Re: Archaeology's forgotten debt | |||||
Re: Archaeology's forgotten debt -- CoinCoin | Post Reply | Edit | Forum | Where am I? |
The damage is not a hole here or there but the equivalent of city blocks destroyed. I attach images of the damage done at Antinopolis, Egypt, by looters in search of small finds, such as coins and beads. The other image shows unsaleable ceramics tossed aside by the looters in their quest for valuable items. A Google search for “looting archaeological sites” will reveal thousands of items related to this topic.
How does one distinguish between looted beads and those acquired by legal means? That is just about impossible to do. So the best policy is not to buy ancient beads that are of dubious origin and only buy from reputable dealers.
Collectors have added much to our fund of bead knowledge, but most dealing with old beads have had to rely at least a little bit on information provided by the archaeological record. Without that information, there can only guesses and assumptions.
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