Is Private Collecting Unethical?

maquino

New member
"Finders Keepers"?

This is really a question about private property/property rights, and where you personally believe that it begins/stops. If you think that an item is someone else's property, and you take it, then you are stealing and should be spanked.

If you don't think that it's SEP and you find it, it's yours per "finders keepers".

Should you feel public-spirited (or guilty) enough to turn over something really neat (like the Hebrew Ark) to a museum? That's between you and your personal value system. Just remember that museums and universities are just as greedy as individuals, and can be just as unprincipled if it's something of apparent value. They may not "just show it to friends" the way you would in your home, but you can bet they'll charge admission to the public, and/or tax dollars, to exhibit it.

Michael Aquino
 

TheFedora

Active member
Again apologies if I am resurrecting a dead thread, but I did not want to cause undue inconvenience by making a second topic needlessly. I have wrestled with this topic, especially as it applies to fossil collecting as well as Archeology/artifact collecting. The way I see it, if it is not something of intending to keep it forever I mean I would have some reservations about that.

But I am talking more like if you had these things, and then willed them to a museum for after your death. So that way you could enjoy them, but then after you pass on, everyone can enjoy them. That is how I'm rationalizing it I guess.
 

Finn

Moderator
Staff member
TheFedora said:
Again apologies if I am resurrecting a dead thread, but I did not want to cause undue inconvenience by making a second topic needlessly.
The only mistake you make is constantly saying you're sorry for it. What are you, Canadian?
 

kongisking

Active member
This is interesting timing to revive this thread. Since the topic is a pretty big element of my latest likely-to-go-absolutely-nowhere adventure novel draft, where the main hero is a mercenary employed by a mega-rich collector of artifacts, to find and deliver them to him to keep locked up in his private home museum. I'd been contemplating just how immoral this occupation makes my hero, and the various comments on this thread make a good case for it being okay depending on the value of the object.

Funny how life works. :p
 

TheFedora

Active member
Well no, not a canadian. I was just unsure, because Ive been on other forums that have different rules about reviving threads. Especially ones this old. Well I think in answer to the last person to reply... That if say you have a very rare dinosaur skull or a full greek statue in your house that is not okay. Even having a smaller mesoamerican figurine or pretty much any artifact that has writing on it. But something like a pot shard? An arrowhead? A civil war bullet? That's okay. I'm iffy on getting stuff like roman coins though which seem like they might impart knowledge that is more worth studying.
 

Finn

Moderator
Staff member
TheFedora said:
I was just unsure, because Ive been on other forums that have different rules about reviving threads.
Yeah. Our house, our customs.

Don't worry though, I know why people might be uncertain about it, as there arguably are some reasonable arguments for frowning upon it as well. It can cause some confusion in people, and sometimes hasty folks who don't bother to check timestamps may end up in an embarrassing position by answering a question that has long since turned irrelevant.

We here in The Raven value our history however. We know there's lodes of good stuff buried here and it's going back to what could be considered ancient history - as far as measuring time in the Internet is concerned. By not abhoring necro-posting, we can see at least a fraction of it re-emerge from time to time. Given your field, I reckon you might actually appreciate that.

...and what about those hasty folks? Well, the joke's solely on them, not us, innit?
 

sheffsteve

New member
Perhaps I can shed a small light on this topic. I have a small collection of Philistine pottery from when I dug in Israel and it was kept with the express approval of the dig directors. So many pottery sherds are dug up in an average day that it really isn't feasible to keep it all. At the end of each days digging the pottery is washed and then classified. Most pot sherds are non diagnostic in nature ie they do not aid the dating of a particular stratigraphic layer. Pot rims are usually the most diagnostic type. What you are left with is literally tonnes of material that will go back into a spoil heap, archaeology is essentially a destructive process. What happened on my dig was literally the dig director saying "go and pick out anything you want from the pottery spoil" one day and let me tell you I have some beautiful pieces; sherds of Philistine bichrome ware.
The problem really arises with private collectors who buy unprovenanced artifacts from the archaeological black market from unregulated digs. If there had been a problem with my collection then you can bet your life that the Israeli airport authorities would have stopped me!
 

TheFedora

Active member
sheffsteve said:
Perhaps I can shed a small light on this topic. I have a small collection of Philistine pottery from when I dug in Israel and it was kept with the express approval of the dig directors. So many pottery sherds are dug up in an average day that it really isn't feasible to keep it all. At the end of each days digging the pottery is washed and then classified. Most pot sherds are non diagnostic in nature ie they do not aid the dating of a particular stratigraphic layer. Pot rims are usually the most diagnostic type. What you are left with is literally tonnes of material that will go back into a spoil heap, archaeology is essentially a destructive process. What happened on my dig was literally the dig director saying "go and pick out anything you want from the pottery spoil" one day and let me tell you I have some beautiful pieces; sherds of Philistine bichrome ware.
The problem really arises with private collectors who buy unprovenanced artifacts from the archaeological black market from unregulated digs. If there had been a problem with my collection then you can bet your life that the Israeli airport authorities would have stopped me!

Interesting. I think that happened with me on my dig site in Ostia Antica in that we also had a large collection of potsherd spoil as well as excess tesserae. They were like "we won't stop you from taking anything", I did not take anything, but my sister who was also working on the dig took part of a pottery handle I think.
 

Indy McFly

New member
Provide access

As far as "should I have this?" or not. That all depends of circumstances, local rules, and your employer (if that applies).

But as a historian, my biggest beef is access. Yes, you have this great item. Awesome, good for you. But you need to provide access to historians and researchers. This way the knowledge and history of the item can benefit everyone. This does not take away from your item, and usually increases its value anyway.

Those that hoard historical items and then love to contradict and correct historians about how wrong they are, and then still not allow access are both unethical and D-bags.
 

Le Saboteur

Active member
Al Jazeera has a nice look at this controversial subject.

<iframe width=640 height=480 src='http://players.brightcove.net/665003303001/SJg0bzqkZ_default/index.html?videoId=4930950439001' allowfullscreen frameborder=0></iframe>

Full write up here. It's not that long.
 
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