Ben Macintyre: Elephants ... the way to beat looters of Iraqi treasures
[Ben Macintyre is a Times correspondent.]
... Numerous attempts have been made to stamp out the trade in stolen artefacts, and a number of prominent curators and dealers have recently been prosecuted for handling stolen goods. But still the market for looted antiquities expands, fed by a growing demand from the Middle East, Japan and China. Where once a rich man might adorn his palace with tiger skins and the heads of rare rhino, collectors now bag shards of Sumerian pottery and Buddhist carvings, trophy art to demonstrate wealth and sophistication.
The comparison between big game hunting and the hunt for smuggled artefacts is apt, for archaeologists are turning to the lessons of wildlife conservation in their efforts to protect the world’s most threatened sites. The answer to the plague of looting may lie with the endangered elephant.
Looters of ancient sites are operating in precisely the same way as poachers hunting elephant, rhino or apes: ivory, rhino horn and bush meat attain their value by a combination of illegality and rarity. One solution may be to treat ancient sites as, in effect, protected wildlife preserves, which visitors pay to visit just as they pay to see rare animals in their natural surroundings.
Our attitudes towards rare animals have altered radically. Rather than capture them for zoos, or kill and mount them on our walls, we prefer to see them in game reserves, preserved as nearly as possible in a state of nature. The same should apply to the relics of history. Where once ancient relics were the preserve of museums, today we also want to see them, with others of their kind, in context.
A single elephant in a pen is a spectacle, but a herd of elephants crossing an African plain is an experience of a different magnitude. The terracotta warriors on display at the British Museum are astoundingly beautiful, but still more remarkable are the ranks of warriors in battle array in the great exhibition park at Xian.
For the past two centuries, archaeology has too often involved digging a hole, extracting a precious object, and taking it away for exhibition elsewhere. Increasingly, however, the emphasis is turning toward cultural heritage tourism, and the preservation of ancient relics in situ. One of the best examples is Butrint National Park in Albania, a settlement occupied in succession by Greeks, Romans, Byzantines and Venetians. Many of Albania’s archaeological sites are prey to looting, but under the protection of the British Butrint Foundation, the ancient town has become a sort of game park for antiquities: some 70,000 visitors come every year to take a safari through ancient history. ...
Read entire article at Times (UK)
... Numerous attempts have been made to stamp out the trade in stolen artefacts, and a number of prominent curators and dealers have recently been prosecuted for handling stolen goods. But still the market for looted antiquities expands, fed by a growing demand from the Middle East, Japan and China. Where once a rich man might adorn his palace with tiger skins and the heads of rare rhino, collectors now bag shards of Sumerian pottery and Buddhist carvings, trophy art to demonstrate wealth and sophistication.
The comparison between big game hunting and the hunt for smuggled artefacts is apt, for archaeologists are turning to the lessons of wildlife conservation in their efforts to protect the world’s most threatened sites. The answer to the plague of looting may lie with the endangered elephant.
Looters of ancient sites are operating in precisely the same way as poachers hunting elephant, rhino or apes: ivory, rhino horn and bush meat attain their value by a combination of illegality and rarity. One solution may be to treat ancient sites as, in effect, protected wildlife preserves, which visitors pay to visit just as they pay to see rare animals in their natural surroundings.
Our attitudes towards rare animals have altered radically. Rather than capture them for zoos, or kill and mount them on our walls, we prefer to see them in game reserves, preserved as nearly as possible in a state of nature. The same should apply to the relics of history. Where once ancient relics were the preserve of museums, today we also want to see them, with others of their kind, in context.
A single elephant in a pen is a spectacle, but a herd of elephants crossing an African plain is an experience of a different magnitude. The terracotta warriors on display at the British Museum are astoundingly beautiful, but still more remarkable are the ranks of warriors in battle array in the great exhibition park at Xian.
For the past two centuries, archaeology has too often involved digging a hole, extracting a precious object, and taking it away for exhibition elsewhere. Increasingly, however, the emphasis is turning toward cultural heritage tourism, and the preservation of ancient relics in situ. One of the best examples is Butrint National Park in Albania, a settlement occupied in succession by Greeks, Romans, Byzantines and Venetians. Many of Albania’s archaeological sites are prey to looting, but under the protection of the British Butrint Foundation, the ancient town has become a sort of game park for antiquities: some 70,000 visitors come every year to take a safari through ancient history. ...