Tin cans as portable antiquities

I came across an archaeological text from Indiana USA called "HOW OLD IS "OLD"? Recognizing Historical Sites and Artifacts" (Sharon A. Waechter et al.) which made weird reading for a British archaeologist. I once dug up a biscuit tin in the fill of an old excavation trench at Wroxeter which was identified and dated by the manufacturers and which made it clear that the trench was probably one dug by Kathleen Kenyon, who therefore had gone deeper than she admitted in her report, but in general I'd never given rusty old tin cans much thought before. Whether a site was pre-1960 mor post 1960 had never really meant much to my own work. I was surprised to read that the authors consider "Ceramics in general are less time-sensitive than cans and bottles".

Metal Detector user arrested in Palestine

The west Bank contains at least 2,000 major archaeological sites. The fact that the area is subdivided into a patchwork of enclaves, some controlled by Israel, some by the Palestinian Authority, and some jointly mean that there are many legal and physical obstacles which hamper the authorities’ ability to protect these sites, leaving them vulnerable to artefact-hunting looters. This looting was described in a recent (Dec 2008) National Geographic article by Karen Lange ("The Stolen Past - West Bank Looting"):

in many places the scale of the destruction is almost industrial. Looters attack ancient sites with backhoes and small bulldozers, scraping away the top layer of earth across areas the size of several football fields. Then, guided by metal detectors—coins often give away the location of other goods—they sink shafts to extract anything of value. Among the rock-hewn tombs that honeycomb the hills around Jenin, Nablus, Bethlehem, and Hebron, grave robbers methodically clean out each centuries-old chamber, dumping the bones and hauling off the limestone ossuaries. […] Some looted artifacts are bought by middlemen who supply shops in Israel, where tourists and pilgrims eager to take home a piece of the Holy Land unwittingly underwrite the trade. Other artifacts are smuggled into Jordan, then on to big-time dealers elsewhere in the Middle East, especially the Persian Gulf states of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Dealers in those countries, in turn, sell the artifacts to outlets in Israel without revealing their provenance.

Many of these items then are exported from Israel with Israeli export licences to dealers in western markets who then represent them to their clients as “legitimate” goods. They are nevertheless looted. Both dealers and clients need to ask themselves where the bucketloads of ancient coins openly being offered by some Jerusalem dealers actually come from. These bulk lots for example being sold by a Jerusalem dealer discussed on this blog earlier.

On Friday, Palestinian tourism and antiques police arrested a man from Bethlehem and seized advanced metal detecting equipment which they say was used to unearth priceless artifacts in the Bethlehem area. The machines were seized following a home raid conducted by police following long-term investigations of the accused. His file has been handed over to local prosecution, police said.

More arrests are likely in US artefact-looting case

The Action Cerberus investigation centred on Blanding in Utah is already the largest "bust" of artefact looting and grave-robbing in the US. Twenty-five people have already been charged after the long-running sting operation involving quantities of ancient artefacts allegedly clandestinely and illegally excavated from federal and tribal lands in the Four Corners region. Authorities involved in the case are now reported to be likely to target more suspects and more arrests are likely. These are reported to include more of the individuals who do the digging. Also targetted will be not only dealers involved in the lucrative black market of ancient Southwest relics, but also the wealthy "collectors who fuel the underground trade". Another case of the "collectors beuing the real looters" for the pro-collecting lobby to deny.

Paul Foy and Mike Stark, More arrests are likely in artifact-looting case, Deseret News, Aug. 5, 2009.

Digging the Dirt on the Looting in Blanding

The Utah "Action Cerberus" (Blanding) case now being widely reported in the US press is in effect the first to penetrate in any depth the shady world of the trafficking, of archaeological artefacts dug up on US soil. Authorities admit that they could not make a case this large without someone on the inside. It required the co-operation of a well-connected artifacts dealer-turned-undercover operative. This "Source" (still unnamed) worked for the federal authorities over a period of two and a half years (for which we learn they received a payment $224,000 for the undercover work) and was equipped to provide federal agents with wireless video feeds from the homes and shops where he acquired artefacts from those that had excavated them and were now trying to sell them. In these stingsthe Source spent more than $335,000 on various ancient items such as jars and bowls, stone pipes, sandals, pendants, necklaces.

The information he gathered

gives a rare insider's view of the illegal artifacts trade, recording a parade of suspects as they described their methods in astonishing frankness. They discussed digging in camouflage or by moonlight, knowing when a park ranger takes his days off, and looting in spring when the dirt softens up and before the heat of summer.One suspect said he scouted for ruins in a fly-over and followed up with a 10-mile hike. Another dug fresh holes on his property in case "someone comes asking" about where his artifacts came from, the documents say. Yet another boasted that in a 1986 raid, federal agents took 32 of his pots but overlooked a hidden safe and the most damning evidence — a ledger of a lifetime of trading that named people he dealt with. At another point, the informant watched a suspect dig up an ancient burial site and kicked out a skull on the third shovelful [...]. Practically every defendant said in secret recordings that the objects they acquired had been illegally taken from ruins on government or tribal lands across Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado.

Paul Foy and Mike Stark, More arrests are likely in artifact-looting case, Deseret News, Aug. 5, 2009.

Photo: grave robbing.

Collectors caught between the Police and the thieves

Mention of the Israeli portable antiquity collectors’ registration scheme has aroused discussion in certain collecting circles. On the Yahoo AncientArtifacts discussion list discussion now seems to be focusing around privacy issues, there is too much intrusion of the state into our private lives the collectors say. As Axel Traugott a collector and dealer in Pre-Columbian “art” from Osprey Florida puts it:

Privacy is something of which we have less and less. It is to be highly valued and protected, not something easily given up. It is becoming more difficult every day to have a private life, your privacy is being taken away from you step-by-step every day.....this is not a good thing.

In other words, these collectors claim it’s their own business what they keep in the privacy of their own home. I guess you could call that the “kiddie porn argument”. Somebody however is buying the illegally obtained artefacts from the culture-thieves, and I guess they'd all like a bit (lot) of privacy to do so. I am not so clear why the others however would be wary about being open about what pieces of the common archaeological heritage they've acquired and are accepting responsibility for the curation of.

Collectors also say it would be “too much bother” for them to supply details of the artifacts they are curating in their collections to anyone. One Nancy/Earl Keefer suggests that “perhaps Paul and his cronies who have been screaming the loudest will pony up the money” to pay for this. I wonder when local byelaws were finally introduced requiring dog owners to clean their pet’s faeces off the pavements and grass of the UK (hooray, not before time), dog owners asked those complaining to the council about the mess to buy them the poop-scoops and poop-scoop-bags. Or whether they set about complying with what was now required of them as responsible owners.

The list moderator, Tim Haines wrote:

there is a world of difference between the registration of an item before or upon acquisition, and the compulsory registration of items already held by an individual who probably acquired them with no thought that he might be required by law to catalogue and register them.

But then some means of tracing the former ownership of items has been on the cards since the 1970 UNESCO convention - which of course most collectors simply shut their eyes to and turn their backs on. If public opinion is that responsible collecting of portable antiquities requires such a record to be made, then obviously there will always be collectors who will disagree and refuse to comply. Can they though claim that they are “responsible collectors”? I think not. It’s like a dog owner complaining nobody told him there would be so many vet’s bills associated with the ownership of Little Bobby when he bought the puppy (sadly, followed in some cases by then abandoning the animal by the side of a freeway). Surely as with animal ownership, with the privileges of handling portable antiquities come responsibilities, and those involved have to recognize that those responsibilities will change with time.

Then there is the security problem, if there is a register of collectors, thieves can target their homes and steal their property. Axel Traugott boasts:

my home has an excellent system which is directly connected to the local police station less than a mile away. I am also armed and would not hesitate to swiftly dispatch an unwanted intruder, a perfectly acceptable and totally legal practice in the state of Florida”.

So he’d kill a man for wanting to take a few pots and rotted textiles (themselves probably taken from dead men's graves)? One wonders whether those arms are registered or whether that too is an intrusion of the state into a citizen’s privacy to own in his own home what he likes? Disapproval of what some collectors in this discussion portray as a police state apparently does not apply if one wants to “directly connect” their home to a nearby police station so they can keep a watch on it to keep the thieves out.

New blog

There is a new blog entitled Antiquities News & Topical Debate. Its author is Eftis Paraskevaides. Blogging thoughts on portable antiquities issues seems to be becoming very popular among collectors and dealers these days.

Portable Antiquities Reporting Scheme for Israel

The Jerusalem Post ("Antiquities Authority begins to register private collectors") reports that while Israeli collectors of portable antiquities have been required by law to register their collections since the legislation of 2002 (I think actually this requirement also existed there before that, but stand to be corrected) this had not so far been particularly stringently enforced. At present only several hundred collectors are currently known to the state, while the number of citizens who have private antiquities collections is estimated as 100,000. In February, regulations allowing the Israel Antiquities Authority to enforce this law took effect (with a penalty of up to six months in jail and a significant fine for those who continued to ignore it).

Amir Ganor, director of the IAA's Prevention of Antiquities Theft and Supervision of Antiquities Sales Division, told The Jerusalem Post "One of the things we want to do in this operation is to help people not break the law", adding that "Maybe some of them have a specific item that is very important to archaeology and nobody knows about it, so we need to know what they have". [Do we detect the influence of the aftermath of the James Ossuary fiasco here?]

In the next few months, until December 31, the IAA hopes that collectors will come forward for registration, which can be done through the IAA's Web site or at any of their offices throughout the country. Those who report their antiquities will receive a certificate officially designating them as a collector. "Once collectors are registered, they will be asked to send a list of the artifacts in their possession, along with photographs, to the IAA. Archaeologists from the IAA will be available to help with this task if needed". They will also offer, if the collector wishes, an appraisal of the historical significance of their artifacts. Ganor made it clear that collectors would not be asked to give up any of their artifacts. "The items belong to the collector, and we are not trying to take anything from the collector," he said. The article finishes with the plea:

"We call on members of the public who hold pieces of history to assist us in gathering the archaeological information, which is part of the whole puzzle that makes up our past," Ganor said. "Without parts of the puzzle, it is difficult to know what the complete picture is exactly."

This clearly is a project which is intended to be for public benefit rather than being (as I certain elements in the collecting community will no doubt be presenting it as) "another" infringement on "private property rights" by those allegedly nasty "nationalist archaeologists". The IAA recording scheme as reported seems in fact to be a partnership scheme which differs very little in intent from the Portable Antiquities Scheme of England and Wales and is certainly more collector-friendly than the corresponding legislation of Scotland or Northern Ireland.

On his Unidroit-L forum however, Californian part-time antiquities dealer and pro-collecting activist Dave Welsh posted a manipulated version of the Jerusalem Post text under a somewhat misleading title - "IAA requires collector registration". (It is worth pointing out that it is Israeli LAW which "requires" this for public benefit, the Israel Antiquities Authority is only here the organ by which the law is put into action.) What is even more interesting is that he silently drops the final paragraph (the passage in red quoted above). It seems the attempt was being made to depict the IAA scheme as something far more sinister than it looks to in fact be. Such playing to the gallery is nothing new from the ACCG bunch though, and it seems that even the naysaying stalwarts of the Unidroit-L list have become wise to this tactic, there has been no discussion there of this 'shock-horror' presentation of what seems a very interesting move.

Phot: one of Israel's most well-known private owners of a portable antiquities collection, Oded Golan.