Excavating Rita

Have had a look at Excavating Rita…  by Richard Herring

I saw it at the Edinburgh festival a few years back…  pant wettingly funny..  and horrible to watch, as you can’t help but see yourself in one of the characters… (not saying which one I was)

this little teaser..

MIKE (the Supervisor)
(TRYING TO HIDE ANNOYANCE AND APPEAR LIKE A FUN GUY) All right, all right. We’ve all had a bit of a laugh there, (HE INDICATES THAT THEY SHOULD GET BACK TO WORK) but my point stands. Archaeology isn’t exciting, it’s a pain-staking, fastidious discipline and to be frank, it can be rather monotonous, boring even. There’s every chance that we may not find a thing.

EMMA
Sell it Mike.

MIKE
Of course that doesn’t make archaeologists boring. Quite the opposite. As you may have noticed from the banter, you don’t have to be mad to work here..…

EMMA
In fact serious mental illness will probably result in your immediate dismissal.

MIKE
No, it’s “but it helps actually…  er.. ”

go on and treat yourself to the whole script…

http://www.richardherring.com/archive/downloads.php?s=Script&p=6&f=4

The stolen rocks of Uluru

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/14/australia1

germaine Greer writes this piece in The Guardian,
# Wednesday May 14 2008

(image linked from http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/ )
“…Bits of Uluru, known for a tiny part of its long history as Ayers Rock, are now being returned from all over the world to the management of the Kaja Tjuta national park. Most come with a note saying simply ‘Sorry’…”

A desecration of an ancient a spiritual site..

Given teh aboriginal peoples of Australia and the ‘right’ for others to stomp over their sites..  I found this an interesting read…  we may get a bit peeved if aboriginal people popped up to Westminster  Abbey and knocked bits off for a keepsake…  What about other sites ..  nobody really has a ‘right’ to damage it..  and that also goes for us as archaeologists too…  ? [8]

Europes oldest human

from the Guardian Newspaper.

Science correspondent James Randerson looks at the significance of an archaeological discovery

this link takes you to an mp3 where you can listen to him talk about this amazing discovery.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/audio/2008/mar/27/james.randerson.human.remains

A fossilised jawbone and teeth found in a cave in northern Spain may have belonged to one of the first human ancestors to set foot in western Europe. The hominid has been identified as Homo antecessor, or pioneer man, a possible ancestor of both our own species and Neanderthals. The fossils date from between 1.1m and 1.2m years ago.

Read more here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/mar/27/archaeology.fossils

Illegal Artefact Trafficking

Spanish police have arrested a couple accused of illegally trafficking a “priceless” haul of artefacts from Latin America for resale in Europe

This news from the BBC.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7385775.stm

Well it seems that more and more, people who are nicking heritage are being caught and prosecuted…

how much better if this is international… and that the collectors are aware that they are driving this illegal trade… It may not be illegal to collect antiquities.. and sure we have to consider the full picture… but looting and unrecorded finds are a problem. I for one have no trouble with the sale of provinanced items.. (well not too much!) but it is too easy to hide looted artefacts in false provenance … a stricter method should be introduced…

Has is been recorded… and by whom… I do enjoy (if thats the word) the EBay descriptions for artefacts.. from an old European collection, when it is pretty clear that means, recently removed from a site and passed off as an ‘old collection’ … I sometimes contact people asking for more info… once you have their trust.. the story comes out… the … don’t tell anyone… it actually comes from xxx…

take these examples..

Up for auction is a museum quality early Mayan circa 250-400 A.D. carved pectoral from translucent gem quality jade. The pectoral is of a early classic face. A strikingly similiar pectoral is published in Mayan Jades by the British Museum included in the pictures. …………. This would be a great piece to wear on a modern gold chain and sure to recieve many compliments. It measures a little over 1 1/2″ and would be a great investment piece. There is a small chip from antiquity on the bottom of the back side. This is not noticeable from the front of the pendant. Legally imported pre 1970, it was reportably discovered in the Guatemalan western highlands. Guaranteed Ancient.

OR

<!–
var currentIndex = 0;
var currentIsSuper = false;
var superSizeURL = ‘http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230249701950&indexURL=’ + currentIndex + ‘&photoDisplayType=2#ebayphotohosting’;
var superSizeGotoURL = ‘http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230249701950&indexURL=’ + currentIndex + ‘#ebayphotohosting’;
//–> All items sold by xxxxxxxxxxxxx are authenticated by our curator and a certificate of authenticity is issued with each item sold. We try to be completly honest in our descriptions therefore if upon reciept of your purchase you find that the description was not correct we will refund your money in full.

Provenance South East Asia. …….     surplus exhibit

Now I ain’t saying any of these deals are dodgy…  absolutely not…    But why is it always an old collection, or in the next case..  surplus exhibits…   question?   Whose surplus exhibits?  …

People will buy…  and as long as people do, without asking the hard question…    where is this from, and prove it…  welll….   I leave you to guess the rest.