Gold rush: The battle over sunken treasure -- USA TODAY
Arizona Coin Collector
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/columnist/vergano/2009-01-25-sunken-treasure_N.htm
Gold rush: The battle over sunken treasure
Shipwrecks! Treasure! Gold, gold, gold! The hallmarks
of treasure-hunting are the stuff of adventure stories,
more than fun enough to make archaeologists, who are
mounting increasing complaints against the pillaging
of sunken ships, seem like wet blankets.
But more is at stake than just a few loose doubloons,
they say. "The big picture is that a fair amount of
humanity's past we don't know, and it's important we
don't let it become lost forever," says maritime
archaeologist James Delgado, head of the Institute of
Nautical Archaeology.
The latest flashpoint comes with the recent premiere
of the show Treasure Quest on cable's Discovery
Channel (Thurs. 10 pm ET/PT), which follows deepwater
exploration company Odyssey Marine Exploration as its
teams explore two historic shipwrecks. Odyssey is in
hot water with Spain over one of them, fighting it
out in U.S. federal court over rights to the wreck
code-named the "Black Swan." Odyssey announced the
discovery of the wooden sailing ship in 2007.
An editorial in Archaeology magazine, published by
the American Institute of Archaeology, charges that
"the Discovery Channel is cashing in on the business
of systematically looting shipwrecks" in teaming up
with Odyssey. "The artifacts that Odyssey sells
might inspire people to wonder about what life was
like on board a ship a few hundred years ago when
they played an integral role in the rise and fall
of nations, but getting real answers about that
history requires wrecks to be scientifically
excavated and analyzed. The results have to be
shared and debated so that they can become part of
the historical and archaeological records.
Otherwise the artifacts are just trinkets,
conversation pieces, or decorative touches on the
coffee tables of those who can afford them,"
writes the magazine's Zach Zorich.
"Our series chronicles OME's exploration efforts,
which yield valuable archaeological information,"
says Elizabeth Hillman, Discovery Channel's
senior vice president of communications. Odyssey
didn't reply to a request for comments on the
editorial. "Odyssey believes good business and
sound archaeological practice can co-exist and
thrive together, and that the treasures and the
knowledge recovered from the deep ocean should be
shared with the world," says the company on its
website. Odyssey says it recovered more than
500,000 silver and several hundred gold coins
from the Black Swan wreck, some of which it
intends to sell to finance its work.
Marine archaeologists, such as Delgado, complain
that salvage firms like Odyssey rarely get around
to publishing scholarly information on sites.
Once sold, artifacts are effectively lost for
study by future researchers. For example,
archaeologists have analyzed in recent years
decades-old discoveries of shipwreck amphora to
determine what sort of wine Greece exported in
the Classical era, around 500 B.C., impossible
if the artifacts had been sold to collectors,
he argues.
All this comes as the AIA this month called for
increased protection of sunken wrecks through a
United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO) pact called the
Convention on the Protection of the Underwater
Cultural Heritage. The AIA "urges ratification
of the same by the United States Government at
the earliest practicable moment." Signed by
only 20 small countries, notably Spain and
Mexico, the act went into effect on Jan. 2 and
bars commercial salvage of shipwrecks and
submerged ruins.
From legal disputes between Peru and Yale
University over its collection of Incan
antiquities, to Italy's high-profile pursuit
of looted artifacts, to the headline-garnering
sacking of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad, the
public has gained some awareness of the damage
that treasure hunters do to archaeology, says
Delgado, who starred in National Geographic
Channel series on underwater archaeology from
2000 to 2006. "But a double-standard seems to
exist for underwater sites," he says.
"Archaeologists just argue that a historical
site is a historical site, no matter if it
is wet or dry."
..
j-rod
Archaeologist just want the material for themselves and can't stand it
than someone else has the tools and the talent to go and get them.
JAM
Shanghai McCoy
>
> Archaeologist just want the material for themselves and can't stand it
> than someone else has the tools and the talent to go and get them.
>
> JAM
They're also well funded. They'd generally rather let a site decompose
than go after it without volunteer diggers and a government grant.
Florida law now states that ANY artifact more than 50 years old is
historical, and therefore protected... like a 1958 wheat penny..
Bruce Remick
"Shanghai McCoy" <Shangh...@notscape.not> wrote in message
news:zN9fl.34171$u14....@newsfe21.iad...
Or some of my T-shirts.
Leo Marx
Does that 50 year regulation include me? I may be historical!
JAM