03-28-2004, 02:10 PM
Quote:</em></strong><hr>Yes it is a private find, and unfortunately lacks a provenance, though this is not so bad in this case for we have a good idea of the period in which these helmets range.<hr><br>
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That still leaves a site that hasn't been investigated properly. Yeah, right, the detector goes beep or whatever, dig in, get the helmet, s*d the rest. Hurray, I'm rich, now I can get the Gladiator Special Edition DVD...<br>
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Quote:</em></strong><hr>Remember too, that some of the most important museums housing Roman military artifacts, such as the Kam at Nijmegen, was originally a private collection.<hr><br>
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Not a proper comparison, the former Kam museum dates from an entirely other era, when scientific archaeology was still in its infancy. And anyway, a handful of truly knowledgeable collectors who open their collections to the public don't make up for the great mass of objects that simply disappear in the (illegal) antiquities market. In some parts of the world, like western Europe, illegal diggers have to watch their back, but in countries like Peru they use dynamite to get at the goodies!<br>
And there, too, you have rich collectors or middlemen who claim that they are doing "good"...since the local archaeologists don't have the time and resources to investigate all the known or suspected sites properly.<br>
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Quote:</em></strong><hr>This is the greatest tragedy, and largely preventable if the professionals did not have such a haughty attitude, much like the nobility of "old Europe" forbidding the mere peasants from hunting on their royal estates<hr><br>
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There we go again. The evil European professionals. Of course, that most objects simply disappear in the private homes of geriatric plutocrats...oops, there I lose my temper, I mean, affluent senior citizens, and never see the light of day is OK. But I see that Robert has started a thread on the subject of private collections, so I'll hop over there and post future comments on this subject over there. <br>
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That still leaves a site that hasn't been investigated properly. Yeah, right, the detector goes beep or whatever, dig in, get the helmet, s*d the rest. Hurray, I'm rich, now I can get the Gladiator Special Edition DVD...<br>
<br>
Quote:</em></strong><hr>Remember too, that some of the most important museums housing Roman military artifacts, such as the Kam at Nijmegen, was originally a private collection.<hr><br>
<br>
Not a proper comparison, the former Kam museum dates from an entirely other era, when scientific archaeology was still in its infancy. And anyway, a handful of truly knowledgeable collectors who open their collections to the public don't make up for the great mass of objects that simply disappear in the (illegal) antiquities market. In some parts of the world, like western Europe, illegal diggers have to watch their back, but in countries like Peru they use dynamite to get at the goodies!<br>
And there, too, you have rich collectors or middlemen who claim that they are doing "good"...since the local archaeologists don't have the time and resources to investigate all the known or suspected sites properly.<br>
<br>
Quote:</em></strong><hr>This is the greatest tragedy, and largely preventable if the professionals did not have such a haughty attitude, much like the nobility of "old Europe" forbidding the mere peasants from hunting on their royal estates<hr><br>
<br>
There we go again. The evil European professionals. Of course, that most objects simply disappear in the private homes of geriatric plutocrats...oops, there I lose my temper, I mean, affluent senior citizens, and never see the light of day is OK. But I see that Robert has started a thread on the subject of private collections, so I'll hop over there and post future comments on this subject over there. <br>
<br>
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Andreas Baede
