Opportunists?

Islamic fanatics are burning mummies and churches in Egypt while the army and police are nowhere to be seen.  Yet, unbelievably there are calls in the archaeological blogosphere for the United States to impose "emergency" import restrictions to expedite the repatriation of unprovenanced Egyptian artifacts back to Egypt.   Is this really about preserving Egyptian cultural heritage or taking advantage of the ongoing tragedy to further an anti-collector agenda?

Germany Helps Smuggle Manuscripts to Save Them

Germany has helped smuggle historic manuscripts from Timbuktu to save them from the clutches of Islamic radicals bent on their destruction. Was removing them from their context to save them justified?  Was Germany helping or interfering by supporting the effort?   I'd say an unqualified "yes" to the first question, and "helping" as to the second.  But what of UNESCO and the archaeological fanatics?  Do they support this effort or not?  I wonder.

Timbuktu Library Update

It looks like early Islamic manuscripts thought to have been burned by fleeing Islamic fanatics associated with an al-Qaeda offshoot  may not have been destroyed after all.  If so, this is welcome news, though the situation still seems rather bleak.

This also once again raises the larger question of whether the assumptions behind the US MOU with Mali (a state capable of being a good steward for its cultural resources) are faulty.  Certainly, even when renewal of Mali's MOU was being considered, there was no reason to consider Mali anything but a failed state incapable of undertaking its own obligations under the UNESCO Convention to protect its cultural patrimony.

Roads of Arabia at the Sackler

Today, Saudi Arabia is known as the religious center for the world's Muslims and the World's major supplier of petroleum products.  In past times, however, the Arabian Peninsula was known for the trade in incense and copper.   The Sackler has organized  an excellent exhibit that focuses on Arabia's early cultures, but also touches on Saudi Arabia's more recent Islamic past.  Some of the more interesting objects include anthropomorphic steles and altars from the 4th C. B.C. as well as some classical Greek and Roman objects that were imported in trade.

Kudos to the Sackler, the Saudi Government, Exxon Mobile and Saudi Aramco for arranging this excellent exhibit of unusual artifacts from the Arabian Peninsula.  I'm only sorry that there were no early coins on display from the pre-Islamic period. 

Archaeologists Ignore Implications of Timbuku's Destruction at the Hands of Islamic Militants

Islamic Militants linked to Al Qaeda have destroyed culturally significant Islamic religious sites in Timbuktu.  Back in April, CPO reported that a proposed renewal of the current MOU with Mali had already been overtaken by events on the ground and then concluded,

A recent military coup and the takeover of important cultural sites like Timbuktu by well armed Islamic rebels again raises fundamental questions about whether the State Department and its allies in the archaeological community are really furthering the protection of cultural artifacts or whether their knee-jerk repatriationism does more harm than good.

Yet, it would seem that this latest sad but predicatable news has so far at least been largely ignored by the same archaeological community that was so quick to press for the unqualified renewal of he MOU.   
It also remains to be seen what, if any, impact this news will have on the State Department's own decisionmaking.

Saudi Arabia Joins Repatriation Game as Bulldozers Finish Their Work on Structures Associated with the Prophet

According to news reports, Saudi Arabia has begun efforts to seek repatriation of antiquities from abroad. See: http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1&section=0&article=118532&d=26&m=1&y=2009&pix=kingdom.jpg&category=Kingdom

The article is a bit unclear about the exact nature of the Kingdom's program, but hopefully any antiquities that are repatriated will not suffer the fate of buildings associated with the Prophet. These have been bulldozed in the past few years out of a new found fear that their continued existence would have promoted idolatry. See: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/the-destruction-of-mecca-saudi-hardliners-are-wiping-out-their-own-heritage-501647.html

If Saudi religious authorities have such sway that they can order the destruction of Islamic buildings, can we really expect the Saudis to preserve pre-Islamic artifacts that may be characterized as idolatrous?

Does Growing Islamism Bode Ill for Pre-Islamic Antquities in Islamic Lands?

The New York Times recently ran an interesting article about the Islamic youth movement in Jordan. For more, see: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/24/world/middleeast/24jordan.html?scp=1&sq=Jordan%20Islamic%20youth&st=cse

In her book, "Loot," Sharon Waxman has already commented on the lack of connection that people even in moderate Islamic countries, like Turkey, feel towards pre-Islamic monuments. In particular, she pointed out that Turkey's magnificent cultural sites relating to its Greek and Roman history are mostly visited by foreign tourists. In contrast, Turks are far more likely to visit sites associated with Turkey's Ottoman past. Of course, foreign tourists can only support relatively few easily accessible monuments. In contrast, sites "off the beaten path" are likely to by ignored by tourists. In turn, this makes it much less likely that the authorities will take any active efforts to preserve them. Thus, it becomes more likely that such sites will not only suffer from neglect, but also looting or even outright destruction in the name of "progress."

To the extent secular Middle Eastern Governments are replaced by "Islamic" ones, one wonders about impact of such changes in government on the long term health of pre-Islamic monuments. Already, cultural heritage bureaucracies in many Middle Eastern countries are grossly underfunded. And, as Waxman also has pointed out, once an Islamic- leaning party took control in Turkey, the already abysmal level of funding for cultural sites was cut even further in favor of other priorities.

One thing should be increasingly clear. The old nationalist model of associating the state with the glories of a pre-Islamic past, complete with absolute governmental control over anything "old," does little to encourage the local populace to respect ancient artifacts. Indeed, as the wanton destruction of the Iraq Museum by a populace that associated it with the hated nationalistic Baathist regime has shown, this bankrupt, old model may actually encourage the active destruction or looting of ancient artifacts.