Wednesday 14 October 2009

Pro-Collecting Archaeologists, the "Fifth Column of Plunder Culture"?

Most frequently debates about the exploitation of archaeological sites and assemblages as a source of saleable collectables are treated as a straightforward conflict of interests between, on one side collectors and dealers and on the other preservationist archaeologists. In a recent paper , "The Fifth Column Within the Archaeological Realm: The Great Divide" Dr. Oscar White Muscarella examines the network of connections involved in plunder and pays special attention to an overlooked accomplice in the continued destruction of the body of evidence for understanding the past by archaeological means. He sees four visible mutually supporting pillars of "Plunder Culture."
1) on-site looters or tombaroli,
2) local dealers and smugglers,
3) commercial antiquities dealers,
4) collectors, private and public (museums and universities).
The archaeological record may be endangered most by the fifth invisible column whose members are within the archaeological community. Muscarella illustrates the ways in which professional archaeologists facilitate Plunder Culture, suggesting that attitudes to collecting and collectors reveal that the "discipline of archaeology has no comprehensive sense of itself, no unclouded self-knowledge, no awareness of its moral and academic weakness".

Muscarella urges archaeologists to reconsider the consequences of their professional, academic, and personal associations, and to those who consider themselves clean, he urges active participation in the protection of the archaeological record from the commercial depredations of the dealer and collector. I would say Muscarella's paper should make thought-provoking reading for all those supporters of the PAS out there in the UK. Are they "Fifth columnists"?
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2 comments:

Cultural Property Observer said...

It would be interesting to learn if your fellow bloggers, Messrs. Gill and Elkins, ascribe to these same views.

Sincerely,

Peter Tompa

Paul Barford said...

Why "interesting"? I really am not responsible for what they think.

I would say though that in their blogging and bringing the questions they do into the open, they are "actively participating
in the protection of the archaeological record from the commercial depredations of the dealer and collector". Certainly more than most.

More power to them.

Lots of people have blogs, I have many "fellow bloggers" I guess.
Some ascribe to similar views, others don't.

 
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