Sniff-Searching for Genuine Antiquities

Kate FitzGibbon, one of the authors of the CCP blog pours scorn on the idea of using dogs to search out hidden antiquities at border crossings ("Doggie Boondoggle – Antiquities Sniffing Dogs"  May 27, 2017).

A group known as Red Arch Cultural Heritage Law and Policy Research has proposed training drug-sniffing type dogs to detect antiquities [...] One would assume that the dogs are being trained to recognize the smell of absorbed dirt or other associated materials, since ceramic or stone would be inert, but so far, the articles on the proposed Canine Antiquities Police haven’t explained the science behind the program. [...] It’s cute, but it’s dumb.

The author presumably does not know of one of the tests routinely used by buyers of ancient ceramics and terracotta objects, the 'sniff test', smelling the odor of a freshly-wet area of ceramic (saliva will suffice - so the test is colloquially referred to in some circles as 'spit and smell'). A fake object will have no detectable smell, while an ancient object is revealed by the unmistakable musty odor it has - like a mature cheese. the smell is unfakable -and would be a dead giveaway to an animal specially trained to detect it. Of course that only works if the antiquities actually are real and not fakes inserted into a shipment - perhaps that is the reason why a lawyer representing dealers is so scathing of the ability of dogs to detect authentic imports, Failure of such dogs to smell genuine antiquities among those coming on the market might start to lower buyer confidence in the dealers and their suppliers!