B
BigDan
Guest
- #1
Thread Owner
This year I'll be fifty. Does this mean I can no longer keep me?
I've been on three archaeological "field school" digs. If anyone thinks one tenth of the stuff they find ends up on display in a museum...well, no. Most of it ends up in boxes, in storage, honestly even lost just like the first Indiana Jone's movie.
And often times, relics that are hidden away are subject to decay worse than if they'd not been found in the first place. Especially those set aside and ignored!
One example, the U of Iowa Hospital had collected medical tools from various cultures...some thousands of years old. Some of the stuff found it's way to display windows around the buildings. Some, went to storage, forgotten, and years later was "discovered".
Another example all around us are the publicly displayed antiquities, from the pyramids, to Greek temples, to even old restored stone forts in city parks! Rain, smog of all sorts...even wind, sand...eating away at these which would be better left unearthed. And so many that not all receive the funding needed to preserve them!
Yet, "looters" are blamed for the theft of that which belongs to all of us. Does it belong to all of us? Why? We can't take care of that which we have already!
Example: One older relative holds boxes upon boxes of family memorabilia in his attic. Recently, my wife took stock of the neglected "treasures" and found water damage, rodent nests, aging of documents which could be and deserved to be preserved!
She hauled all away that she could, defying a close relative that likely thinks of her now as a "looter". Is she? Is the restored, protected and framed baptismal record of some relative of hers from 1857 a looted object? Or a saved relic? Or did the mouse gnawing on similar items deserve a piece of it as well?
I know I'm preaching to the choir, but folks, it's a shame when people who love history enough to sweat and get bug bit...or risk their lives diving for it...are considered less than good citizens and proper caretakers of our past. It's a mind-blowing mystery to me how things got turned around.
After all...these tax payer paid professionals owe their living to the "looters" who created the profession in the first place. And they are more than happy to have amatuers digging their holes...as long as we don't keep anything.
BigDan
I've been on three archaeological "field school" digs. If anyone thinks one tenth of the stuff they find ends up on display in a museum...well, no. Most of it ends up in boxes, in storage, honestly even lost just like the first Indiana Jone's movie.
And often times, relics that are hidden away are subject to decay worse than if they'd not been found in the first place. Especially those set aside and ignored!
One example, the U of Iowa Hospital had collected medical tools from various cultures...some thousands of years old. Some of the stuff found it's way to display windows around the buildings. Some, went to storage, forgotten, and years later was "discovered".
Another example all around us are the publicly displayed antiquities, from the pyramids, to Greek temples, to even old restored stone forts in city parks! Rain, smog of all sorts...even wind, sand...eating away at these which would be better left unearthed. And so many that not all receive the funding needed to preserve them!
Yet, "looters" are blamed for the theft of that which belongs to all of us. Does it belong to all of us? Why? We can't take care of that which we have already!
Example: One older relative holds boxes upon boxes of family memorabilia in his attic. Recently, my wife took stock of the neglected "treasures" and found water damage, rodent nests, aging of documents which could be and deserved to be preserved!
She hauled all away that she could, defying a close relative that likely thinks of her now as a "looter". Is she? Is the restored, protected and framed baptismal record of some relative of hers from 1857 a looted object? Or a saved relic? Or did the mouse gnawing on similar items deserve a piece of it as well?
I know I'm preaching to the choir, but folks, it's a shame when people who love history enough to sweat and get bug bit...or risk their lives diving for it...are considered less than good citizens and proper caretakers of our past. It's a mind-blowing mystery to me how things got turned around.
After all...these tax payer paid professionals owe their living to the "looters" who created the profession in the first place. And they are more than happy to have amatuers digging their holes...as long as we don't keep anything.
BigDan
looter
