Iraq Museum, the Donny George Gallery

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It is reported that the Antiquities Department of Iraq has announced that Baghdad Museum will be re-opening soon, and when it does it will have a special gallery to house thousands of artefacts that were retrieved following the museum’s looting shortly after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. One room will be dedicated to the memory of the late Dr. Donny George. The department’s spokesperson, Abdulzahra al-Talaqani,

said the museum received recently 32 more stolen items from Syria. More than 750 pieces have been handed to the Museum by the Syrian authorities so far. Jordan has sent back to Iraq 2,466 stolen pieces. More artifacts were recovered in the U.S., Holland, Sweden, Germany, Poland and Peru.

Shaymaa Adel, 'Iraq Museum to devote special hall to artifacts recovered after looting', Azzaman, April 25, 2011.

Egypt Looting: Myth-Making in Progress

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Larry Rothfield has an interesting footnote to recent events: HarvardEgyptologist's Newsweek Essay on Protecting Egypt's Heritage Post-Revolution: What It Gets Wrong and Why the Facts Matter, about Peter Der Manuelian's opinion piece published recently in Newsweek, Protecting Egypt's Heritage Post-Revolution. Needless to say I agree with the chronology of events which Larry gives, which can easily be checked - including through Hawass' own blog.

Metal Detecting Discussed Frankly in Heritage Journal

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Heritage Action's Heritage Journal is the place to go for some sensible words written about artefact hunting ("metal detecting"). I recommend the discussion here, the latter part. Nigel Swift is a great writer, this post in particular a good example of Swiftian style drawing on a great deal of reflection. The other reason why I was so taken by it was Peter Twinn's statements. Pete and I go back a long way, way back to when I used to "engage metal detectorists" in discussion. He was one of a number of keyboard-tapping tekkies with whom in the old days I used to have some huge online verbal punchups which I found enormously helpful in challenging and shaping my views on artefact hunting. Pete was a good opponents as he was a better writer than most of the rest. He was also unusual in the "metal detecting" world as he was encouraged through his contact with the PAS to go and study archaeology. It is quite gratifying to see Pete now writing things which have me nodding my head in agreement (rather than shaking it in disbelief). Sadly he is the only one of that original group of stalwart naysayers on the metal detecting forums that seems to have shown any real change of approach in that decade or so. PAS was set up at great cost to instil "best practice"; it has worked in the case of Pete Twinn and a handful of others (Corinne being another notable example), why has it not really worked at all with the other few thousand? The HJournl discussion gives a few views on that topic. Worth reading.

Coineys Should Read the Book Before they Seek the Emails

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"This case is far from over" warns Sayles, suggesting that the ACCG really are going to ignore the voices of reason in the numismatic community and try to access and go through the e-mails of the late Danielle Parks in the search for the elusive snippet of information that exposes the evil that the coineys are convinced stalks the corridors of the US State Department. I suggest that before they do that, they consider how appropriate it would be to consult this scholar on the archaeological status and significance of ancient coins in Cyprus. As I am sure even the home-based numismophiles of Missouri and Wisconsin know, Danielle Parks was an expert on Roman coins in Cyprus. Before her death, she published a 300-page monograph book on the Roman Coinage of Cyprus (Danielle A. Parks 2004, 'The Roman Coinage of Cyprus', Nicosia (Cyprus Numismatic Society). ISBN 9963-9070-0-8). One point that she raises is that these coins circulated primarily on the island and compared to what is found there, everything found outside of Cyprus is minute in comparison. A point made in at least one of the reviews was that the author was unable to cover the whole field because of the large numbers of such coins that were inaccessible due to being shut away in unpublished private collections. So much for all the "research" private possession of illegally exported coins is supposed to produce. Maybe before the ACCG start laying into Danielle Parks for sharing information with the State Department they might like to produce a bibliography of works produced since her book was published by private collectors in the United States showing how much (or how little) they add to what she wrote.

Egypt Proclaims Reward for Antiquity Finders

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The Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities is offering a reward of between LE5,000 and LE50,000 to any citizen responsible for stolen antiquities being returned to the State (The Egyptian Gazette Online, Egyptian stolen antiquities incentive, April 23, 2011). That's what it says, not apprehension of any more of the abseiling thieves and return of the objects.

Vignette: Money for information.

The Antiquity Dealers' View on Stewardship

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Coin dealer Wayne Sayles explains to a list member on coin dealer Dave Welsh's coiney microforum Unidroit-L his views on stewardship of the archaeological heritage. The occasion for this was that member's questioning of the ACCG challenge to the US government over the import of illegally exported dugup artefacts. Sayles suggests:

In my view, import restrictions are not the beginning of the end of civilization as we know it. The mentality that imposes import restrictions on any and all utilitarian objects simply because archaeologists want to be exclusive stewards over them IS potentially the beginning of the end.

First of all nobody is planning "import restrictions on any and all utilitarian objects" bought fresh from the factory in Turin, just certain types of dugup and ethnographic collectables. This is because their production involves the depletion of a resource.

So the problem is not that archaeologists want to be stewards of "them" (objects) but the archaeological record which is trashed in the production of the commodities that Sayles wants to be allowed to import even if it has been illegally exported from another country.

This is the fallacy which collectors want to propagate, that this is about the "ownership" of objects as property, but the truth is that it goes deeper than that. What is the problem for the archaeologists is the origin of the objects dealers like Sayles and his collector clients want to own, to buy and sell. The archaeologist wants to protect archaeological sites from illicit exploitation as a source of illicitly-obtained collectables. The actions of the ancient Coin Collectors Guild in opposition to the CCPIA show that collectors of the United States are not only willing to lay hands on such illicitly-obtained finds, but in fact positively desire to get their hands on them. If this were not the case any curbs on the import of illegally exported antiquities would have no affect on them whatsoever.

Vignette: Stewardship, not just about the squirrels in the park...

Al and Wayne

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Coin dealer Wayne Sayles tells Al Hickey on the coiney Unidroit-L forum what the ACCG case is all about. Hickey had questioned why the ACCG wants to import illegally exported coins, I'd say that was a reasonable question... Sayles disagrees.

The coin import restrictions are a very small part of a much larger issue. [...] there are a significant number of people engaged in the defense of similar issues and it is becoming a momentous reaction to what many view as oppression. [...] The point is that something is wrong in government and ACCG will challenge that with every tool available.

Gotta fight the gub'nmint conspr'cy against the People. It seems to me that the coineys have fallen in behind a bitter and suspicious old man, willing to see an enemy around every corner.

I am sure that Sayles is right when he says that there are many people who consider that there are indeed many things wrong with the US and the way she is governed, but I suspect that among them there will be considerable disagreement whether or not its relationship to the hobby of coin collecting is one that should be given any sort of priority in dealing with them.

UPDATE:
As if in confirmation, we can look no further than the papers leaked apparently from State Department sources the day following my post. I think if we are looking for things about the US government that should be questioned, and about which there should be more transparency and accountability, then ranking somewhere at the top must be:

This is sickening. I think there really are far more important things the US people should be taking their government to task over than whether emails of this or that person mention a secret agreement involving ancient dugup coins, or whatever it is the silly, self-interested and superficial US coineys are contesting. Yes, let's get those State Department secrets out in the open.

Vignette of Fortress America from the Guardian.
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