Aug 21 2009
Treasure Hunting in Cemeteries?
Yeah, no joke… Over 58 items were recently found in an Anglo Saxon cemetery. Some of these treasures dated back to the ninth and tenth century alone. Personal opinions aside, I wanted to get a feel of how you feel about this matter. Are we to believe that these treasure seekers are trying to act as their archaeologist counter parts? It’s one thing to document and preserve cultures, and even to retrieve treasures to be displayed in museums. Unfortunately, it seems as if some treasure seekers are claiming graves for their abundance of artifacts that are “grouped” together. Does this take the thrill out of the hunt, is a good question. How would you feel, if you knew that you were disturbing the final burial grounds of someone?
I would hope that these treasures could at least be donated to museums, and that professionals were called upon to help preserve or protect the remains. If you think about it this is nothing really new, as people have been grave robbing for some time… Heck most of the ancient pyramids were designed in ways to keep robbers out or by installing ingenious “boobytrap’s” to permanently trap thieves. Now I’m not calling the two people mentioned in the story grave robbers, but one could have troubles distinguishing the two separately. Please feel free to leave your comments.
There should be laws against “treasure hunting” on sacred grounds. There are professional and lawful reasons to search these places but for the purpose of profit is in very poor taste.
Though I’d love to got through a cemetery to look for lost items, coins, etc.., I’d never even consider for a minute digging someones grave, but I know there are quite a few that have no moral issue with it.
Mike
english law no metaldetecting on sites of arcilogical importance criminal offence ancient graves can turn up anywear sometimes farms etc these sites not nown lost for thousands of years