Grave robbery
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
"There is nothing that men so enjoy as digging up the bones of their ancestors. It is doubtful if even the Egyptian plunderers left long undisturbed the great tombs which contained so much treasure; and certainly the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Saracens, left comparatively little for the scientific grave-robbers of our excellent age. They did, however, leave the tombs, the sarcophagi, most of the sculptures, and a fair share of the preserved dead. But time made a pretty clean sweep of the mummy and nearly all his personal and real property. The best sculptures of his tomb might legally be considered in the nature of improvements attaching themselves to the realty, but our scientists have hacked them off and carried them away as if they were personal estate. We call the Arabs thieves and ghouls who prowl in the the tombs in search of valuables. But motive is everything ; digging up the dead and taking his property, tomb and all, in the name of learning and investigation is respectable and commendable. It comes to the same thing for the mummy, however, this being turned out of house and home in his old age. The deed has its comic aspect, and it seems to me that if a mummy has any humor left in his dried body, he must smile to see what a ludicrous failure were his costly efforts at concealment and repose. For there is a point where frustration of plans may be so sweeping as to be amusing ; just as the mummy himself is so ghastly that his aspect is almost funny." --Mummies and Moslems (1875) by Charles Dudley Warner |
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
Grave robbery, grave robbing, or tomb raiding is the act of uncovering a tomb or crypt to steal artifacts or personal effects. Someone who engages in this act is a grave robber or tomb raider. A related act is body snatching, disinterring a grave for the purpose of stealing a corpse rather than for stealing other objects.
Grave robbing has caused great difficulty to the study of archaeology, art history, and history. Countless precious grave sites and tombs have been robbed before scholars were able to examine them.
Roger Atwood in Stealing History, Tomb Raiders, Smugglers, and the Looting of the Ancient World notes that:
"Looting obliterates the memory of the ancient world and turns its highest artistic creations into decorations, adornments on a shelf, divorced from historical context and ultimately from all meaning."
In modern times, grave robbers are often lower-income individuals. Grave robbers sell their goods on the black market. Though some artifacts may make their way to museums or scholars, many end up in private collections instead.
Contents |
Effect on archaeology, by area of study
China
Chinese jade burial suits were believed to be myths for many years until two were discovered in 1968; it is now believed that most jade burial suits were long ago removed by grave robbers.
Classical antiquity
Ancient Egyptian tombs are slated to be one of the most common examples of tomb or crypt robbery. Most of the tombs in Egypt's Valley of the Kings were robbed within one hundred years of their sealing (including the tomb of the famous King Tutankhamen, which was raided at least twice before it was discovered in 1922). As most of the artifacts in these ancient burial sites have been discovered, it is through the conditions of the tombs and presumed articles that are missing in which historians and archaeologists are able to determine whether the tomb has been robbed. Egyptian pharaohs often kept records of the precious items in their tombs, so an inventory check is presumed for archaeologists.
There are many examples of grave robbing in the Ancient World outside of Egypt. For instance, the Romans (Byzantium) also suffered decades of theft and destruction of tombs, crypts, and graves.
North America
Generally the most common act of grave robbing in North America has taken place with regards to Native American burial grounds and has been a continual process over the past 200 years. This grave robbing was prevalent during the eighteenth century due to the idea that Native Americans were not considered "people" and were more or less deemed to be "savage". Therefore, their property and burial grounds were not respected and the bodies and artifacts in these locations were often sold or looted.
South America
In South America, grave robbery is a particularly large problem. Grave robbers quite often sold these stolen Aztec or Mayan goods on the black market for an extremely high price. It should be noted that the buyers (museum curators, historians, etc) did not often suffer the repercussions of being in possession of stolen goods and that the blame (and charges) are emplaced upon the lower-class grave robbers. Today's antiquities trade has become a streamlining industry – and the speed these artifacts enter the market has grown exponentially. Laws have been emplaced in these regions, but due to extreme poverty, these grave robbings continue to grow each year.
See also
