| When
the sun goes down, the shadow army of professional art thieves sneaks out
on a looting expedition. They are men, women, and children, young and old.
Their target is any valuable (sellable) object of cultural past. Like vultures
they claw into the body of the Mother Earth, tearing away at the scrapes
of the cultural past. With the tenacity of the pit bull, they burrow long
and deep into the ground seeking any merchantable or tradable cultural
objects. Whatever is not palatable (read cannot be sold) is discarded and
un-ceremonially tossed aside. When the sun gets up in the morning, only
the long and deep trenches left behind are the silent and sole witnesses
to the nights plunder. The site is ruined. Most of material evidence that
could provide professional archaeologist with irreplaceable information
about its former inhabitants is scattered or destroyed. Earth layers are
disturbed. Traces of carbon that could be use in dating are contaminated.
The more fragile pieces that once bore witness to cultural grandeur of
long gone civilizations now form useless heaps of crumbled dusty garbage. |
