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Ancient and ArchaeologyΒ  permalink

Archaeology vs Grave Robbing

• Message 1.Β 

  Posted by Sabre-Wulf (U2142937) on Wednesday, 15th February 2006

  I don't mean to cause offence to anyone with this post, but I've often wondered where the line between the two is drawn.
  
  Is there a period after which it is legally acceptible to start digging people up?
  
  How do archaeologists deal with the moral issue of removing bodies and possessions from graves where they have obviously been placed by loved ones and relatives?
  
  (I'm not getting at this from a religious angle, just a moral one)

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• Message 2

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  Posted by snazzyangel (U3243081) on Wednesday, 15th February 2006

  The difference between archealogy and graverobbing is that archealogists use the information for history. They use the finds to helo date when something was made and how old and valualbe it is. Then a museum should get it and display it or something so the public can learn more about that person or timeperiod.
  
  Archeogist also help fill in the gaps and rewrite history with their finds.
  
  As for graverobbers they just get the arifacts and sell them for their own profit. Sometimes to a dealer or auction site. Whoever is the highest bidder.

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  Posted by kevmar (U1902470) on Thursday, 23rd February 2006

  Dig one skelleton,you've dug em all.
  There is nothing clever about taking some poor souls remains from their resting place,
  and putting them in an old shoe box,on a shelf, gathering dust,untill it's decided that they wern't needed after all,and then lost/thrown away,as are many items stored in museum basements,never seeing the light of day.
  

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  Posted by DocMike15 (U3167117) on Thursday, 23rd February 2006

  Although some skeletons are simply'lost', etc, they are actually very useful, particularly if you use the most modern technology. You can finsd out diet, health, age when they died, and can extract DNA, etc. A large sample is wonderful, so a large number of burials is very useful.
  As far as a cut-off point, i have to admit that I still wont walk on a grave in a churchyard, simply out of respect, but I, and probably many others feel that by finding out about a burial, you can bring knowledge to the present, and still have respect for the person. the recent bog bodies programme showed this very well. Personally, I much prefer burial to cremation (crem burials are not nearly as interesting, and a friend of mine once sneezed and sent part of a Roman all over the place).

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  Posted by purplefreddie (U957090) on Tuesday, 28th February 2006

  I appreciate your point of view. In the future I would like to become an archaeologist and I feel that the difference between archaeology and grave robbing is the way in which you enter tombs and grave sites. With grave robbing little care and attention is taken to preserve the site, whereas with archaeology the site is respected and the site is preserved for both historical and scientific exploration in the future. Now due to legislation in many parts of the world archaeologists have to get permits to work with burial sites and therefore those without are grave robbers, those with are historians in the pursuit of knowledge. I hope that my contribution has been of some value.

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  Posted by Bebakunin (U2999013) on Tuesday, 28th February 2006

  Re: Message 5
  
  Good point, Purplefreddie, I wish you sucess in archaeology and hope you continue to use this MB up to, and after, you get a foothold in arcehaology

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  Posted by doolfluap (U3354642) on Thursday, 2nd March 2006

  the difference seems to be the amount of time elapsed, nobody really bats an eyelid when time team dig up some iron age kiddy but the exhibit of native american remains in harvard university has caused an uproar.. not being religious myself it's hard for me to appreciate but the people themselves obviously had certain beliefs regarding their remains which should be honoured i think.

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  Posted by aisling- (U3355311) on Thursday, 2nd March 2006

  good point about time team doing excavations for the general public to see on the television.It doesn't really educate people about archaeology.It interferes with the peoples belief systems.

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  Posted by Eric_Brewster (U2829317) on Thursday, 2nd March 2006

  Eric Brewster 44th: Np here about offending anyone about weither it is a question of grave robbing or archeology. It is also a idea if we are preserving what we take for future generations all over the world to view what we take as the archeologists think to be saving the item, body, trappings and items they found around the things from those that may want to steal them to sell them for their own gain.
  
  Unfortunately, the archeologists are the grave robbers, I find it strange that an British resident of Britain being backed by big monies of an society group that was in the 20s or 30s going to an "commonwealth country, having a team of diggers and "vandalizing" an grave site of an Egyptian that had been dead for about 4000 to 3000 years ago; then taking everything they can get their hands on and carting all of this stuff to Britain to display in an museum for his high class friends to oogle over is indeed grave robbing.

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  Posted by TimeladyShayde (U2426536) on Thursday, 2nd March 2006

  As you've said in your post, this happened in the 20's and 30's and before. any modern archaeologist will tell you that that kind of thing doesn't happen any more. all proper archaeology is carried out and funded by governmental bodies, which means endless red tape and bureaucracy. every part of modern archaeology is governed by law. yes grave-robbing still goes on, but it is not done by the real archaeologists, it is done by people whose only interest in these objects is their monetary value. real archaeology is about having respect, and in many cases love, for ancient cultures and their surviving remains. it is about the wonder of discovery, and about learning from those who have gone before. the philsopher george santayana put it best when he said, "those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it". how can we know who we are if we do not know what we have been?

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