Nicely put, Michaelson. (nm)

Posted by bud-arc from smfc760-1.jps.net on March 09, 2000 at 23:35:42:

In Reply to: Yep, glass houses and all that (grins) posted by Michaelson on March 09, 2000 at 16:29:05:

: : : Still, my argument is that what Indy was doing wasn't anything bad or wrong at the time. The science of archaeology was still in it's "primitive" states, and it did consist of taking what you can and running with it. Then, over the years, archaeology started becoming more intellectual and precise; it's a good thing Indiana Jones would've been retired by that time. Not that I'm complaining, but I wish I were living in the "glory" days of archaeology...

: : Hey. The "glory days"? You mean back in those idealic days when Nazis tried to shoot scientists, and cult members tried to pull your heart out? :) Seriously, though, back in archaeology's early days, it was the hobby of rich SOBs who robbed graves and smuggled their treasures out of the country. Now antrhropologists and archaeologists decry the looting of artifacts' home countries, but don't ask the British Museum or the Smithsonian to return their biggest draws... Hell, if these people didn't loot graves and rob "primitive" societies, I'd be out of a job... Ooh, I'm really caught in the middle here.
: : -graml

: I guess one thing we need to remember is that we don't want to be guilty of revisionist history here. At the time that the "rich" so and so's (to paraphrase you) were out paying for other folks to dig in the dirt, then took the credit for the finds, that was indeed considered the cutting edge of the science, and was the accepted ways and means that archaeology was performed. Heavens, the Egyptians were themselves robbing the graves themselves and selling the finds on the streets of Cairo clear up to the beginning of WWII. More than one book and report states when the cache of royal mummies were found and carried out from the cave outside the Valley of the Kings, Egyptians crowded both sides of the Nile crying and wailing, and not necessarily for the past rulers of the Nile region, but for the fact that one of their own common people had lead the Egyptologists to the cave and had technically stolen one of their ways of making a living, tomb robbing. So, as pointed out in the last line of the posting, if they hadn't done what we now consider unacceptable, how much information would have been totally lost to history. Granted, it was wrong according to what we now know as correct scientific standards, it did indeed have it's place in it's time and of it's time and shouldn't be critized using today's measurements. At least, that's my opinion, for what it's worth. Regards. Michaelson

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