Monday, August 31, 2015

Scotland vs. the looters

A WORLDWIDE PROBLEM: Scotland's elite archaeologists target global tomb raiders (Judith Duffy, The Herald)
N ELITE team of Scottish academics is at the forefront of tackling the global trade in priceless artifacts like those looted by Daesh from ancient cities such as Syria's Palmyra.

The team of archaeologists, lawyers, criminologists and anthropologists from Glasgow University - the only academic team on the planet devoted to studying the illicit trafficking in antiquities - has warned that while atrocities committed in Palmyra has focused global attention on the loss of precious heritage sites, the scale of the problem is far bigger than what is happening in Syria alone, with temples being looted every single day in some countries.

The global fight against the looting and selling of ancient artifacts will be high on the agenda when more than 2,000 delegates from 80 countries come to Glasgow this week to take part in the annual European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) meeting.

Dr Donna Yates, of the Trafficking Culture research programme, said: “People are thinking about heritage destruction now because it is on the news – but I don’t think they are getting anything close to the whole story. The story is way bigger.

[...]
I believe it.

Recent related post here.