Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Principle or Self-Preservation?

The archaeological lobby will no doubt pitch the Penn Museum's decision to repatriate ancient jewelry it purchased back in 1966 (well before the 1970 UNESCO Convention) to Turkey as a matter of principle.  However, given Turkey's hard ball tactics against German archaeologists at Troy, did preservation of digging rights and all that means for U. Penn archaeologists' careers also enter the picture? 

1 comment:

Wayne G. Sayles said...

NO, NO, NO, self interest could not have been a factor. You are challenging people of the highest ethical standards and an altruism next to godliness—bastions of society. What can you possibly be thinking? They gave the stuff back because it was the right thing to do and they are going to give back everything else they pillaged from distant lands through outright theft or coercion over the past century.