Synopses & Reviews
The exploitation of archaeological sites for commercial gain is a serious problem worldwide. In peace and during wartime archaeological sites and cultural institutions, both on land and underwater, are attacked and their contents robbed for sale on an international 'antiquities' market. Objects are excavated without record, smuggled across borders and sold for exorbitant prices in the salesrooms of Europe and North America. In some countries this looting has now reached such a scale as to threaten the very survival of their archaeological and cultural heritage.
This volume highlights the deleterious effects of the trade on cultural heritage, but in particular it focuses upon questions of legal and local responses: How can people become involved in the preservation of their past and what, in economic terms, are the costs and benefits? Are international conventions or export restrictions effective in diminishing the volume of the trade and the scale of its associated destruction?
Table of Contents
Greek vases for sale: some statistical evidence / Vinnie N²rskov -- Walking a fine line: promoting the past without selling it / Paula Lazrus -- The concept of cultural protection in times of armed conflict: from the crusades to the new millennium / Patrick J. Boylan -- Law and the underwater cultural heritage: a question of balancing interests / Sarah Dromgoole -- Negotiating the future of the underwater cultural heritage / Patrick J. O'Keefe -- Perceptions of marine artefact conservation and their relationship to destruction and theft / Amanda Sutherland -- Metal detecting in Britain: catastrophe or compromise? / Peter V. Addyman and Neil Brodie -- Britannia waives the rules? The licensing of archaeological material for export from the UK / Neil Brodie -- Mexico's archaeological heritage: a convergence and confrontation of interests / Enrique Nalda -- What's going on around the corner? Illegal trade of art and antiquities in Argentina / Daniel Schâavelzon -- Looting graves/buying and selling artefacts: facing reality in the US / Hester A. David -- Reducing incentives for illicit trade in antiquities: the US implementation of the 1970 UNESCO Convention / Susan Keech McIntosh -- The rape of Mali's only resource / Tâerâba Togola -- Dealing with the dealers and tomb robbers: the realities of the archaeology of the Ghor es-Safi in Jordan / Konstantinos D. Politis -- Plunder of cultural and art treasures-- the Indian experience / S.K. Pachauri -- Point, counterpoint / Kathryn Walker Tubb.