Greece in Meltdown

Wise words from our representatives in Washington: 'Greece on the Brink':

 It increasingly looks like the already grossly underfunded Greek cultural establishment will suffer yet more from the effects of any default to Greece's creditors.  Any financial meltdown will also once again undercut the assumption of UNESCO and its supporters in the archaeological lobby that nation states are always the best stewards of antiquities.  Going forward, a new paradigm needs serious consideration.  Greece will not only need to reform its economy, but limit its ownership and control only to artifacts of real cultural significance. The rest are frankly probably better off in private hands, and indeed, state encouragement for a legal trade in such artifacts will not only help grow the Greek economy, but foster cultural exchange that can benefit Greece as well.

Preservation Not Repatriation Should Be the Goal

The Committee on Cultural Policy: "Preservation Not Repatriation Should Be the Goal"

"We can and should do better than authorizing a “witch hunt” for any cultural artifacts that “look Syrian” so they can be presented to Assad and face possible destruction in a civil war. Cultural preservation, not repatriation, should be the prime objective. The rights of individuals and religious and ethnic minorities should be respected. Due process rights should be protected assiduously. Anyone proud of our own hard won freedoms should be particularly concerned about efforts to reverse the burden of proof for legal imports of cultural goods under the guise of protecting archaeological objects from looting. The understandable urge to “do something” in response to the regrettable destruction of cultural heritage in Syria and Iraq is no reason to do the wrong thing."

Assad Bombs his own Country's Museums

the bombed Ma'arra Mosaic Museum in Syria

The depraved leader of the Moslem state of Syria not only bombs and imprisons his own citizens, but is now bombing Syrian museums. This surely makes clear to all is that policies of repatriation of artefacts in a safe haven like the homes of US collectors where they are well looked after need a major rethink. As one writer puts it: "Dictators who purposefully target museums are most certainly not the best stewards of cultural heritage, and so repatriation cannot be equated with preservation, which should always be the primary goal".

Mysterious inscription from the time of King David offers glimpse into the past

 A mysterious inscription from the time of King David provides a fascinating glimpse into the past, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Tuesday.

The inscription was discovered at Khirbet Qeiyafa, in the valley of Elah southwest of Jerusalem. A ceramic jar around 3,000 years old that was broken into numerous shards was discovered in 2012. Researchers were fascinated by letters written in Canaanite script that could be seen on a number of the shards. Extensive restoration work was conducted in the laboratories of the Israel Antiquities Authority Artifacts Treatment Department, during which hundreds of pottery shards were glued together to form a whole jar. Researchers then discovered the inscription “Eshba’al Ben Beda’.” [...] “This is the first time that the name Eshbaʽal has appeared on an ancient inscription in the country,” said Professor Yosef Garfinkel of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Saar Ganor of the Israel Antiquities Authority, in the statement. “It is interesting to note that the name Eshbaʽal appears in the Bible, and now also in the archaeological record, only during the reign of King David.”

Once again evidence that (despite what anti-collecting archeologists are always saying) and regardless of archeological "context:", artefacts by themselves can reveal important information about the past.

More here: 'Mysterious inscription from the time of King David offers glimpse into the past'.

Leading Archeologist Chastised for Publishing Artifacts in Private Collections

Hershel Shanks, 'Leading Archeologist Chastised for Publishing Artifacts in Private Collections' Biblical Archeology Review  23:06, Nov/Dec 1997

Cyprus’s most distinguished archeologist, retired Antiquities Department director Vassos Karageorghis, has been harshly criticized for publishing privately owned artifacts obtained on the antiquities market and lacking known provenances in a catalogue of Cypriot terra-cotta figurines. Karageorghis’s “inclusion of a large amount of material from private collections raises several difficult issues,” declares Ellen Herscher, chair of the Cultural Properties Legislation and Policy Committee of the powerful Archaeological Institute of America, in an extensive review of the Cypriot scholar’s catalogue in a recent issue of the prestigious Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (BASOR). 

I presume archeologists would prefer people not to know about how much good collectors can do by saving, preserving and displaying history in their homes. It seems to me that jealousy might also play a large role here.