[meteorite-list] Legality of Libyan Desert Glass Artifacts Discussion Continued

From: dean bessey <deanbessey_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri Jun 11 18:19:52 2004
Message-ID: <20040611221951.62673.qmail_at_web12308.mail.yahoo.com>

Despite what you have stated, he and other
professional archaeologists have made it very clear,
contrary to you have claimed, me that even picking
an LDG flake up off the shifting sandy desert floor
and transporting it / exporting it without permission
from either Egypt or Libya is unethical and illegal
behavior. It doesn't matter if this Egyptian or Libyan

artifact is in a museum of not. It is still looting
and
it is still unethical and immoral according to the
archaeologists, whom I have talked to.
Yours,
Keith Littleton.
St. Tammany Parish
_______________________________________________________
Keith, since when does legality and morality go
together? For example, it is legal in Honduras and
Thailand to have sex with 12 year old wemon? Using
your arguement here it would also be moral to do so.
Fact is, UNESCO is probably responsible for the
distruction of more cultural property than anything
else. If you go to most of the draconian countries
where things are exported (But not China) it is common
practise for archaelogists to destroy low grade
pottery just to prevent it from getting into the
antiquities trade. Gold is melted down universally
even by archaelogists. These guys now have a new
treaty called Undroit that might get it illegal for
somebody other than an accredited archaelogists to
even write a paper on historical items if it gets
passed.
As far as Libyan desert glass goes, in order for it to
be illegal the exact location has to be known, and
when it was removed from the country has to be known.
And the united states treats Unesco differently from
any other country. They have to have a specific treaty
with that country that spells out what is legal (This
is not true for other countries). So if egypt and the
USA dont have a treaty about libyan desert glass it is
not illegal anyway.
Becides, is libyan desert glass even on egypts list of
cultural items? Wither it is or not, Can you come up
with a credible arguement about how it affects egypt
(Or Libyas) culture? Of coure you cant. No society in
ancient egypt revered this stuff or used it to any
extent. If it is illegal to export it it is only
because somebody in egypt decided that it might be
worth money today. This dont make it an historical
object. Egypts culture is not being compromised if you
pick up a piece of this glass in the middle of the
desert.
It may or may not be illegal but it is certainly not
immoral.
There is something else. Over the past several years a
group of archaelogists have been harassing coin and
artifact dealers and have been contacting them (Among
other things) as individuals in say greece or turkey
who claim to be an individual with a metal detector
who has found tons of old things and wonders if they
want to buy the stuff. Since they know this is illegal
its an effort to gather evidence to cause trouble with
those dealers.
Since the archaelogists that you quote obviously has
no idea about how Unesco actually works I suspect that
you might be a victem of this scam also. You have an
archaelogist coming up with all those claims and dont
even provide evidence that Libyan Glass is covered by
Unesco (It might it might not) and then claiming it is
legal just because they say so.
Then you twist the arguement around from Libyan Glass
to artifacts made from libyan glass (Which there is
almost none but a few probably exist). This is like
saying all sand being taken from egypt is immoral
because egypt made artifacts from sand and therefore
taking a single gran of sand from egypt is immoral.
This just dont work. There is nothing immoral about
taking LDG out of egypt and it dont comprimise egypts
culture. This is true wither it is legal or not.
Making something illegal just means that it is
illegal. What you are saying is that if egypt passed a
law tomorrow totally getting rid of all antiquities
laws then it would be moral to go and remove the
pyramids of Giza and all tombs in the valley of the
kings just because it is legal to do so. This just
dont wash.
Cheers
DEAN

 

  


        
                
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Friends. Fun. Try the all-new Yahoo! Messenger.
http://messenger.yahoo.com/
Received on Fri 11 Jun 2004 06:19:51 PM PDT