1. ANT 102: Archaeology: Mysteries and Controversies
Nov. 12th: Looting
Looting: Taking ancient artifacts, usually for personal gain,
without paying any attention to archaeological context
2. Looting: Taking ancient artifacts, usually for personal gain,
without paying any attention to archaeological context
Aspects of Intellectual Inquiry in the Social Sciences
1. Recognizing multiple dimensions to a good question
2. Recognizing multiple answers to a question or a problem
3. Evaluating evidence
4. Developing potential solutions to problems based on sound evidence and reasoning
5. Exploring the ethical implications of differing approaches, methods or conclusions
3. Looting: Taking ancient artifacts, usually for personal gain,
without paying any attention to archaeological context
Aspects of Intellectual Inquiry in the Social Sciences
1. Recognizing multiple dimensions to a good question
2. Recognizing multiple answers to a question or a problem
3. Evaluating evidence
4. Developing potential solutions to problems based on sound evidence and reasoning
5. Exploring the ethical implications of differing approaches, methods or conclusions
4. General introduction to looting
What, who, why, how
What is the scale of looting?
Why looting is bad
Is there anything good about looting?
Who should be blamed?
Can looting be stopped? How?
5. An imagined
prop based on
…An authentic Aztec representation
of Tlazolteotl, the Aztec goddess of
childbirth, filth, sin, and regeneration
1400 AD.
12. General introduction to looting
What: Taking ancient artifacts, usually for personal gain,
without paying any attention to archaeological context
Who: Collectors (aristocrats), dealers (aristocrats), middle men, looters (poor people)
Why: Money, Curiosity, Cultural Capital (prestige)
How: from collecting arrowheads, to digging holes with pick and shovel,
to mass destruction of ruins by bulldozers and other heavy machinery
17. Looted Maya mound in
Belize, Central America
Aurich site, Peru
Slack Farm,
Kentucky
18. Problems with looting
1. Destruction of archaeological sites
2. Loss of information
Slack farm case: lost opportunities to learn about…
a) Trade and exchange
b) Nutrition, disease, age at death, genetic relatedness
c) Impact of European contact on native health
d) Impact of European contact on local economy, politics, ritual
e) Relation between Slack Farm people and contemporary tribes
Slack Farm,
Kentucky
19. Problems with looting
1. Destruction of archaeological sites
2. Loss of information
3. Loss of context
--Where an artifact is found and what it is found with tells us what it was for
stone basin --grinding food?
--grinding minerals?
--collecting water?
20. Problems with looting
1. Destruction of archaeological sites
2. Loss of information
3. Loss of context
--Where an artifact is found and what it is found with tells us what it was for
stone basin --grinding corn?
--grinding minerals
--collecting water?
Maya inkwell carved with glyphs
that talk of a scribe/painter
21. Problems with looting
1. Destruction of archaeological sites
2. Loss of information
3. Loss of context
--Where an artifact is found and what it is found with tells us what it was for
stone basin --grinding corn?
--grinding minerals?
--collecting water?
22. Problems with looting
1. Destruction of archaeological sites
2. Loss of information
3. Loss of context
--Where an artifact is found and what it is found with tells us what it was for
--Stratigraphic context of an artifact often tells us how old it is
Stratigraphy
23. Problems with looting
1. Destruction of archaeological sites
2. Loss of information
3. Loss of context
--Where an artifact is found and what it is found with tells us what it was for
--Stratigraphic context of an artifact is found often tells us how old it is
--What an artifact is found with can tell us about trade and long distance contact
24. Representation of Andean Staff god, from
Screen capture from Raiders of the lost Arc the site of Tiwanaku, Bolivia (circa 800 AD)
Stone-work from Maya area, Mexico (circa 800 AD)
25. Very specific case study about the info.
we lose when we do not have context
Maya vase:
approx. 700 AD
28. Holmul
Tikal
Cahal
Buenavista Pech
Naranjo
Ucanal
Caracol
Owned by K’ak Til of Naranjo Owned by Itsam Balam
(according to hieroglyphs) Of Ucanal
(according to hieroglyphs)
29. What we can say WITHOUT context?
Part of Holmul style, Guatemala
Used for drinking chocolate
Owner was K’ak Til from Naranjo
Painter was Ah Maxam, a well-known master
We can’t say as much about most looted artifacts
What we can say WITH context?
30. Holmul
Tikal
Cahal
Buenavista Pech
Naranjo
Ucanal
This pot, known as the Buenavista Vase, was excavated Caracol
from a nobleman’s tomb at the Belizean site of Buenvista
31. What we can say WITHOUT context?
Part of Holmul style, Guatemala
Used for drinking chocolate
Owner was K’ak Til from Naranjo
Painter was Ah Maxam, a master
Additional things we can learn WITH context
It was found at the ruin of Buenavista, in Belize
Found in a burial
Final usage was not for drinking cacao
It was found in a burial of a young nobleman
K’ak Til was NOT the final owner
Tells us about gift exchange among kings and subordinate leaders,
a strategy for consolidating power.
32. Problems with looting
1. Destruction of archaeological sites
2. Loss of information
3. Loss of context
4. It is stealing
Hauberg stela
Maya culture
Probably from
Guatemala (now
in a vault in
Seattle) but
since it is looted
we don’t know
where it is from.
33. Is there anything good about looting?
1) Developing countries do not have the resources to preserve the past so it
is better to loot artifacts and smuggle them to countries with more resources
--Poor quality museum and storage space
NOT NECESSARILY TRUE!