Druggies Stealing State's History

The looting of archaeological sites in the USA is seriously damaging our ability to understand the past of the region. A report from Northeastern Arkansas suggests that the area has become a lucrative hunting ground for those interested in archaeological artefacts not for their value for scholarship when interpreted in context, but for black market bucks gained from looting sites in search of valuable antiquities.Dr. Juliet Morrow Jonesboro-based archeologist for the Arkansas Archeological Survey, says, "There are some people who collect artifacts and there's others who loot them so that they can then sell them to get money to purchase drugs. Especially, methamphetamine that's popular in this part of the state." Morrow explains that on the no-questions-asked US collectors’ market, the artefacts these people hunt, "can bring very high dollar figures upwards of 50 thousand dollars for a single pottery vessel, if it's the right time period, the right style. There are spear points that can go for hundreds of thousands of dollars. It's what the buyers are willing to pay. This is a market that's been escalating over the last couple of decades". More here.


Photo: Caddo 'head pot' from the Historic Arkansas Museum Collection.

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Brian Rose on looting: "history that's been murdered"

In an interview with American Public Media's Dick Gordon, AIA President and Professor at University of Pennsylvania Brian Rose describes his recent first trip to Iraq where he saw ancient sites cratered by looters.

Professor Rose also speaks about the cultural heritage briefings he has been giving to American soldiers on the archaeology of Iraq and Afghanistan, and his visit to the Iraq Museum.

The interview can be heard here in the second part of the broadcast.

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Exhibition Review: "Worshiping Women"

Worshiping Women: Ritual and Reality in Classical Athens launched in December 2008 at the Onassis Cultural Center is an exhibition composed primarily of loans from foreign institutions and museums and will be open until May 9, 2009. The introductory plaque at the beginning of the exhibition informs us that “religious rituals defined women.” The visitor is led through galleries focusing on priesthood, the cycle of life, festivals, heroines, and goddesses. Each section looks at the imagery on vases, marble stelai, or statues in order to reveal insights into the world of Classical Athenian women. Particularly intriguing is the realization of how much money it would have cost to ship these priceless artifacts from their museums to mid-town Manhattan. Loans from the British Museum, the Louvre, Italy, Berlin, and Boston among other locations fill the cases in addition to loans from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Organization is credited to the Onassis Public Benefit Foundation in collaboration with the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, curated by Dr. Nikolaos Kaltsas and Dr. Alan Shapiro.

The exhibition is remarkable because of the opportunity to see these notable pieces of history. The display, however, remains entrenched in the traditional art gallery format. Labels describe what you see while larger wall texts reveal the coherent themes for each section. Unfortunately, the exhibition does not do justice to the importance of archaeological contexts. Few sites are specifically discussed, except for the most famous: the Akropolis in Athens and the sanctuary of Demeter at Eleusis. This allows for only a few cases in which related objects are brought together in assemblages. A few dense groupings of mixed media represent artifacts found in known contexts. For most objects, however, contexts remain unknown.

The great benefit of preserved archaeological context is illustrated by the case of the grave stele (cat. no. 87) found at Rhamnous in 1892, just below the temple terrace. This funerary monument is now in the collection of the National Archaeological Museum in Athens (Γ 2309). On its label, it is observed that “the find-spot of the grave relief strongly suggests that the representation is that of the priestess of Nemesis.” What insight is made possible from preserved archaeological context! Imagine if each piece and pot in the exhibition preserved this level of information instead of bearing labels that read: “provenance unknown” or “said to be from. . .” Despite a broad attempt to inform us about provenience, the exhibition does not emphasize or explain the importance of what archaeological context can tell us about the use and meaning of objects in the ancient past.

As a graduate student in Museum Studies, I wish that the exhibition would have informed us about the state of fragmentation of the conserved artifacts and pottery displayed. Multiple breaks and missing fragments attest to the destruction of objects caused by clandestine excavations and their subsequent illegal export. I imagine that visitors, too, might wonder about the state of preservation of these objects on display. To be sure, some labels do reference that objects were acquired through confiscation within Greece. Several pieces from the National Archaeological Museum in Athens bear labels that read: “acquired by confiscation” or “confiscated from Zoumboulakis in 1938” (NAM 16346 and NAM 17297 respectively). This adds a whole new and important dimension to the display. It shows that Greece has been pro-active in protecting its cultural heritage. It does seem like a lost opportunity, however, not to have provided further information about the circumstances of the recovery of these objects. The general public would have benefited from learning about ongoing efforts to combat the illicit antiquities market.

Somewhat disturbing is one design choice in the exhibition in which two objects are treated as interior decorative elements rather than as material culture from a past and complex society. Two Hellenistic funerary columns, the sacred and lasting memorials through which the lives of priestesses—Habryllis and Mneso— were commemorated, have been built into faux-architectural columns within the exhibition space. (Cat. Nos. 82 and 83, NAM Γ 1727 and EM 11144) This looks more like a decorator’s trick from an Upper East Side townhouse than an appropriate display for what are, after all, funerary memorials commemorating actual lives lived.

The success of the exhibition manifests the importance of giving audiences access to extraordinary objects from the past. Comments such as, “It looks contemporary, it’s fascinating!” could be heard reverberating throughout the gallery on the days I visited. Broad public interest in ancient Greek women and religion was peaked just a few years ago with the publication of Joan Breton Connelly’s book, Portrait of a Priestess: Women and Ritual in Ancient Greece, winner of the Archaeological Institute of America’s James Wiseman Book Prize and added to the New York Times Book Review list of “Notable Books of 2007.” Connelly was approached by the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago and spent a term there as a Visiting Fellow in Anthropology to undertake a feasibility study for turning her book into a traveling exhibition. In preparation for her show on Greek Priestesses, which had been anticipated for 2011-12, Connelly taught a course at New York University in the spring semester of 2008. I was lucky enough to be a student in the seminar: “The Lost History of Greek Priestesses: Curating an Exhibition.” Nineteen graduate and undergraduate students were encouraged to implement innovative ideas to create contextual galleries tracking the female experience of Greek ritual from childhood, through maidenhood, to maturity and death. Special galleries focused on women in the theater and on the Delphic Oracle, all placing women and priestesses in their full social and cultural contexts. Students labored with the hope that their work would find culmination in a future exhibition at the Field Museum of Natural History, one that would travel to venues on the East and West coasts and on to Greece. A museum of Natural History would have provided an ideal setting for a show that emphasized the human narrative of Greek ritual as well as the archaeological and anthropological contexts that inform us about it. Unfortunately for the students in our class, “Worshiping Women” has preempted the "Greek Priestesses" exhibition, duplicating much of the checklist of objects gathered in Portrait of a Priestess. While this has put our class show in jeopardy, one can only hope that one day the pieces will be allowed to travel again for the kind of exhibition designed in our seminar.

As a student from the class, I have an intimate knowledge of the works, their meaning, and how they have strengthened our understanding of the lives of women. Looking at the exhibition “Worshiping Women,” and its traditional art historical display, I cannot help but wonder what the impact of these pieces might have been had they been shown through an anthropological lens, focusing on the human narrative of their ancient contexts and meanings. Artifacts with known context, like the Rhamnous stele, provide insight, but the provenience of most other pieces is lost to us, in many cases forcing an object to remain just another pretty pot.

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EBay: A Solution to the Illicit Antiquities Trade?

A story from the latest Archaeology Magazine (C. Stanish, "Forging Ahead. Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love eBay," Archaeology Magazine 62.3 (May/June 2009)) has been the subject of some blog discussions lately, e.g.:

Larry Rothfield, "eBay Reduces Looting -- Maybe," The Punching Bag (21 April 2009)

Derek Finchman, "'What Fools the Curator Also Fools the Collector'," Illicit Cultural Property (21 April 2009)

Stanish argues that eBay has been flooded with fake antiquities, ultimately making looting less profitable as the prevalence of fakes drives prices down. Like Larry Rothfield, I think the overall point of the article is persuasive, but I do find parts of it too simplistic.

View the full discussion at Numismatics and Archaeology.

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"Organizing local people can save knowledge"

In National Geographic's April 10 story "King of Bling" Tomb Sheds Light on Ancient Peru" the remarkable excavation of Lord of Ucupe was described as "a first". "This find is particularly important, because it is the first time we have found an individual outside of Sipán that is the same type as some of the leaders found in Sipán," according to archaeologist Steve Bourget.

This would not have been possible if the site had not been protected from looters by local people. Roger Atwood, author of Stealing History, winner of 2004 SAFE Beacon Award, said in a message to SAFE. "The incredible thing is that this discovery happened right where the anti-looting patrols I describe in Chapter 13 of Stealing History work, in the village of Ucupe. So it's a really clear example of how organizing local people can save knowledge. Doesn't get any clearer than this."

Indeed, on page 230, Atwood writes: "The mission of the 'archaeological protection group' is to stop people from occupying the land and plundering what lies beneath it. They scout the land, chase away bands of looters, or they surround them and tie their wrists with rope until the police arrive, and they seize their tools -- shovels, poles, buckets. ... Despite their success in the Moche heartland, the idea of citizens' patrols to curb pillage is still in its infancy. Turning poachers into wardens takes time, a thorough knowledge of local customs and sensitivities, cooperation from the police, and roots in the community that not a lot of archaeological researchers have." (Photograph courtesy Dr. Steve Bourget)

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Chronicle of Higher Education Q and A with Larry Rothfield

http://chronicle.com/weekly/v55/i32/32b01701.htm
From the issue dated April 17, 2009
A Fragile History, Besieged
A post-mortem examination of the cultural disaster in Iraq

Six years ago this month, the National Museum of Iraq was extensively looted amid the chaos of the U.S. invasion of Baghdad. Among the stolen objects was the Mask of Warka, a 5,100-year-old Sumerian artifact that is believed to be one of the earliest surviving representations of a human face. The mask was found buried on an Iraqi farm five months later — but thousands of other precious objects were destroyed or disappeared into the black market.

"We do not know, and we may never know, a great many lessons about how human civilization first arose, because of this disaster," says Lawrence Rothfield, an associate professor of English and comparative literature at the University of Chicago and a former director of the university's Cultural Policy Center.

In his new book, The Rape of Mesopotamia: Behind the Looting of the Iraq Museum (University of Chicago Press), Rothfield examines the sacking of the museum and the "slow-motion disaster" of the looting of archaeological sites across Iraq since 2003.

Rothfield recently spoke with The Chronicle's David Glenn. An edited transcript of their conversation follows.

Q. Why should the world care about Iraqi antiquities? Doesn't this issue pale in comparison to the war's political struggles and tens of thousands of deaths?
I hear that question sometimes: Why should we care? Why should we worry that all of this material is being brought onto the black market? After all, isn't this making available to the rest of the world the beauty of all these objects that otherwise would not have been available for us to see?

One reason to worry is that this material is being ripped out of its context. The individual intact pieces that fall into the hands of collectors might be beautiful. But most of what we know about the origins of civilization has come from piecing together fragments and reconstructing contexts. The Epic of Gilgamesh was pieced together from fragments that looters today would have crushed underfoot.

Q. Before 2003 the National Museum of Iraq was regarded as one of the best in the region. Despite all of the cruelties and travails of Saddam Hussein's regime, this institution thrived. Why was that?
Saddam thought of the Mesopotamian past as a propaganda tool — which meant that at least he cared enough about it to impose severe penalties on looters, and to spend the resources needed to support the work of the museum. And even before Saddam came to power, Iraq had some longstanding relationships with European and American archaeological institutions, including the Oriental Institute here at Chicago. So for decades, they had been training archaeologists to produce work that was of very high quality.

Q. Why did the United States do such a bad job of protecting the museum in 2003?
Before the war, nobody except archaeologists was worried about civilians looting the archaeological sites and the museum. And that includes the Iraqi exiles who were advising the State Department's Future of Iraq Project, which was supposed to develop plans for the postwar period. They set up working groups on all sectors of society — but they forgot about culture.

Q. But would it have made a difference if the Future of Iraq Project had paid attention to culture?
No, it wouldn't have made any difference at all, given that the military threw all of their plans in the garbage can anyway.

Now, the military itself was very interested in doing its job in terms of protecting cultural sites and museums. But under international law, its job is defined as not destroying or looting cultural sites itself — not as preventing civilians from destroying sites.

So before the war, they reached out to archaeologists, and they did a perfect job of identifying sites to put on a no-strike list. None of those sites was destroyed in active combat operations.

Unfortunately, they ignored warnings from the same archaeologists they were working with that the museums and sites might be looted by Iraqis. The Pentagon should have known about that issue. Nine museums were looted after the 1991 Gulf War. The military did not learn its lesson from that experience.

Q. There were reports last year that the military had asked archaeologists to develop a similar no-strike list for cultural sites in Iran. And some archaeologists have argued that it is unethical to cooperate with that project, because they say an American attack on Iran would be immoral. Have you been part of those debates?
My thought is that requiring the military to spend time and effort to protect cultural sites actually makes the cost of war higher for the military than it would otherwise be. So if you're interested in doing what you can to discourage the U.S. from going to war, raising the cost of war is one way to do so.

There's no contradiction between speaking out publicly against the war and making sure that the military protects cultural sites if it does go to war.

Q. Do you believe the American military has learned lessons since 2003?
It's a mixed picture. The new Army Field Manual includes on its task list the imperative to secure and protect cultural sites and museums. That's a huge step forward in itself. They've also been developing excellent cultural-awareness training programs to sensitize soldiers heading into war zones, working with the Archaeological Institute of America.

But there is also the separate question about what to do going forward in Iraq — and in Afghanistan, where matters are arguably even worse. There is still severe looting in both countries. The British recently returned several tons of Afghan antiquities that had been seized at London airports since 2003, just to give you some sense of the size of the problem.

The looting of the Iraq museum was terrible, but the amount of material lost from the slow looting of Iraq's archaeological sites dwarfs the amount that was taken from the museum. Estimates are that roughly half a million pieces have been destroyed or taken from the ground since 2003.

Q. If you had half an hour to talk to people at the Pentagon or the State Department, what would you say?
Archaeologists have been asking for years now for the military to share satellite photographs of the Iraqi archaeological sites so that they could count the number of holes and track the rate of looting around the country. They're still waiting.

I would also urge the Pentagon to form a task force to develop operational plans to inject resources into those areas where it's possible to make a difference. In some cases that might mean providing cars, weapons, and walkie-talkies to the civilians who are supposed to be protecting sites.

And I would suggest a tax on all sales of antiquities from Iraq and Afghanistan. The proceeds could be used to help finance anti-looting efforts in those countries.

Q. At the end of your book, you wrote that you didn't expect the Iraq museum to reopen "for years to come." But in February, after your book went to press, a part of the museum reopened. Were you surprised?
Well, I was dismayed by it, as were [the museum's former director] Donny George and a number of other Iraqi archaeologists. Conditions in Baghdad are still very fragile. And the museum is nowhere near ready to be open to the public, even if the situation weren't so touchy. The recent reduction in violence is heartening, but it only brings us down to levels that are equivalent to other long-running civil wars.

David Glenn is a senior reporter at The Chronicle.

http://chronicle.com
Section: The Chronicle Review
Volume 55, Issue 32, Page B17

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Earthquake damages Baths of Caracalla

The ancient Roman Baths of Caracalla have been damaged by earthquake on April 5. According to the New York Times, historical monuments have suffered significant damage as well, including the Romanesque basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggi and the National Museum of Abruzzo. The destruction has left more than 200 dead and tens of thousands homeless. SAFE sends condolences to all of us who have been affected. (Photo: www.essential-architecture.com)

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Six years later, memories of the looted Iraq Museum relived

On the eve of the sixth anniversary of the looting of the Iraq Museum which spawned the founding of this organization SAFE/Saving Antiquities for Everyone, we urge individuals around the world to pause in commemoration by joining us in the Global Candlelight Vigil, not only for Iraq, but the world over.

SAFE Member Leila Amineddoleh takes this opportunity to revisit the tragic event with the book Thieves of Baghdad by Matthew Bogdanos, winner of the SAFE 2005 Beacon Award. She shares with our readers her thoughts here:

Thieves of Baghdad begins like an archeological detective mystery, reminiscent of an Indiana Jones movie, with the story's narrator searching for answers about the fate of some of the world’s most historically significant looted cultural artifacts. Baghdad, located on the Tigris River, is at the heart of ancient Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilization, a region that holds secrets about early human societies. Baghdad lies near ancient Babylonia, and is home to some of the greatest archeological treasures of mankind’s early artistic and societal accomplishments. The value of these pre-historic artifacts is impossible to determine; they are irreplaceable links to the past, providing us with clues about how our ancestors lived in pre-biblical times. After the American invasion of Iraq in April of 2003, looters took advantage of the vulnerability of the Iraq Museum (a museum with an unrivaled collection of Mesopotamian art) and began looting and selling the museum's holdings on the black market. The robbers stole thousands of priceless items. Included in the cache of looted works was the Mask of Warka (the oldest known naturalistic carving of a human face), the Vase of Warka (the oldest known carved stone ritual vessel), the treasure of Nimrud (over a thousand pieces of gold jewelry and precious stones from the eighth and ninth centuries B.C.), and an eighth century ivory plaque entitled the Lioness Attacking a Nubian. Some of the artifacts have been recovered, while others have vanished without a trace.

Matthew Bogdanos, a U.S. reserve for the marines and an Assistant District Attorney, tells the story of the pillaging and subsequent recovery of the some of the world's greatest treasures. As a student of classics, he is the perfect narrator because he appreciates the significance of these treasures. His book describes the importance of the pieces' recovery as an event of international concern and pride amongst the Iraqi people. As an investigator, Bogdanos helped recover hundreds of pieces during his tour of duty in Iraq where he led a team of soldiers on a recovery mission, while maintaining their physical safety. Bogdanos also contended with the press's often faulty reporting, and grappled with the cultural and political barriers separating his team from the Iraqi people who were often unwilling to assist the U.S. army to recover artifacts, who questioned the motivation for American involvement with Iraqi cultural issues, or who mistrusted U.S. military presence in their nation. Bogdanos and his group of men not only faced the mystery of the Iraq Musem's missing works, but the strife of life in a war-torn country, the ever-present threat of Al-Qaeda terrorists, and the difficulties of tracking down armed robbers. During his time in Iraq, Bogdanos longed for his family and life in the U.S., but he also learned to accept and understand the culture of the modern Iraqi people and the power and mystery of their ancient culture and customs.

This book is an engaging read because Bogadnos's love of art is apparent. With his knowledge of classics, he describes the importance of these pieces with historical insight. Besides taking the reader on a journey of recovery through an insider's perspective, Bogdanos also teaches a lesson on antiquities. The art is described in its historical context, allowing someone without an art background to understand the magnitude of the damage done by the museum’s looters. Against the back-drop of armed combat, Bognadnos informs us about the importance of these missing treasures and the potential for future damage to artifacts. The U.S. army has recovered many museum pieces, yet a large number of works remain missing, and there are major obstacles that lay ahead in the recovery of those pieces.

Thieves of Baghdad makes a case for devoting additional funding and resources to the protection of cultural artifacts and the recovery of looted works. Bogdanos reminds us that we all have a responsibility to protect the richness of humankind’s accomplishments and the art that represents our common cultural past.

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Iraq Welcoming Archaeological Tourism, As Sights Remain Unprotected

The Iraqi Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities continues its public-relations offensive with the announcement that Iraqi archaeologists have uncovered 4,000 Babylonian artifacts. The good news, dutifully splashed across the headlines by Reuters ("Iraqi Archaeologists unearth Babylonian Treasures"), is engineered to support the Ministry's agenda, as the article notes:

Iraq, which lies in the heart of a region historians call the cradle of civilisation, is hoping a decrease in violence to levels not seen since late 2003 will encourage tourists to visit its ancient sites.

In late 2003, let us recall, looting of Iraq's archaeological sites was going into overdrive, and there is some reason to believe that despite improvements in security the looting continues. That dark underside of this tourism marketing is missing from the headline, but shows up at the end of the article:

Qais Hussein Rasheed, acting head of the antiquities and heritage committee, told reporters Iraq still had a big problem with looters ransacking archaeological sites.

"These sites are vulnerable to endless robbery by thieves, smugglers and organised gangs because they are not protected," he said. "We have asked the relevant ministries to allocate policemen but haven't received very many so far."

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