August 2, 2003
Looted artifacts and the museums
From today's NY Times, a look at the contentious issue of how to handle ancient artifacts of unknown or uncertain provenance. By publishing and exhibiting such pieces, scholars indirectly encourage illicit excavation. But what is the cost to scholarship of ignoring important artifacts without proper pedigree?
To some degree the situation is parallel to that in criminal procedure, where illegally obtained evidence may be thrown out despite its importance for the case at hand. The issue with antiquities is more complex, however, for while evidence obtained by police and prosecutors has only one outlet (the courts), looted antiquities have many. No wonder professors and curators alike are torn: if they embrace problematic items, they contribute to the problem, but if they reject them, the problem will still remain.
And there are further complications -- not least being the difficulty of authenticating objects without pedigree. A prominent recent example, of course, is the so-called James Ossuary, and Jim Davila has recently posted a telling passage regarding the apparent preponderance of fakes among unprovenanced epigraphic finds:
Anyone who has participated in excavations and knows how few epigraphic finds are uncovered during them, cannot help but being amazed at the endless number of findings which derive from unknown sources, and wonder what at the magic touch of antiquities robbers and dealers, into whose hands epigraphic finds fall repeatedly.The passage goes on to note a case where the distribution of (largely unprovenanced) seals by language makes no sense, except as a response to current commercial demand.
NOTE: The reference here was originally to "cylinder seals", per the cited text; Jim Davila has kindly pointed out that this was probably a slip in what was a quick and informal translation.
Posted by David on August 2, 2003 11:57 AM
Inscribed seals, David, not cylinder seals. They have the person's name, sometimes their title, and often an image. They aren't cylinders; they're more lozenge shaped.
Posted by: Jim Davila on August 2, 2003 6:14 PM
Looking again, I see that the quotation does mention "Aramaic cylinder seals." I suspect that Cynthia may have accidentally mistranslated the phrase in her hurried translation of the original Hebrew. Cylinder seals come from Mesopotamia. There may well be some from Syria/Palestine as well, but I've never seen a cylinder seal inscribed with Aramaic. I think that "Aramaic seals" is what is meant.
Posted by: Jim Davila on August 2, 2003 6:33 PM
Thanks, Jim -- I thought the reference was to ordinary seals, but "cylinder seals" was in the text. I'll put a note into the original post by way of correction.
Posted by: David on August 2, 2003 8:16 PM
ATTENTION ALL READERS;
I am a United States based recovery agent. I recently undertook an assignment to recover monies and objects absconded with by Bruce Ferrini of Akron, Ohio. I was successful in tracking down my client's property which was originally sent to Ferrini for consignment sale. Ferrini sure accomplished the sale part of the deal except for one detail. He pocketed my client's money! Additionally he destroyed or has stashed my client's paperwork on an important Assyrian Relief. Presently I am attempting to reconstruct some of the intregal parts of the documents Ferrini took off with. My client was pleased that I was able to recover his Relief but now he faces an issue of re-vetting the Relief. During my field assignment I was myself pleased that I was able to simply recover my client's property. Had I known that not also choking the paperwork out of Ferrini would be such an issue he would have turned blue by the time I finished with him. A big lesson learned. After Ferrini is in any loop who wouldn't logically desire a re-certification? Would there be anyone in this pool of readership who could direct me to any authority in the States on objects of this specific genre? At least my client made out better than the Gospel of Judas saga. When Ferrini got done with that priceless peice of history better than 50% of it came up missing.
Thank you
William P. Youngworth, III
413-736-5727
Springfield, Massachusetts USA
yworth3@msn.com
Posted by: Bill Youngworth on April 25, 2006 9:10 AM
gmail.com