The exploitation of archaeological sites for commercial gain is a serious problem worldwide. In peace and during wartime archaeological sites and cultural institutions, both on land and underwater, are attacked and their contents robbed for sale on an international 'antiquities' market. Objects are excavated without record, smuggled across borders and sold for exorbitant prices in the salesrooms of Europe and North America. In some countries this looting has now reached such a scale as to threaten the very survival of their archaeological and cultural heritage.
This volume highlights the deleterious effects of the trade on cultural heritage, but in particular it focuses upon questions of legal and local responses: How can people become involved in the preservation of their past and what, in economic terms, are the costs and benefits? Are international conventions or export restrictions effective in diminishing the volume of the trade and the scale of its associated destruction?

About the Author

Neil Brodie is an Archaeologist who since 1988 has been Coordinator of the Illicit Antiquities Research Centre at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge.
Kathryn Walker Tubb is an Archaeological Conservator and Lecturer at the Institue of Archaeology, University College London. She has co-organized a major international conference entitled 'Conservation and the AntiquitiesTrade' in 1993 for the UK Institute for Conservation Archaeology Section.

Book Information
ISBN 9780415510776
Author Neil Brodie
Format Paperback
Page Count 320
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 590g