The Antiquities Market: News and Commentary on the Illicit Traffic in Antiquities

Abstract

Wind God Foils Smuggler's Breeze through Customs

Laura Scanlan's article describing the seizure at U.S. Customs and the eventual return to Mexico of several important Precolumbian artifacts is reprinted here with permission from Customs Today, 17:2 (1982) 2–3. Both the story itself and the act of reprinting emphasize the growing cooperation between archaeologists and the U.S. Customs Bureau in cases involving antiquities. Karen Bruhns and Connie Fenchel (see below) have been an effective team in pursuing cases involving antiquities smuggling in the San Francisco area. In the Bernstein case (see below “A Lawyer Looks at U.S. Antiquities Laws”) archaeologists also provided professional evaluations and consultation to customs officials. Both the Mexican case described here by Scanlan and the Bernstein case were initiated through improper customs declarations, which were recognized by alert customs inspectors familiar with the value of antiquities and the significance of the illicit trade.

These cases suggest a way for many archaeologists who have said they would like to help curb the illicit trade but did not know how to do so. There are customs offices in most large U.S. cities. They are the places where antiquities enter this country. Special Agent Fenchel pointed out, during her presentation at the Legislative Session of the AIA in San Francisco, that most antiquities cases in this country have begun with an improper customs declaration. If this is so, the effectiveness of existing law governing the antiquities trade depends largely on the ability of customs inspectors to recognize antiquities and to evaluate their accompanying declarations. Even when/if the UNESCO Convention is implemented, its enforcement will be largely in the hands of customs inspectors. Thus, professional archaeologists could make a substantive contribution toward curbing import of illicit antiquities by introducing themselves at their local customs office and offering to make available their professional advice on cases involving antiquities. Local archaeological societies might consider offering seminars for their local customs inspectors on ancient art and archaeology and the pertinent laws and market values, to help increase the ability of customs inspectors to recognize antiquities in the course of their work. Just knowing that there is expert help available locally to identify and evaluate antiquities, or to find another expert who might be able to do so, could make local customs inspectors more sensitive to the issues involved and more likely to catch violations.     

2007 Cultural Heritage Legal Summary

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During the past year there has been continuing progress in the ratification and implementation of the two most important international conventions that deal with tangible cultural heritage. This progress is, to some extent, surprising as it involves some of the more significant market countries, such as Germany and Switzerland. At the same time, Italy's efforts to recover its stolen cultural objects continued to meet with success as the Getty and Princeton museums agreed to return significant numbers of antiquities from their collections. Finally, two cases decided in British courts have recently taken center stage in the ongoing efforts of nations to protect their archaeological heritage through the legal system.     

The nation,the élite and the Southeast Asian antiquities trade: With special reference to Thailand

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The dealings that the Thai nation state has had with archaeological sites and antiquities appear to fit at least as well within the framework of antiquarian collecting as within that of modern archaeology. It is argued that this reflects the potential that sites and antiquities have to function as cultural capital. Citing Pierre Bourdieu, it is proposed that there is a commonality of interests between the state and the many private collectors among the Thai elite and that this derives partly from the emphasis that is placed on the display or performative potential of sites and antiquities. An appreciation of how antiquities function as cultural capital is surely a prerequisite for any successful effort to counter the looting of sites and the illegal trade in antiquities.

‘There is an economy of cultural goods, but it has a specific logic.’[1]     

PALESTINIAN ANTIQUITIES LOOTERS,THEIR SKILL DEVELOPMENT,METHODOLOGY AND SPECIALISED TERMINOLOGY: AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY

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The state of Palestine’s archaeological heritage resources is one of serious risk, due to the on-going looting of antiquities. Vandalising archaeological resources is a widespread phenomenon throughout the Palestinian National Territories (PNT) and has resulted in either total or partial damage to thousands of these resources, and the extraction of at least hundreds of thousands of archaeological objects. The main aim of this study is to explore the measures that have been used by Palestinian antiquities looters to develop their knowledge, fieldwork skills and experience. To this end, I interviewed 96 antiquities looters residing in the West Bank. The Gaza Strip, which is totally relevant to the issues under discussion, was only excluded from this study due to the current travel restrictions between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.     

2006 Cultural Heritage Legal Summary

Abstract

During the past year; there has been continued incremental progress in the ratification and implementation of international conventions, particularly the 1970 UNESCO Convention. Countries of origin, particularly Italy and Greece, have become even more active in seeking the restitution of looted antiquities, as with the ongoing trial of former Getty curator Marion True and agreements with several U. S. museums for the return of numerous artifacts. The litigation concerning Iranian artifacts in various U. S. institutions has become even more complex, however, and the outcome is still uncertain. Finally, United States case law, particularly in the western part of the country, is pointing out some of the weaknesses in federal laws designed to protect archaeological sites and artifacts on federal land.     

“An alternative discourse”: Local interpreters of antiquities in the Ottoman Empire

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The premise of Ottoman indifference to “antiquities” was already widely assumed by early modern travelers and archaeologists and continues to inform contemporary discussion of cultural patrimony in post-Ottoman nations. However, it is contradicted by numerous accounts of local interpretations of ancient monuments and local resistance to the efforts of outsiders to remove antiquities. Local interpretations of monuments constituted an alternative discourse that cohered around a set of recurring concerns, while also developing over time. The potential of these local interpretations to expand the discourse of academic archaeology has been obscured by their classification as elements of a timeless folklore, which is understood to speak to the customs and manners of the interpreters, not to the objects of interpretation.     

2011 Cultural heritage legal summary

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This article summarizes the legal developments during 2011 that affect archaeological heritage. Among the more significant developments were advances in and challenges to the use of international law in deterring the trade in undocumented antiquities and questions of whether artifacts on loan to U.S. institutions from Iran could be used to satisfy judgments against Iran awarded to victims of terrorist bombings. Finally, the article presents a preliminary assessment of the impact of the "Arab Spring" conflicts on cultural heritage preservation.     

Minutes of the Annual General Meeting for the Palestine Exploration Fund, 9 June 2016

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Palestine's archaeological heritage is facing a serious crisis due to the prevalence of illicit digging. Antiquities looting is a widespread and flourishing phenomenon throughout the Palestinian National Territories (PNT) and has resulted in a large number of primary and secondary archaeological sites and features being damaged, disfigured, or completely destroyed, and in the extraction of at least hundreds of thousands of heritage items. The main aim of this research project is to explore the physical hazards encountered by the Palestinian antiquities looters. To this end I interviewed 53 antiquities looters residing in 41 different villages in the West Bank. The physical hazards which they encountered are classified by type as follows: cave-ins; the use of equipment, including heavy machinery (back-hoes, front-end loaders, bulldozers, etc.), other power implements, and traditional excavation tools; falling stones or tools; contact with insects, snakes, scorpions, and spiders; work during inclement weather; and attack by the jinn.     

A Retrospective and a Look Forward

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For 20 years (1974–1993), the “Antiquities Market” section of the Journal of Field Archaeology provided news and commentary on the illicit traffic in antiquities and on issues of cultural heritage relevant to field archaeologists from around the world. Much has happened in more recent years; military conflict, natural disaster;development, political or religious extremism, calculated looting, and the illicit sale of antiquities all combine to jeopardize the very existence of archaeology. The commodification of material culture is among the most pressing issues on the archaeological agenda. Links between collecting and looting continue to be hotly debated, and recent investigations illustrate how archaeological research may also unintentionally spur looting. Legislative efforts attempt to curb the plunder of sites and the illicit sale of antiquities. What is clear from the various efforts and questions is that globalization is bringing us closer together,and that we need a concentrated international initiative to document and preserve the archaeological record. Concrete proposals for such an initiative are required. The restoration of the “Antiquities Market” section is intended to reopen dialogue on these pressing issues by discussing specific sites in jeopardy and instances of looting, highlighting current trends, and encouraging all those who value the past to protect cultural heritage.     

A passage from India: Geographies and experiences of repatriation, 1858-1939

This paper examines both the imagined and material geographies of return experienced by the imperial elite as they returned from India. Focusing on Cheltenham and Bedford, I explore how the 'aristocratic' lifestyles of earlier repatriates became increasingly difficult to sustain over the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Although imaginatively constructed notions of return continued to imply that an upper middle-class standard of living remained attainable for those returning 'home', the majority found that they had to settle in (lower) middle-class suburban locations. In considering such changes I am also able to examine the ways in which geographies and experiences of return were influenced by a specifically imperial identity over a period of imperial decline.     

Treasure Hunting 101 in America's Classrooms

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Introducing primary and secondary students to archaeology can build critical thinking skills and provide entertaining activities at the same time. In doing so, however, teachers should take care that they expose their students to archaeology in a manner that accurately represents the methodological and ethical concerns of the discipline. Educators should be vigilant when selecting educational activities, since there are groups of antiquities dealers who sponsor programs to promote political agendas and insensitive attitudes in collecting, which drive looting and the illicit trade in antiquities. One such program is Ancient Coins for Education (ACE), which purports to teach ancient history and archaeology to children by bringing coin dealers and collectors into classrooms to speak about collecting and show children coins. ACE is especially fond of presenting bulk lots of uncleaned coins to their students. Much of the material that ACE purchases or solicits in donations originates in Balkan countries where unlicensed excavation and export is illegal. The Ancient Coin Collectors Guild (ACCG), a lobby of ancient coin dealers, sponsors the ACE program, with clear aims to recruit future collectors, dealers, and sympathizers. It is up to the archaeological community to bolster partnerships with grade-level educators and increase awareness about looting and the subversive tactics that profiteers are now employing.     

Museum salvage: A case study of Mesoamerican artifacts in museum collections and on the antiquities market

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Museum salvage refers to critical studies of museum collections with little or no provenience information that seek to glean useful archaeological information from these artifacts and examine the nature of their origins and possible connections to the illicit antiquities trade and the art market. Our case study focuses on artifacts from Mesoamerica and objects from the ancient capital of Teotihuacan in particular. We take a multi-scalar approach, including a quantitative analysis of Sotheby’s auction records for Mesoamerican items from 1966 to 2010, a survey of Teotihuacan attributed items in U.S. museums, and a more detailed examination of Teotihuacan-style artifacts in the Denver Museum of Nature & Science collections. The study tracks and attempts to explain diachronic patterns in the Mesoamerican antiquities trade, connections to museum collecting practices, and looting behavior. The study illustrates the potential benefits of museum salvage, while also revealing the clear limitations of research on poorly documented archaeological material.     

CERAMIC SHELL CUP EFFIGIES FROM ILLINOIS AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS

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Ceramic effigies of marine shell cups have long been known from Mississippian sites in Illinois and elsewhere in the Southeast, and have been included in studies of other ceramic effigies, such as animal figures and head pots (Holmes 1886). This paper focuses on 31 known Illinois specimens. I will show that, in Illinois, the geographic range of these effigies is primarily restricted to the American Bottom around Cahokia, and their occurrence is largely limited to Late Mississippian Moorehead and Sand Prairie phases (A.D. 1200 to 1400). I also explore possible meanings of shell cups and, by extension, ceramic effigies of shell cups. Ethnohistoric as well as archaeological evidence show that lightning whelk cups and, by analogy, shell cup effigies functioned in contexts of uncertainty and conflict, consistent with their context in Illinois.     

The Polish contribution to protection of the archaeological heritage in central south Iraq,November 2003 to April 2005

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Iraq is the cradle of modern civilization, the land of ancient Mesopotamia, and thus unparalleled in its wealth of heritage sites. For years, with its strong Antiquities Law and its professional State Board of Antiquities and Heritage, Iraq protected its antiquities successfully. But since the beginning of the 1990s, many archaeological sites have been looted. Following the Second Gulf War (2003) the Polish government has attempted to assist Iraq. Since November 2003 the Polish Ministry of Culture has been delegating archaeologists for purposes of documentation, intervention and protection of the archaeological monuments located in the central southern part of Iraq, the core land of ancient Babylonia and Sumer. In close cooperation with Iraqi archaeologists, twenty-four projects valued at US$680,000 have been implemented between January 2004 and April 2005, involving aerial and ground reconnaissance and salvage recording of the most threatened archaeological sites. The Polish team has also conducted education and awareness training of the Coalition forces detachments to promote respect for heritage.     

Spectrographic Analyses of Mycenaean Pottery from Ialysos on Rhodes: Results and Implications

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The changing relations between the important Mycenaean site of Ialysos on Rhodes and the Argolid (in the Greek Peloponnese) during the LH III period (the 15th-12th centuries B.C.) have been studied through the pottery found in the tombs of the cemetery from Ialysos. The results of spectrographic analyses of well characterised and dated pots from Ialysos have made possible a clear distinction between locally produced Rhodian pottery and imports that were primarily from the Argolid. During the LH IIIA2 period the large majority of the cemetery pottery at Ialysos was imported from the Argolid. The same situation pertains in the IIIB period, but there are examples of imported pottery from centres other than the Argolid, such as Crete. In the 12th century B.C. (IIIC), however, the position was completely reversed, and the fine Mycenaean pottery was almost exclusively made on Rhodes.     

Floating culture: the unrecorded antiquities of England and Wales

In England and Wales there exists a corpus of unprovenanced and unrecorded antiquities; a corpus adrift from archaeological context and now ebbing and flowing across the antiquities market and which could be described as ‘floating culture’. This corpus includes illicit antiquities and also antiquities found legitimately but not recorded and subsequently sold with or without the landowner’s knowledge. The definition of floating culture as ‘traces of the human past not fixed on one position, place or level’ presents a way of conceptualising what is, in essence, a transnational issue. This paper explores floating culture and suggests that the impact of non-reporting of antiquities remains a significant ethical and legal challenge both for heritage protection policy and the antiquities market in the U.K. and beyond. Attention is given to the Code of Practice for Responsible Metal Detecting in England and Wales, and to the landowner-finder search agreement as potential ways of mitigating the flow of unrecorded antiquities of uncertain legal status. While neither document is enforceable, both have potential to improve the protection of the archaeological record. Many of the themes conceptualised by ‘floating culture’ are relevant to the wider discussion on heritage protection and the global trade in illicit antiquities.     

RIPON AND THE SCOTTISH RAIDS, 1318–1322

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In the turbulent years following the English defeat at Bannockburn, Ripon was one of scores of towns and villages that were vulnerable to Scottish raiders. Most histories of the minster contain a similar version of events: the Scots enter the town and the townspeople take refuge in the minster, an agreement is reached whereby the Scots will spare the town for a ransom of one thousand marks, and later the Scots return to set fire to the town and the minster. While Ripon Minster’s historians have been quick to repeat this episode, none of them has ever produced physical evidence of fire damage to the minster. This evidence is not forthcoming because, as closer examination of textual evidence indicates, the nature of the Scottish raids has been exaggerated by Ripon’s historians. This article begins by showing how the accepted version of events passed from one author to the next, from the beginning of the eighteenth century down to the present. As the discipline of architectural history developed, the early claims for total destruction of the minster by the raiders should have been critically reconsidered. However, they were retained and simply modified to suit other evidence. Moreover, the partial destruction of the minster has been taken for granted by historians to the extent that they have used this assumption to interpret other evidence regarding the building and its history. Having demonstrated the persistence of this particular interpretation in the minster’s historiography, I will then re-examine all the textual and documentary evidence regarding the raids and offer a new interpretation.     

Changing Harvest Dates in Post-medieval Ireland

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During the last three centuries, agricultural writers and other commentators on Irish life frequently criticised Irish farmers for the late date at which they began to harvest both hay and grain. This paper will outline the reasoning behind these criticisms and the defence given by farmers in return. It will be argued that the rationality of common practice is demonstrated by the willingness of farmers to change the dates of harvest once changes in other practice made this desirable. The physical evidence for change will be described, and the paper will conclude with a discussion of possible implications of this for archaeology.     

Shipboard relations between Pacific Island women and Euroamerican men 1767–1887

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In January 1942 over 1,500 Australian troops and civilians were captured by the Japanese in Rabaul and on New Ireland and New Britain. Through much of the war the Allies had either coastwatchers or soldiers on New Britain, but remained uncertain what had happened to those captured. Anxious to return to Rabaul after the Japanese surrender in August 1945, the Australians found few survivors. Some officers and nurses had been shipped to Japan, and they were soon on their way home. Many of the Catholic missionaries had survived on the Gazelle Peninsula, but only a handful of the civilians, airmen, coastwatchers and soldiers were still alive and in Rabaul. Eventually the Australians learnt that over 1,000 prisoners had been on the Montevideo Maru which had been sunk in 1942. More than three years after the event Australians had to begin the accounting for their biggest single disaster of the Second World War.