Elicott Colla, an academic associated with Georgetown University, has written this interesting
blog on the iconoclasm of ISIS which paints a bleak picture
indeed for Western antiquarians interested in ancient civilizations
located not only in modern Iraq, but also in other lands whose
present-day inhabitants follow Islam. The hostility or indifference, of these blinkered people to remains of the ancient past is appalling. This calls into doubt the foundations of the 1970 UNESCO Convention which is the creed of the unthinking rabid anti-collecting zealots. As David Welsh, respected thinker and writer who happens to be a coin dealer puts it:
Those concerned about
the "cultural heritage" of Iraq and other "source states" do not appear
to be the many who live there, but instead the few, most of whom do not -
antiquarians such as myself, archaeologists, and local elites who share
little if anything with the Egyptian fellahin and their counterparts in other lands. That
presents a trenchant question: if the peoples of these lands are
indifferent and even hostile to their "cultural heritage," what is the
point in reserving it for them to ignore, or to destroy? Would it not be
far more appropriate and beneficial to mankind to allow them to
disseminate it to others who would appreciate and treasure it?
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