This article is being reprinted and reported alot this weekend. My undergrad degree having been Anthropology it is something that I am conserned with. Aparently the best way for Iraqi archaeologists to make a living now is destroying the history they once studied and preserved. For those of you who dont know much about archaeology and might say, "hey at least these artifacts are being preserved in a collection by someone who values them" misses the point. Usually collectors dont know how to preserve the artifacts they possess and would spend more time and effort making sure their cigars have the right humidity. Also the act of removing these artifacts from their buried location destroys almost any value they could have had. The proveniance of an artifact says more about what it was than what it appears to be, even for articles that have writing on them.
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