Monday, December 29, 2014

The View from Assad's Damascus

The archaeological blogosphere has picked up on Franklin Lamb's all too familiar efforts to shift blame for the ongoing tragedy in Syria from the Assad Regime and onto others, including Western collectors.   No mention, of course, of the regime's part in the destruction of Syrian cultural sites or the apparent part the Syrian military has played in looting in places like Palmyra and Apamea.  And while Lamb singles out the terrorists of ISIS for blame, no mention is made of Lamb's own links with the terrorists of Hezbollah, who, after all, have allied themselves with the Assad regime.  Caveat emptor.

2 comments:

John H said...

I have to say that I feel the term 'archaeological blogosphere' is a little too grandiose for anything penned by Paul Barford.

He, as an offensive critic of all things collecting, detecting, and Capitalist, expands on, or cribs, the ideas of others.

Let's not portray his ideas as somehow intellectual or worthy of serious consideration. Perhaps if he were more influential, important, or someone who had the power to change things, he might be worth serious consideration?

Until he achieves that distinction, he will remain in my mind at least, as a modern-day Watt Tyler.

Warm regards

John Howland
England

Dave Welsh said...

John Howland's critique of Mr. Barford is perhaps fully justified. Yet I believe that in my blog post,
http://classicalcoins.blogspot.com/2014/12/archaeomania.html ,
I made a case for Barford's useful role as a caricature of the archaeomaniac. In that sense he does our cause a service, by taking opposition to it ad absurdum.