Political Instability and Looting Ancient Treasures

While we Americans travel to far and distance locations to explore, sightsee, and discover, there are many dynamics, both subtle and overly blatant, that we can either chose to ignore. The ancient remainders of Peru, such as the Machu Picchu, a pre-Columbian 15th-century Inca site located on the coast of the South American country of Peru that draws millions of people from around the world, for example, have and continue to suffer from looting.

Looting, for example, is a serious problem in unstable economic and political climates that criminal defense attorney Montgomery County MD practice in the US, for instance do not have to confront.

The challenges of looting faced by archaeologists are an unwelcome reminder of the political nature of ancient sites. Although major cases of looting that arose in the 1990s in countries such as Iraq and Peru marked the urgency of this issue, little has been done political to hinder the profuse loss of national treasures. In Peru, for example, lootings is a growing national industry due to the extremely high value, abundance, and accessibility of the country’s antiquities. The Gulf War of 1991 and the current war in Iraq have resulted in a devastating loss and destruction of artifacts from museums and archaeological sites. Historian, Boire, in his article “The Spoils of War”, highlights the vulnerable situation of artifacts in Iraq due to the fact that museums, particularly national museums, are subject to looting during times of conflict.

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