Archaeological remains - who cares?

[Caius Fabius]

First, we have come a long way in methods of recording, testing a reproducing artifacts. Instead of passing the actual items from glass case to glass case, or back room to back room, the originals should be carefully examined, scanned, computer recorded, and stored in an archivally safe manner, by any country which can afford to do that. Any country having a unique artifact, whatever it's origin, should make copies available at a reasonable cost, to any museum or display that can display them for educational purposes.

If you can make exact copies, then the whole idea of 'collecting artifacts' for their intrinsic value would go by the wayside in most cases. This would eventually stop looting of sites for 'priceless artifacts', and send the 'just for money collectors' back to collecting baseball cards and autographs. :lol: Most people going to a museum don't know the difference between an artifact and a copy, (as can be proved by the movie experts who create costumes for Roman movies after wandering through some Italian museums).

Also, there should be an international agreement that all finds must be published (online and in accessible media) within so many months of recovery, depending on conservation requirements and that all artifacts must be conserved and recorded in a timely fashion. This would slow down the legal digging about and disturbing of sites and give unemployed history graduates a job. :lol:

All construction should be banned in areas where there are archaeological ruins, (especially pre-1300AD), and ring roads and new buildings should be limited to construction in the backyards of politicians and lawyers, (who must not be allowed withing 100,000 meters of suspected archaeological sites. This would have the added benefit of forcing lawyers and politicians to leave most of Europe and migrate to deserts or places like the USA and Australia. (I actually have Native Amerindian archaeological ruins from 1100-1200 in my area so they can't move here). :lol:


Lastly, any illegal artifact diggers should be sentenced to several years labor, at McDonald's or other fast food establishments, and encouraged to eat Big Macs and french fries / pommefritz until they no longer have the ability to bend over and dig in archaeological sites.