10 Years After...

This month marks the ten year anniversary of the tragic looting of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad during the initial days of the US occupation. Numerous pieces remain missing from this event, and the museum remains closed to the general public. Only the work of the late Donny George and his staff, with the assistance of the US military, prevented the complete loss of the museum's entire collections and archives. Work to restore this institution is, understandably, very slow going.

To commemorate this event and why it still matters in terms of the global looting crisis and continued discussion of the role of museums and concerned private citizens in preventing the trade, SAFE is running a virtual candle lighting campaign so that the world community can honour what was lost and look towards the future. Candle lighting and other, written or multi-media contributions will be accepted until July, and hosted on the website.

You, too, can light a candle here, as well as watch a relevant video here and read my own reflections here (as part of SAFEs additional campaign to collect personal reflections from heritage professionals and concerned citizens alike). Please help me spread the word, and join the cause yourself! What future, without our past?

Two Blogs to Watch Out For...

Two blogs have recently come to my attention that both, in their own way, highlight certain aspects of the antiquities trade/heritage preservation issues worldwide, and deserve further exposure here.

The first blog, simply called "Looting," administered by Dr. Nathan Craig and Margaret Brown-Vega, details the ongoing threat of grave robbing/looting ('huaqueando' in Spanish) still encountered throughout Peru and South America. Most entries consist primarily of photos of all the scattered remains, discarded "worthless" artifacts, and irreparably scarred landscapes left behind by looting. The broken bones, the complete ceramics with holes punched through them from looter's testing poles, the cloth scraps, hair, etc. All that context and irreplaceable data, all that disrespect and violation of the ancestors, just so the still-impoverished looters can feed the habits of rich middlemen and the international market. As poignant as the blog is, this is the kind of information that needs to be broadcast far and wide, wherever it occurs.

The other blog, "Culture in Peril," is run by one Mr. Nicholas Merkelson, an up-and-coming early career archaeologist and cultural heritage specialist with field experience from Spain to Kenya, museological experience at the National Museum of Natural History and National Museum of Kenya, and current employment with Adventures in Preservation, a sustainable heritage tourism company. With a world-wide focus, centred more on the ethics/controversy inherent in heritage conservation, site preservation, and the illicit trade in themselves, more than news from any one region, this blog nevertheless offers well-reasoned arguments, a breadth of stories and unrestricted commenting. To quote from his initial post (Feb 7th, 2010) "Culture in Peril will point followers towards the latest reports of heritage issues ongoing in the world today and provide insight into why and how these issues are--and must be--a concern to every individual." In this blogger's opinion, Culture in Peril is meeting it's goal very well!

Keep up the good work, and Season's Greetings, readers!

Continued Tragedy in Iraq

Although I'm aware that Iraq is not in fact in the Southern Hemisphere, I want to post a link to this video here to do my part to give it further coverage in the media and blogosphere.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76yWh3ongT0&feature=player_embedded

I originally encountered the video here. The source is AlJazeera's English Language broadcast. It is only by further investigations and reporting like this, but in other heavily threatened locations around the world as well (Cambodia, for example), that the "Big Lie" perpetuated by die-hard antiquities dealers can be further exposed. Can anyone, especially anyone claiming to be a "responsible collector," look at videos like this and still not think that fresh loot is fueling the global market? Wouldn't one have to at least become a little "suspicious" as to the authenticity of that "Old Collection" provenance lable seen on yet another cylinder seal or cuneiform tablet? Yes, broken up musuem and private collections pre-dating 1970 do exist, but those items too are especially likely to have left their context through what would today be defined as looting, given the near-complete lack of heritage laws and systematic, scientific archaeology at the time. Seeing essentially the same activities continue today in war-torn countries like Iraq and Afghanistan, or those still reeling from the effects of war 35yrs on, could lead only the most willfully ignorant to the conclusion that the looting threat is "over exaggerated!"