflection on these recoveries is not to be found in the statements of U.S. and Mexican officials.Of course not, they are not sound-bite feelgood moral boosters. When instead of generating superficial mollifying pap are US authorities going to get properly-tough with smugglers? When are the US public who pay for all this going to demand real results and that the authorities do their bit to clean up the dirtier side of US commerce rather than strutting around displaying artefacts and mouthing-off about how they have "saved" them, like a metal detectorist?
Worrell and her colleagues also describe a finger-ring that British Museum analysis determined was 90- to 93-percent gold. Coincidentally, it was found in Nottinghamshire, the legendary stomping grounds of Robin Hood (he lived long after Roman times).It is real quality intellectual material that PAS is inspiring, enriching everybody's lives.
“We don’t actually deal with classical works of art in Dubai,” Paton told Libya Herald, “so the story is irrelevant to that site.” [...] “In terms of the Libyan antiquities,” Paton said, “there was a misunderstanding between our man who was interviewed and what was interpreted from what was said, which was if anything did come to us, we would alert the authorities. But actually we haven’t had anything come to us [from Libya] .” [...] “We tend to be the last place you would ever want to go if you did happen to have something you shouldn’t,” Paton explained, “because it does tend to get identified straight away. Even if a stolen artefact makes it into the catalogue, it is then publicised on the website, sent to academics, museums, and the art loss register. This is just such a public process that it tends not to happen.”So David Gill, Christos Tsirogiannis and their fellows spotting and questioning items in their catalogues are doing Christie's a favour? Then they should get recompensated for the long hours of work they put in. The Libyan herald however notes somewhat sceptically that this has not always been the case with looted Libyan art. In April 2011 Christie's sold a knocked-off sculpted head of a woman with piggy eyes, probably Flavia Domitilla Minor, the daughter of Emperor Vespasian. So it went through that auction house's rigorous checking procedures. It turned out pretty rapidly that the statue had been excavated in Sabratha (World heritage Site) and on show in the local museum until thieves smashed it and made off with the head in 1990.
When the head was listed at Christie’s, the original ‘auction lot’ notes apparently stated that it was part of a private Swiss collection and had been acquired in 1988. [Apparently] several archaeologists alerted Christie’s to its dubious origin and theft from the Sabratha Museum. However, the auctioneers proceeded with the sale and later said they had received no such information before the head went under the hammer. The head of Flavia Domitilla was purchased by an Italian collector for £91,250. Paton told Libya Herald that the head was an exceptional case. “It had gone through the checks and we were informed after the sale that there was a concern there and so we immediately cancelled the sale,” he said.
Ummm? There are a couple of people still saying they alerted Christie's that there were problems about the piece before the sale, so whose memory is right?
One Libyan artefact that did escape the auctioneer’s scrutiny, dreadful glue-job Flavia Domitilla. Photo: thehistoryblog.com |
Suggestions by a Christie's official that antiquities looted in Libya during the Arab Spring had been offered to the auction house prompted the company to carry out a full appraisal of the offices handling such items yesterday [...] A Christie's spokesman said the remarks, made by the official during a visit to Dubai this week, were the result of a "misunderstanding".Touché.