Archaeology Magazine - September/October 1983 - 4

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IN

THIS

ARCHAEOLOGY
OFTHE
PUBLICATION
ANOFFICIAL
OFAMERICA
INSTITUTE
ARCHAEOLOGICAL
5
36Number
Volume
1983
September/October

ISSUE

Plundering

the

Past

setting was the Dulles International Airport in Washington,
D.C. The year was 1981. A man was apprehended with a suitcase
The
crammed full of stolen Peruvian antiquities. Two years lateron January 12, 1983- President Ronald Reagan signed the implementing legislation for U.S. participation in the Unesco Convention on
Cultural Property. The mood in the archaeological community was upbeat: what President Reagan had signed finally put into effect the legislation that archaeologists had been lobbying for since the early 1970s.
Their goal was to sateguard
archaeological sites from the
destructive looting practiced
worldwide by restricting the brisk
illegal international trade in
antiquities. And every step of
the way weis met with stiff opposition from the organized and
powerful dealers in archaeological art.
It's too early to tell what
the Cultural Property ImpleA looted Nazca double-spouted
mentation Act will do in practice,
bridge bottle.
but archaeologists are already
measuring the success of this hard fought, lengthy battle, home warn
that although it is a hopeful step forward, the new legislation should
not be seen as a cure-all. Others fear that what has been gained might
be lost in future Congressional skirmishes, where amendments to
weaken the National Stolen Properties Act have already been submitted.
The gains (and losses) on the legislative side are crucial, but just
as crucial is a public awareness of the problems created by looting.
The exhibition currently at the National Geographic Society Headquarters
(see our story on page 58) makes the case clearly- with pictures of
violated sites and a shattering display of 500 looted Peruvian artifacts.
What people might not realize about these and other stolen artifacts
is that their real worth has been lost forever
Why? Ripped out of the ground by pothunters who channel them
into an international art market, their archaeological context is plundered as well. Where were they found? What were they found with?
How can they be dated? Since no scientific fieldwork was conducted,
answers to these and other questions become pure guesswork.
In the long run, we all suffer from the loss of this information, for
like our natural resources, the world's cultural resources are also nonrenewable. And plundering the past, a past which belongs to everyis tantamount to
one- to paraphrase one insightful archaeologistthe
stars."
"stealing

Editor-in-Chief

Archaeology

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Archaeology Magazine - September/October 1983

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - September/October 1983