US Heritage Protection Legislation "inadequate" to Curb Antiquities Market

.The pro-collecting lobby urges that the instead of current "restrictive " laws, the archaeological heritage of all regions should become a free-for all to be "harvested" for collectable antiquities, perhaps with some form of voluntary reporting scheme like Britain's Portable Antiquities Scheme in place to salvage some of the information which would otherwise be lost. In contrast to this we have views which urge that more should be done to protect archaeological sites from any kind of avoidable damage. On the back of the recent illicit antiquity raids in Utah, Gray Warriner an independent filmmaker has written an interesting essay in the Salt Lake Tribune. His thesis is that in the United States “Current laws are inadequate to protect antiquities” (Salt Lake Tribune 26th June 2009). He urges for a change in legislation to curb the antiquities market which drives the destruction of the archaeological record in the search for collectable atefacts. He likens this to the protection of threatened natural resources such as songbirds. More here

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