Saturday, July 4, 2015

Tabloid Journalism Alert: An Archaeologist Patrols the Market

The Guardian Newspaper reports on what an UCL archaeologist saw when he walked around antiquities stores in London.  And what did he find?  Well, the same kinds of small antiquities from the Middle East that have been sold there for generations.

Yet, now in some academic circles they are called "blood antiquities."  This, of course, provides the perfect excuse for the usual suspects to declaim on the supposed evils of the antiquities trade and try to justify a major change in our great Anglo-American legal traditions that presumes innocence rather than guilt-- something to think about on this Independence Day.

There is even an image of that that infamous coin struck in Apamea millenia ago.   Though the Guardian quoted archaeo-blogger Sam Hardy, it evidently did not bother to check Hardy's blog that raised serious questions about whether the coin is as advertised out of a war zone.

More tabloid journalism at its worst.

at

3 comments:

  1. John HJuly 4, 2015 at 12:06 PM

    Ah Peter:

    The Guardian is not a tabloid, rather a Lefty broadsheet rag...say no more, eh?

    Regards

    John Howland
    England

    ReplyDelete
  2. Cultural Property ObserverJuly 4, 2015 at 12:15 PM

    Thank you. A distinction without a difference then.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cultural Property ObserverJuly 5, 2015 at 9:10 AM


    At least one member of the archaeological blogosphere appears to agree about this article: https://mobile.twitter.com/DrDonnaYates/status/617298842317385728

    In any event, it's not so much a liberal/conservative issue but a media trust issue. How they could picture that coin again and suggest it was looted by ISIS is beyond me.

    In the US, trust in newspapers continues to drop precipitously: http://www.gallup.com/poll/171740/americans-confidence-news-media-remains-low.aspx

    No wonder.

    ReplyDelete

Henceforth, comments will only be posted from those who provide a full name, country of residence and basis for interest, i.e., collector, archaeologist, academic, etc. or their Blogger profile provides such information.