
Archaeological Fantasies and Hoaxes - jessaustin
http://ampersand.wustl.edu/archaeological-fantasies-and-hoaxes
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Jun8
“My professor Gordon Willey at Harvard disliked Raiders of the Lost Ark
intensely. The reason being that he was of that generation. He was actually an
archeologist in the 30s, 40s, and 50s, and so for him, it was not okay to be
caricatured in this way. The film did not show what archaeologists did. They
did not go out and find prized artifacts and take them and run away. That is
looting, not archaeology.”

Well, I don't know if all archeologists and museum directors subscribed to
that view until quite recently. For example Russia is still holding on to the
famous "Priam's Treasure" looted from Berlin in 1945 (which in turn was looted
from the Tory dig by Schliemann)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priam%27s_Treasure#The_treasur...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priam%27s_Treasure#The_treasure_as_an_art_collection).
_Many_ other more recent examples can be given, for more information you can
start with this Guardian article:
[https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015/jun/29/museums-
loot...](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015/jun/29/museums-looting-art-
artefacts-world-culture)

~~~
jessaustin
It's amusing that the controversy is about whether the treasure should be
returned to _Germany_ , rather than to Turkey.

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oblib
Great article. I visited Cahokia just a few months after visiting pyramids in
Belize and Guatemala and commented on how some of the artifacts looked similar
and the government workers in the visitor center were very adamant about
saying that the Cahokians we unrelated to any known tribes.

I learned later that if linage was proved there are laws that would allow the
decedents to claim rights to sacred lands.

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ahoka
I thought that it would be an interesting read about misconceptions in
archeology, but turned out to be white shaming.

~~~
Omnius
It was accurate its not like the entire article was white shamming and the
points were true.

