06-10-2006, 04:33 PM
[size=75:1itbgzcg][Today, I received this sad article, with a request to post it where it might be read by interested people. You will probably have suspected what is written below.][/size]
Prominent Archaeologists and Looted Artifacts
(CHNI) There is no doubt that looting - or otherwise removing without permission - artifacts from archaeological sites around the world is commonplace, not to mention lucrative.
In Afghanistan, a country rich in archaeological treasures, the standard of living is so low that people jump at the chance to make a year’s income from the sale of a precious artifact. These impoverished people have a legitimate need for the money that the digging up and private selling of a historical find would bring.
Then there are the career looters, including prominent archaeologists - stealthy opportunists, motivated by profit to find and sell these ancient treasures en masse, for their own personal wealth. In Afghanistan, these illegal excavators have been stalking archaeological sites with museum-grade prospecting tools and high-tech communications equipment.
During the Soviet occupation of the country they even employed Soviet troops to guard their dig. Claims that the Soviets had carted off the Afghan national museum’s treasures to the Hermitage in Leningrad arose from the April 1979 removal of the museum’s collections to the center of Kabul for safekeeping. Then there were indications that Victor Sarianidi of the Soviet-Afghan archaeological mission, which had excavated a hoard of more than 20,000 gold ornaments from six burial mounds called Tillya-tepe, had taken the gold to the Soviet Union. Among other prominent archaeologist who was involved in the trade of Afghan and Iranian artifacts was the American C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky.
Such archaeologist-looters backed by major European and U.S. collectors and financiers may have also been involved in recent looting of Iraqi museums and archaeological sites. In Afghanistan about 70 percent of the national museum’s collections are now missing.
Most of its vast gold and silver coin collection, which spanned the nation’s history from the Achaemenids in the sixth century B.C. through the Islamic period, has been looted. Also gone is a Greco-Bactrian hoard of more than 600 coins from Kunduz, in northern Afghanistan, dating to the third and second centuries B.C., including the largest Greek coins ever discovered. Pieces of Buddhist stucco sculptures and schist reliefs dating between the first and third centuries A.D. and Hindu marble statuary from the seventh and ninth centuries have been taken, as have carved ivories in classic Indian styles from Begram, site of the summer capital of the Kushan Empire in the early centuries A.D. Also missing are many of the museum’s prized examples of the renowned metalwork of the Ghaznavids, whose sumptuous capital flourished 90 miles southwest of Kabul during the tenth and eleventh centuries.
Once done, archaeologist-looters usually sell their findings to dealers and collectors in order to get the stolen artifacts out of the country as fast as possible, for the highest price. Many of the pieces are destined for sale in Islamabad, London, New York, and Tokyo.
For the locals, this may only be a few dollars; for career looters, thousands of dollars or more. Unfortunately, this has resulted in the loss of countless generations of historical insight into the civilizations of the world.
Prominent Archaeologists and Looted Artifacts
(CHNI) There is no doubt that looting - or otherwise removing without permission - artifacts from archaeological sites around the world is commonplace, not to mention lucrative.
In Afghanistan, a country rich in archaeological treasures, the standard of living is so low that people jump at the chance to make a year’s income from the sale of a precious artifact. These impoverished people have a legitimate need for the money that the digging up and private selling of a historical find would bring.
Then there are the career looters, including prominent archaeologists - stealthy opportunists, motivated by profit to find and sell these ancient treasures en masse, for their own personal wealth. In Afghanistan, these illegal excavators have been stalking archaeological sites with museum-grade prospecting tools and high-tech communications equipment.
During the Soviet occupation of the country they even employed Soviet troops to guard their dig. Claims that the Soviets had carted off the Afghan national museum’s treasures to the Hermitage in Leningrad arose from the April 1979 removal of the museum’s collections to the center of Kabul for safekeeping. Then there were indications that Victor Sarianidi of the Soviet-Afghan archaeological mission, which had excavated a hoard of more than 20,000 gold ornaments from six burial mounds called Tillya-tepe, had taken the gold to the Soviet Union. Among other prominent archaeologist who was involved in the trade of Afghan and Iranian artifacts was the American C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky.
Such archaeologist-looters backed by major European and U.S. collectors and financiers may have also been involved in recent looting of Iraqi museums and archaeological sites. In Afghanistan about 70 percent of the national museum’s collections are now missing.
Most of its vast gold and silver coin collection, which spanned the nation’s history from the Achaemenids in the sixth century B.C. through the Islamic period, has been looted. Also gone is a Greco-Bactrian hoard of more than 600 coins from Kunduz, in northern Afghanistan, dating to the third and second centuries B.C., including the largest Greek coins ever discovered. Pieces of Buddhist stucco sculptures and schist reliefs dating between the first and third centuries A.D. and Hindu marble statuary from the seventh and ninth centuries have been taken, as have carved ivories in classic Indian styles from Begram, site of the summer capital of the Kushan Empire in the early centuries A.D. Also missing are many of the museum’s prized examples of the renowned metalwork of the Ghaznavids, whose sumptuous capital flourished 90 miles southwest of Kabul during the tenth and eleventh centuries.
Once done, archaeologist-looters usually sell their findings to dealers and collectors in order to get the stolen artifacts out of the country as fast as possible, for the highest price. Many of the pieces are destined for sale in Islamabad, London, New York, and Tokyo.
For the locals, this may only be a few dollars; for career looters, thousands of dollars or more. Unfortunately, this has resulted in the loss of countless generations of historical insight into the civilizations of the world.
