[meteorite-list] Warning about Lybian Desert Glass Artifacts

From: kaolinite_at_ctc.net <kaolinite_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue Jun 8 14:11:37 2004
Message-ID: <1086717981-kaolinite-1.smmsdV2.0.3_at_localhost>

Michael Masse wrote:

>I had understood that Libyan glass Paleolithic tools
>are found in what is now arid regions of Libya .
>What does Egypt have to do with it? If I recall
>correctly, several of our members have found/
>purchased bulk meteorites, NWAs, etc., have
>also brought back artifacts and I'm sure they
>didn't dash into Egypt to acquire them.
>Please correct me if Paleolithic Libyan glass
>tools acquired in Libya and Morocco are
>'Egyptian' artifacts.

Contrary to what the name falsely implies, Libyan
desert glass lies scattered over about 6500 square
kilometers of the western Desert of Egypt and
occurs only in a very small area of Libya. there is
a map at:

http://www.africaland.it/ldg%20map.jpg

The vast majority of artifacts composed of Libyan Desert
Glass occur in Egypt, not Libya. Only a very few Libyan
desert glass artifacts are documented as having been
found in Libya. However, nothing prevents a local
person from taking desert glass artifacts from Egypt
and selling them to naive and unsuspecting buyers as
having been found in Libya. This type of "artifact
laundering" can be a common practice among local people
in the artifact trade according to archaeologists. In
Morocco, any Libyan desert glass artifact sold in
Morocco most certainly wasn't found in Morocco and
quite likely came in from elsewhere else. Given
amount of looting that has occurred in western Egypt,
Egypt would likely be the main source of such artifacts.
If a person didn't collect the artifacts himself, it
is difficult, even under the best of circumstances, to
know from where their LDG artifacts came with any
confidence.

Frank wrote;

> I understand what you are saying about the
>Libyan Desert Glass artifacts"imported" (stolen)
>from Egypt. I would guess though that prehistoric
>man might have carried artifacts throughout the
>Sahara. Libyan Desert Glass

>From what I know, there is no evidence that prehistoric
humans traded LDG artifacts as far west as Morocco. At
this time, any LDG artifact from Morocco I would regard
as having been imported from somewhere else. From what
I have read, LDG artifacts weren't widely traded
throughout the Sahara, not even much outside of the LDG
strewn field.

>So if LDG artifacts were found and sold in Libya
>or Morocco and exported, they would be
>expected to be legally obtained? Just wondering

1. Any LDG artifact "from" Morocco should be regarded
with great suspicion as to its origin. As far as I
have found, there is no scientific documentation that
LDG artifacts were ever traded that far west.

2. Morocco and Libya have their own antiquity laws
and export regulations. Therefore, even for artifacts
legally exported from these nations, a person selling
these artifacts needs to provide the buyer with legal
documentation that these artifacts were legally
collected / bought and exported from these countries.
The lack of such documentation theoretically can
cause the buyer problems later on with the US Customs
Service.

Again, someone needs to do a detail study of the antiquity
laws of Egypt, Morocco, and Libya in reference to LDG
artifacts. It seems like people are being much too
complacent about the legally of collecting, buying, and
selling these artifacts. Regardless of whether a minority
of LDG artifacts might be legal, the overall illict trade
in these artifacts is contributing to the destruction of
valuable archaeological sites. The artifacts being taken
from Egyptian sites are being sold somewhere by someone
for money. Otherwise, the looting wouldn't be happening.

Just Some Thoughts,

Keith
St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana
Received on Tue 08 Jun 2004 02:06:21 PM PDT