They’re surprisingly affordable and if I don’t buy it someone else will. Am I really doing historical damage if I get one of these for myself?
The race to save the oldest writings
Hey, mister – wanna buy a 4,000-year-old cuneiform tablet for $10?
“Then I can write a washing bill in Babylonic cuneiform,
And tell you ev’ry detail of Carracticus’s uniform”
– “I am the Very Model of a Modern Major General”, The Pirates of Penzance
People who participate in these auctions are, in all likelihood, indirectly involved in the illegal excavation and trade of antiquities that should be documented and studied by historians, but will probably end up on coffee tables as a conversation piece. I admit being tempted to bid after Salon tipped me off about the Ebay auctions, (and some of the stuff is amazingly cheap), but while it would feel nice to own a piece of history, I cannot justify housing art and antiquities in private collections to only be enjoyed by a privileged few.
Admittedly, this practice does sound rather Philistine – until you realize that coin and stamp collectors do the same thing all the time.
Presumably the cuneiform tablets sold on eBay are of a more “common” variety than the ones in museums. I can get a silver Roman Denarius coin from the reign of Emperor Septimus Severus (2nd century A.D.) for less than $40, simply because there are so many of them floating around.
What is the difference between a grave robber, and an archeologist?
A matter of degree.
Tris
If I had the money, I’d bid, buy one-and donate it to a museum-where it belongs.
I don’t really see why anyone would have any objections to this. Having some cuniform in a private collection isn’t depriving the public or archeologist from experiencing important and rare items. There are many ancient items which are so common that they provide very little value for study or even monetary value. For example Roman coins, shoes, Native American arrowheads, and some fossils. I myself have bought one shellfish fossile, I’ve found arrowheads, and I’ve found another shellfish fossile in San Antonio. I don’t see what’s so bad about having those in private collections.
There are many antiques which are kept in private collections. Farm equipment, tools, swords, armor, paintings, firearms, stamps, books, bric-a-brac, games, coins, and just about anything else you might see on Antiques Road Show. Especially the British episodes of Antiques Road Show.
At what point does something belong in a museum?
Marc
Nothing. However, I think ebay is a rather crass place to obtain one-unless it’s through an organization like the History Channel auctions or what have you.
I just shudder at the thought of some idiot buying it who doesn’t know how to handle such an object.
I don’t see what’s crass about it. It doesn’t strike me as any more crass then buying any other antique through a dealer or a private individual. It is a chunk of dried clay so how hard can it be to handle? I doubt whoever spends the 100+ dollars on it will be keeping it next to their lawn gnome or using it as a door stop.
Marc
So is the difference between a housewife and a prostitute one only of degree as well?
Bad idea–
These artifacts are part of the cultural heritage of all Mankind.
Anybody who tries to own these privately is hoarding something that rightfully belongs to everybody.
I am against any private ownership of antiquites.
BTW–as for the argument that they are “common”…when the lab boys come up with a new way to wring info out of these things in 50 years or so, & they have all been ruined by speculators & twits, what then? Shrug our shoulders?
Glibly comparing archaeologists to grave robbers is not only superficial and uninformed, it insults the contributions of scholars who have provided humanity with invaluable information about prehistoric cultures. I truly hope I’ve been whooshed.
The article does not refer to arrowheads, stamps, or farm equipment from Antique Roadshow. The cuneiform in question is obtained through illegal and unscientific digs, which are incredibly destructive to excavation sites and delicate artifacts (yes, 4000 year old clay tablets are delicate). Scholars do not have access to these pieces for documentation and translation before they are smuggled out of the country and sold to private collectors who probably do not even realize they are interfering with the collection and distribution of historical information. Therefore, this trade is not only crass, people who buy these items encourage further exploitation of undocumented historical artifacts.
How do you define antiquities? Are Buffalo nickels antiquities? Victorian armchairs? Colonial butter churns? Elizabethan chamber pots? Medieval cobblestones? Roman potsherds?
Where exactly do you draw the line?
European Dark Ages or older.
I know you’re a very serious person and you’ve already gone through the wringer with Coldfire regarding what is is humorous or not, but I think you’re whoosing yourself on this one. It’s intended as a humorous pun by Triskadecamus > degree " scale of intensity" = degree as in “academic degree”.
Well…okay. But what if you’ve got scads of, I dunno, Roman potsherds or something, versus a Gutenberg Bible? I really don’t know what the value of these Babylonian tablets is. They may all be the Bronze Age equivalent of grocery store cash register receipts (“1 dozen eggs, 2 quarts goats’ milk: 10 shekels”)–and that in turn may be immensely valuable to archaeologists and historians trying to reconstruct Bronze Age societies.
But I don’t know that you can just say everything before an arbitrary date is so valuable it’s a crime for it to be in private hands. There do seem to be a reasonably large number of, for example, ancient coins floating around, and I don’t know that every single one of them has any particular historical or scientific value.
Am I bein’ whooshed here?
Wouldn’t it be a question of rarity? If a silver denarius goes for $40 then that means that there are probably a large number of them floating around. Not something that belongs in a museum.
If they are of a significant value then a museum should bid on it. Also just out of curiousity, what kind of damage would the average collector do that the ages haven’t done?
There isn’t anything wrong with owning antiquities per se, and almost all of the ones available to the general public are things that are so common they’re next to useless to scholars (and yes, many of the cuneiform tablets are the equivalent of grocery lists–they’re usually inventory records or receipts). However, I would buy from a reputable dealer rather than on eBay as cuneiform tablets are easy to counterfeit.
When you dig up a piece of pottery from out of the ground and bring it into the air, you are changing its environment. It has happily lain in that enironment (be it wet or dry) for 3000 years.
So obviously, that environment must be the perfect environment for it. Or it wouldn’t have survived so long.
So, by bringing it out of the ground, you are changing its environment, and in an adverse way. Therefore it is bound to deteriorate when it’s first dug up.
But once it’s been cleaned up and stuff (and providing it’s a common piece and hasn’t been plundered from an archeological site) then I don’t see the point in being too precious about it.
But isn’t Babylonian cuneiform the first example we have of human writing? Therefore isn’t it important enough such that all of it should be in museums?
The tiniest fragment could, in the future, prove to be important.
- Maybe, maybe not. Archaeology is not a fixed science and the most recent evidence indicates that writing developed independently, at about the same time, in Sumer, Egypt and Harappa.
- Honestly, there really is a lot of cuneiform (mostly fragments) out there.
- How long do you save your grocery receipts?
Yes, there are important artifacts; there are also artifacts that have more value for their significance then they have intrinsic value. For example, a cuneiform fragment recording that 12 bags of wool were received at a certain temple is not important in and of itself; if it is found in a building that is not a temple and contains many other fragments of the same sort, then archaeologists can learn from that.
Many artifacts in circulation are released to reputable dealers in order to fund ongoing excavations, research and study–and museums.