Good news for archaeologists
Archaeologists feared that the anonymity of the internet would provide an easy means for tomb raiders to sell valuable artifacts and increase the looting from historic sites. The reality is surprisingly different.
UCLA professor, Charles Stanish, writing in Archaeology Magazine, said "Our greatest fear was that the Internet would democratise antiquities trafficking and lead to widespread looting." He then goes on to explain that, if anything, the opposite seems to have happened. There are now so many people trawling the internet looking for antiquities as fashion statements that the locals have realised that rather than going to the trouble of obtaining genuine artifacts, there is much more money to be made by manufacturing convincing forgeries. In addition, it is a much lower risk strategy in that it avoids the strict laws most countries now have prohibiting antiquities trafficking.
www.archaeology.org/0905/etc/insider.html
28th May 2009