Those mild-mannered Archaeologists...

[morsla]

And here I was, thinking that Indiana Jones and Lara Croft were gross caricatures of what life is really like for an archaeologist. Then I read an article that sounds like something out of a cyberpunk story, dealing with the problem of artefact theft in Iraq. Informants mark out smuggler's stashes with GPS and digital cameras, and then disguised Carabinieri launch a raid to recover looted artworks. Lamenting the 2-3 year sentences given to smugglers, an Iraqi archaeologist muses that "It's not enough. They should be getting 10 years or more. I would like to kill them, but then what happens to human rights in this country?"

From http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1398822.htm

On the ground, archaeologist Abdal Amir Hamdani, in charge of antiquities for Dhi Qar province, home to some of Iraq's most famous archaeological sites, says his focus has shifted from looters to smugglers.

Hamdani uses what he calls a "hunting dog", a former looter turned paid informant, who follows up rumours and goes out with a digital camera and global positioning system (GPS) equipment to locate and mark smugglers' houses.

Italian Carabinieri forces disguised as Bedouin then go with Hamdani to carry out often fruitful raids.

Comments

[one-mirror.livejournal.com]

Woo!

[morsla.livejournal.com]

:)

BTW, you and kitling probably have some of the same lecturers - you're both studying Archaelogy at the same place :) It's a small world...

[kunoichi-chan.livejournal.com]

Go archaeologists!! This guy's my hero, now. ^_~

[kitling.livejournal.com]

that sounds more like a detective than an archaeologist. Archaeology seems to be a great deal about detail and meticulous documentation to me, having started studying it.

That said - Indiana Jones is my hero :)

[morsla.livejournal.com]

I think he had started studying some of it... and then it became very lucrative for people to nick off with all the artefacts he was trying to catalogue :)

The article also mentions satellite photos showing chequered square excavations on ancient sites - the smugglers are digging up areas wholesale, and flogging it off to overseas buyers. The Iraq Museum is trying to catalogue the country's archaelogical sites, but it looks like some of the archaeologists are going on the offensive to stop the artefacts leaving the country.