Archaeology Ethical Issues

People from all walks of life face many ethical dilemmas. These dilemmas have consequences. Our worldview determines how we deal with these dilemmas, and guides us to the right decisions. In this essay, I will examine an ethical issues through my Christian worldview. I will also present other viewpoints, and compare them to mine.

Many people visit museums to view antiquities. They enjoy seeing these relics of the ancient world as a way of understanding past cultures and sometimes connecting with their own heritage. This evidence was found in the passage, “Returning Antiquities to Their Countries of Origin” by Joyce Mortimer paragraph 1. Cultural artifacts should not be returned to their region of origin because some people don’t have enough money to travel to China or Brazil to go look at ancient artifacts from the past. So they should bring these ancient trinkets to places like America and Canada so people around the world can study different cultures to learn more about the life around use.

An unscrupulous archaeologist by the name of Henirich Hochstetter excavated the Shoen-Tell site in Turkey in the late 1920s. Hochstetter was interested more in antiquities than in data, so he provided little substantive information tot eh professional community about his dig or his findings. However, a conscientious assistant of Hochstetter’s, Roxanne Browne, managed to collect detailed information on fifty of the burials Hochstetter plundered. Her data is

These issues with museums and other institutions has led many tribes to not only protest these collections and demand the most sacred items back, but to also develop their own institution that not only tell the real story of their people from a non scientific point of view, but also show the proper resect for the sacred and religious artifacts. Religious sights and objects are a piece of many different groups culture, many of which require a certain level of respect. Within the United States Native American groups are reclaiming these objects for their own

In the 7th Century AD, an important individual was buried inside a ship in East Anglia. The ship most likely hauled up from the nearby river, a burial chamber was built in the center of the massive vessel. Luckily grave robbers did not reach the ship burial as they did other nearby burial mounds, because the ship was rich in history and artifacts including gold, silver, bowls, spoons, weapons, drinking horns and much more. Originally discovered in 1939, the artifacts and ship burial have been closely examined another 2 times. The artifacts found within the magnificent burial site have created a lot of stir over the past 80 years. Theories have changed on the significance and origins of the artifacts due to changing hypothesis or the arrival of new and different evidence. Because there are dozens of artifacts within Sutton Hoo, this paper will be focusing on a select four of them including; the ‘baptismal’ spoons, the Merovingian coin hoard, the whetstone, and the scepter. According to scholars over the past 80 years, how have opinions, evidence, or assumptions changed relating to these exact artifacts? This paper will be taking a contemporary look at the perspectives of different scholars on different artifacts and, finally, analyze why these perspectives have shifted or changed over time. To my knowledge, scholars do give credit to previous perspectives, but no scholar has every brought all the perspectives together and analyzed their findings.

The issue of artifacts that have been taken from their original homes has started some global debate. Some may say that the artifacts need to be returned to their place of origin or who found them. They may also say that there are laws saying that the artifacts should be returned. Others may say that no matter who the objects belong to the artifacts should remain in museums around the world. Artifacts should not be returned to their nations of origins.

Politics within nations and communities influences the finding of art artifacts and the eventual explanation of the art artifacts because they decide who has the right to claim it. If an archeologist finds an artifact that belongs to a nation or community and has significance, then the archaeologist can’t claim it. This can cause archaeologists and art historians to feel a certain pressure within their research projects because they can’t retaliate if a community claims the artifact they’ve been researching and studying. However, when the rightful community claims the artifact, they may be able to add insight into the meaning of the artifact because it belongs to them so they may know more about

Indiana Jones is a renowned character in today’s media. He is portrayed as a fearless fedora-wearing archaeologist, and his goal is to collect artifacts and preserve them in museums. While the field of archaeology is exciting, and the idea of partaking in perilous adventures may seem alluring, the archaeologist was depicted in an incorrect manner. An archaeologist is someone who studies human history through the excavation of sites and the examination of artifacts. Archaeologists study the past to learn more about the lives and cultures of people before. The science of archaeology is a relatively new and quickly growing field; yet, as expected with science, numerous ethical and controversial issues have emerged.

Towards the mid 19th century, methods in excavating Pompeii and Herculaneum changed due to the concerns associated with the preservation and conservation of the site. As a result of this, archaeologists such as Giuseppe Fiorelli and Amedeo Maiuri developed new methods and approaches towards the excavation of Pompeii.

Since the number of shipwreck discoveries has been increasing over the years, there is a constant disagreement between treasure hunters and archaeologists regarding who has the right to recover artifacts from these underwater sites. This conflict is causing people to consider the positive and negative aspects of both sides of the issue. The documentary, Deep Sea Treasure Hunters Versus Archaeologists, shows the importance of archaeology for understanding the past and settles the debate between the treasure hunters and archaeologists. This film suggests that a more efficient system could be developed for the greater good of archaeology if the two sides worked together.

Carter’s methodology for the excavation was that of maintaining records for each artefact and that every artefact that was brought out of the tomb was preserved appropriately. Carter methodology involved the referencing of every item found, where it was found in the tomb, preservation of the item and its conservation. Photographs were also taken of the artefacts

What is heritage and who has the power to determine the entities that own these cultural artifacts and the way that heritage is remembered in society? Lowenthal states that heritage illustrates society’s ancestries, artifacts, and cultural identity (Lowenthal, 22). Barber addresses how government can alter the interpretation of a culture. The articles in The Antiquities Act expressed the importance that legislative actions have in the field of cultural resource management through the protection of antiquities that represented the nation’s heritage. The theme of the readings depicts the influence that a country’s government has in preserving and interpreting its nation’s culture. When analyzing the theme, it is important to understand how claiming

The treatment of human remains has greatly changed over time, with much more care and focus being put in remains especially bodies over a thousand years old. As the times of breaking into tombs and coffins ripping bodies apart and crunching old skeletons are over, nowadays much more research and importance towards the bodies take place. With science now being a major focus to examine the body and laws of how to treat and examine the bodies are now in place to stop the ruining of important ancient bodies.

In Europe and Britian, in areas of boggy, marshy soil, several well-preserved bodies have been found. They were prevented from decaying by the airless conditions of the bog. Due to their excellent preservation, they tell us many things about the past. We learn about punishment and human sacrifice, fashion and materials used, hairstyles and jewellery, physical diseases and how they treated them, diet, and tools and

In conclusion, the ethnoarchaeological studies involve both archaeology and ethnography in explaining contemporary cultures based on the past discoveries in the form of artifacts and material