MiddenMonster
Bronze Member
A "looting history" article that's worth a read
This article hits most of the bases, from true looters and legal treasure/artifact hunters to buyers and collectors. It also touches on various aspects of the laws that cover the finding, recovery and sale of artifacts. Though it focuses on Native American Indian sites and artifacts, a lot of it could cover anything deemed an historical site by applying the logic to artifacts left by Cortez, Lewis and Clark, William Bradford and others. There's even a comment in the article that is reminiscent of the way moonshiners operated. And while I don't support those who dig on public land, I fully support those who dig on private property and believe they should receive market value for their finds. To that end, I think the best way to do that while preserving history is for the collectors and buyers to team up with the archaeologists and universities by pooling their resources to fund digs while still getting market value for the finds to the land owner. Unfortunately, archaeologists and universities don't like the idea of private collectors, and despite saying that this history belongs to everyone they end up with drawers and rooms full of artifacts that never see the light of day and oftne end up not benefitting anyone.
http://kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=5727828
Looters ravage ruins to sell pottery, heirlooms on black market
PHOENIX -- In the dead of night, looters are destroying the history of America, desecrating sacred Indian ruins.
An estimated 80 percent of the nation's ancient archaeological sites have been plundered or robbed by shovel-toting looters. Though some of the pillaging is done by amateurs who don't know any better, more serious damage is wrought by professionals who dig deep, sometimes even using backhoes.
The motive is money. Indian artifacts are coveted worldwide by collectors willing to pay for trophy pieces of the past.
Looters are just the first link in a chain that includes collectors, galleries, trade shows and Internet sites such as eBay. But stopping the black-market business is virtually impossible because of a lack of manpower for enforcement and loopholes in the law that make it hard to convict the few who get caught.
The result is a scientific and spiritual loss.
"They're changing history," Vernelda Grant, a tribal archaeologist for the San Carlos Apaches, says as she stands amid 800-year-old ruins that have been transformed into a crater field. "They're killing us. They're killing the existence of who we are."
Garry Cantley, an archaeologist with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, does not share the mysticism; he lives for empirical discoveries, the piece-by-piece puzzle of history, the cultural window. But, like Grant, he is sickened by the damage.
"The problem is, they don't make these anymore," Cantley says, surveying the field of foxholes. "The archaeological records are finite. And, once they're gone, history is gone."
The San Carlos Reservation covers 1.8 million acres of high desert, pine forest, canyon lands and archaeological sites _ a wilderness patrolled by 10 rangers who spend most of their time protecting game and fish.
In May, a report by the National Trust for Historic Preservation concluded that artifact hunters, off-roaders, urban sprawl and vandals are "robbing the nation" of cultural resources.
Warren Youngman, assistant BIA special agent in charge for Arizona, shrugs when asked how many looters are working tribal lands: "There's a lot of wide-open spaces, and we don't have the manpower to cover it. We'll never know."
Until this year, the BIA, with policing oversight for 561 recognized tribes nationwide, had just one investigator assigned exclusively to looting. The agent, John Fryar, retired this year and was not replaced.
"I just barely scratched the surface, frankly," says Fryar, now living in New Mexico. "One person was definitely not enough."
The lack of enforcement is true across a nation peppered with ancient settlements in national forests, federal parks, BLM lands, military bases and state turf. Just two investigators work Arizona trust lands covering 9 million acres. BLM officers cover more than a million acres each.
Meanwhile, it is sheer guesswork as to what percentage of ruins have been looted.
A 2002 report on federal lands in the remote Four Corners area put the figure at 32 percent. Archaeologists and enforcement officers generally estimate that eight of 10 Southwest sites have been robbed or damaged.
Using a GPS device, a professional digger can read the landscape and quickly map out a 1,000-year-old village that has eroded into the earth.
Some ruins resemble minefields, full of holes and dirt piles.
Cantley, the BIA archaeologist, says hard-core looters school themselves in archaeology and zealously defend their right to dig.
"These guys know archaeological sites as well as the experts," he says. "For many of them, it's a generational thing. They did it with their fathers and grandfathers, and they think it's a God-given right."
The commercial value is based on uniqueness, artistry and preservation. A plain Navajo bowl may bring $100. A good polychrome pot from the Salado people fetches $5,000. Ancient Hopi yellow-ware pottery may be worth $80,000.
Looters get to know buyers by visiting shows, sharing contacts and researching artifacts. They offer their finest merchandise to wealthy collectors who pay top dollar for one-of-a-kind items in pristine condition. More modest objects are sold to galleries.
If prosecuting looters is difficult, bringing charges against black-market buyers is nearly impossible, because authorities must prove that the collector knew artifacts had been looted.
Simply put, it is legal to unearth archaeological relics on private property, except burial sites. It is also legal to purchase items from others who have obtained them lawfully or by inheritance. And it is legal to buy contemporary art _ bowls, baskets, kachinas _ that resemble antiquities.
Even when thieves are caught at a dig, court rulings may insulate them. In 2003, two men used a winch to haul rare petroglyph boulders from Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest in Nevada. They were found guilty of theft but acquitted on a looting charge. Then the convictions were overturned in June because, judges ruled, federal agents could not prove the defendants knew they were stealing something of archaeological worth.
Sherry Hutt, a former Maricopa County judge who now oversees a National Park Service program to protect Indian burial relics, said the ruling means that only archaeologists who violate the law face prosecution, because they are the only ones who know the scientific value of artifacts.
As the monetary value of antiquities grows, the spiritual and scientific values remain incalculable.
Grant, the Apache archaeologist, wants her remains buried beneath a traditional rock mound in the high country so their spirit will not be stranded. She says the pillaging of sacred objects is a gut-wrenching assault on the forefathers, on sacred land.
"But how can you prove that in a court or in our archaeological surveys or lab forms?" Grant asks. "It's very difficult ... Even some of our tribal members don't believe it. But I believe, because I've seen it and I feel it."
This article hits most of the bases, from true looters and legal treasure/artifact hunters to buyers and collectors. It also touches on various aspects of the laws that cover the finding, recovery and sale of artifacts. Though it focuses on Native American Indian sites and artifacts, a lot of it could cover anything deemed an historical site by applying the logic to artifacts left by Cortez, Lewis and Clark, William Bradford and others. There's even a comment in the article that is reminiscent of the way moonshiners operated. And while I don't support those who dig on public land, I fully support those who dig on private property and believe they should receive market value for their finds. To that end, I think the best way to do that while preserving history is for the collectors and buyers to team up with the archaeologists and universities by pooling their resources to fund digs while still getting market value for the finds to the land owner. Unfortunately, archaeologists and universities don't like the idea of private collectors, and despite saying that this history belongs to everyone they end up with drawers and rooms full of artifacts that never see the light of day and oftne end up not benefitting anyone.
http://kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=5727828
Looters ravage ruins to sell pottery, heirlooms on black market
PHOENIX -- In the dead of night, looters are destroying the history of America, desecrating sacred Indian ruins.
An estimated 80 percent of the nation's ancient archaeological sites have been plundered or robbed by shovel-toting looters. Though some of the pillaging is done by amateurs who don't know any better, more serious damage is wrought by professionals who dig deep, sometimes even using backhoes.
The motive is money. Indian artifacts are coveted worldwide by collectors willing to pay for trophy pieces of the past.
Looters are just the first link in a chain that includes collectors, galleries, trade shows and Internet sites such as eBay. But stopping the black-market business is virtually impossible because of a lack of manpower for enforcement and loopholes in the law that make it hard to convict the few who get caught.
The result is a scientific and spiritual loss.
"They're changing history," Vernelda Grant, a tribal archaeologist for the San Carlos Apaches, says as she stands amid 800-year-old ruins that have been transformed into a crater field. "They're killing us. They're killing the existence of who we are."
Garry Cantley, an archaeologist with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, does not share the mysticism; he lives for empirical discoveries, the piece-by-piece puzzle of history, the cultural window. But, like Grant, he is sickened by the damage.
"The problem is, they don't make these anymore," Cantley says, surveying the field of foxholes. "The archaeological records are finite. And, once they're gone, history is gone."
The San Carlos Reservation covers 1.8 million acres of high desert, pine forest, canyon lands and archaeological sites _ a wilderness patrolled by 10 rangers who spend most of their time protecting game and fish.
In May, a report by the National Trust for Historic Preservation concluded that artifact hunters, off-roaders, urban sprawl and vandals are "robbing the nation" of cultural resources.
Warren Youngman, assistant BIA special agent in charge for Arizona, shrugs when asked how many looters are working tribal lands: "There's a lot of wide-open spaces, and we don't have the manpower to cover it. We'll never know."
Until this year, the BIA, with policing oversight for 561 recognized tribes nationwide, had just one investigator assigned exclusively to looting. The agent, John Fryar, retired this year and was not replaced.
"I just barely scratched the surface, frankly," says Fryar, now living in New Mexico. "One person was definitely not enough."
The lack of enforcement is true across a nation peppered with ancient settlements in national forests, federal parks, BLM lands, military bases and state turf. Just two investigators work Arizona trust lands covering 9 million acres. BLM officers cover more than a million acres each.
Meanwhile, it is sheer guesswork as to what percentage of ruins have been looted.
A 2002 report on federal lands in the remote Four Corners area put the figure at 32 percent. Archaeologists and enforcement officers generally estimate that eight of 10 Southwest sites have been robbed or damaged.
Using a GPS device, a professional digger can read the landscape and quickly map out a 1,000-year-old village that has eroded into the earth.
Some ruins resemble minefields, full of holes and dirt piles.
Cantley, the BIA archaeologist, says hard-core looters school themselves in archaeology and zealously defend their right to dig.
"These guys know archaeological sites as well as the experts," he says. "For many of them, it's a generational thing. They did it with their fathers and grandfathers, and they think it's a God-given right."
The commercial value is based on uniqueness, artistry and preservation. A plain Navajo bowl may bring $100. A good polychrome pot from the Salado people fetches $5,000. Ancient Hopi yellow-ware pottery may be worth $80,000.
Looters get to know buyers by visiting shows, sharing contacts and researching artifacts. They offer their finest merchandise to wealthy collectors who pay top dollar for one-of-a-kind items in pristine condition. More modest objects are sold to galleries.
If prosecuting looters is difficult, bringing charges against black-market buyers is nearly impossible, because authorities must prove that the collector knew artifacts had been looted.
Simply put, it is legal to unearth archaeological relics on private property, except burial sites. It is also legal to purchase items from others who have obtained them lawfully or by inheritance. And it is legal to buy contemporary art _ bowls, baskets, kachinas _ that resemble antiquities.
Even when thieves are caught at a dig, court rulings may insulate them. In 2003, two men used a winch to haul rare petroglyph boulders from Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest in Nevada. They were found guilty of theft but acquitted on a looting charge. Then the convictions were overturned in June because, judges ruled, federal agents could not prove the defendants knew they were stealing something of archaeological worth.
Sherry Hutt, a former Maricopa County judge who now oversees a National Park Service program to protect Indian burial relics, said the ruling means that only archaeologists who violate the law face prosecution, because they are the only ones who know the scientific value of artifacts.
As the monetary value of antiquities grows, the spiritual and scientific values remain incalculable.
Grant, the Apache archaeologist, wants her remains buried beneath a traditional rock mound in the high country so their spirit will not be stranded. She says the pillaging of sacred objects is a gut-wrenching assault on the forefathers, on sacred land.
"But how can you prove that in a court or in our archaeological surveys or lab forms?" Grant asks. "It's very difficult ... Even some of our tribal members don't believe it. But I believe, because I've seen it and I feel it."
