Imagine waking up one morning to a band of diggers and archaeologists scouring your backyard for ancient artifacts. What are the first feelings that would come to mind? For most it’s easy to assume: an invasion of privacy, a sense of security being taken away, and the thoughts “How can someone be allowed to do this?” Luckily for you, there are laws in place that keep people from doing this exact thing, they’re called archaeological ethics and are put in place to protect culture, people, and the history itself from being hurt or destroyed. But where is the line drawn in some cases? Does the need to “preserve” history sometimes outweigh the standing morals that archaeologists and historians alike should stand by? So first things first, why, and what led to ethical standards and laws being created in the first place? According to Joe Watson of the Department of Anthropology in The University of New Mexico, Archaeology has always been linked to colonialist attitudes and scientific imperialism. What he means in laymen’s terms is that long ago, a bunch of old rich white men set out to “conquer” other countries, and along the way, took what they thought was pretty and claimed it as their own. A great example is the controversy of the Elgin Marbles of Athens. The marbles were purchased in 1816 by Britain from the Ottoman Empire, who didn’t really have the rights to sell them in the first place, and cut away the marbles and placed them in a British museum. It’s been debated for years now whether to return the marbles to their home in Athens. But the Elgin Marbles don’t even scratch the surface of wrongful excavation, for years Native American Indians have fought archaeologists for digging in Indian burial grounds. Lawrence Rosen of Princeton University tells us “many American Indians regard the excavation of such sites as an affront to their actual spiritual ancestors.” Considering the history of how colonialists and early settlers dealt with the Native American, this is a lower blow to their culture and dignity of their people. Because of these actions and controversy laws for the excavation of sites dealing with the American Indians have been out in place. In 1990, The Native American Graves Protection and Reparation Act was passed to prevent further excavation. Ethical standards are forcing archaeologists to cooperate with standing cultures, but what do you do if it’s one’s own culture that is destroying history? The right historical artifacts tend to go for a lot of money to the right buyer, and countless times this has been proven to be tempting for many people. Looting of historical sights, such as pyramids and tombs in Egypt, has been happening for centuries, but modern examples that exist within the law have been set. Archeological ethics don’t have to just do with standing laws, but with morals of the preservation of history. Big corporations have cashed in on this new craze of amateur archaeology with shows like Spike TV’s “American Diggers,” where a group of “qualified” people find civil war battle grounds or other historical sights and search with metal detectors in hopes of finding a money making prize. Adam Savage, the host of the show, claims that he himself is actually a huge history buff and that the show is to help preserve history and give artifacts a safe home. The Society of Historical Archaeology reprimands the show and its creators, accusing that the show “demonstrates no real respect for archaeological methods, community heritage, or preservation law, since the show’s central goal is to recover items that amateur “diggers” can sell.”
When one reflects upon the subject, it’s hard to not get a pseudo Indiana Jones vibe, and it’s hard to not blame pop culture for desensitizing the archaeological process and its morals, but the fact still remains that we need these morals to guide us to preserving history in a manor that doesn’t conflict with the dignity of the surrounding cultures. Put yourself in the position once more, would you want someone unearthing the contents of your back yard in the name of preserving history?