Here I am yet again, staring at my screen... when will the insanity stop... when will this cursor stop battling with me... perhaps if I press... F... no that didn't work... what about... M... man it won't stop... here is an... A... still it blinks... you know, reader, perhaps I am not well... is battling with my cursor healthy? Who cares... I choose to whom I battle with...

But anyway, I write this article with a heavy heart... not in the literal sense for I don't think my heart is actually any heavier than it was before I started writing this, but here I speak metaphorically. You see, reader, I have noticed an increasing amount of attention to Archaeological sights worldwide. This turn of events has a special place in my heart seeing as how my background lies within the Archeological Realm. The reason, however, that this makes my heart heavy is that the attention these sites are being given is in response to the said sites desecration, destruction, or elimination. Large parts of our global history have being destroyed at a phenomenal rate over the past decade. The need for more space for the human animal, the need for dominance in a region by eliminating sites and artifacts of religious and cultural significance and the down right desecration by vandals and 'gold-diggers' all contribute to these rampant reduction in sites of historical significance.

The most popularized event of this concerns the announcement by the Afghanistan fundamentalist group called the Taliban. This group, going by the philosophy that 'The real God is only Allah, and all other false gods should be removed', announced that all relics and statues other than the ones directly associated with the Taliban's religious affiliations are to be destroyed; an act condemned by the Archaeological community as 'Cultural Terrorism'. Sadly the public can do little to save the relics and statues from this fate.

Some of the targeted statues were two 174-foot-tall statues of Buddha carved into an Afghan cliff over 1500 years ago. Not only do these two statues have an enormous religious and ethnographic significance, but also they were once the countries main tourist draw. To make the case even stronger, all the areas where this 'Cultural Terrorism' is taking place have been subsequently sealed off to scholars and tourists alike thus giving the Taliban the ability to commit these acts with relative impunity.

Now reader, it is not simple vandalism that is taking place, actually it is quite the contrary. The Taliban have been using everything from small amounts of TNT to truck bombs to anti-aircraft munitions against these relics. When confronted by the world community a spokesman for the Taliban down played the events as 'no big issue, they are only objects of stone and mud'.

These statues go way back into antiquity when cells were carved into the cliff face for the monks to be close to Buddha. The Chinese monk Hiuan Tsang gave us the first written record of these statues when he visited in 632. These statues survived invasions and artillery barrages to be a surviving testament to the Buddhist faith. Now they are a shattered and charred reminder of intolerance.

Mining and infrastructure development takes its toll on the Archaeological record as well. Notably, the cave art in the Pomier Caves in San Cristobal are threatened by limestone blasting for the Dominican Republic. These caves were first discovered in 1851 by Robert Schonburk and are thought to be the works of the Carib, Taino, and Igneri people. This site of close to 50-semied caves with close to 6000 pictures of various animals and men is widely considered amongst scholars as the premier site for pre-Columbian works in the Caribbean. So, in an effort to provide ingredients for medication for stomach ailments and building supplies, a part of these peoples culture is being severely damaged. Because of the necessity for the expansion of the overwhelming human population of the area, images depicting the cultural interactions and subsistence practices are being erased. Of the over 50 caves in the area, only 12 are protected from such destruction.

Now, the Plains of Marathon are being threatened in favor of the 2004 Olympics. The site of the epic battle between the Greeks and Persians is now in danger of being considered for the site of the rowing and canoeing competition for the Olympics. So, in essence, the plains of Marathon are in danger from the very sporting event that was started by the people who made this place famous. Talk about quiet Irony, huh? Without full investigation of this site and the surrounding wetlands, a huge piece of the battle of Marathon will be lost forever. Several scenes from the Colonnade of Athenian Agora provide conflicting images of the battle, and Herodutos' account of the battle is subject to criticisms as well. Only through sound geological and Archaeological investigation can this discrepancy be cleared up. You see, if the Greeks pushed the Persians into the surrounding wetlands, or if the Persians were pushed back to sea along with their invasion armada, the whole scope of Greek history can change. And the very games that made the Greeks famous threaten to ruin part of its history.

The secrets of our paternity lie in these sites, and we must haste there to learn them. The United States has gotten quite responsible when it comes to the sites contained within its borders. We have instituted a federal and state run program called CRM or Cultural Resource Management. This program provides that wherever large-scale developments occur, an Archaeologist must first test the site for cultural importance. A potsherd or handful of arrowheads can halt the construction of entire highways until the site can be recorded with such detail that clock-makers would be envious. Now this is not to say that sites aren't sometimes lost, as I am sure they are, but in an effort to stop the loss of heritage and history, state and federal governments began to recognize the seriousness of Ethnographic and Archaeological studies play in the safe keeping of these sites.

Unfortunately these same rules do not apply to the cultures elsewhere where the importance of the past is taking a back seat to the need to secure a future. Through intolerance and sheer malicious intent stone columns at religious temples older than the skies themselves are being toppled for 'fun'. Through the need to make one religion supreme in a land war in the East, giant statues and historical preserves are being eliminated as quickly and as off-handedly as the people feel they should be. Without a true and knowable record of such places, parts of entire cultures are lost. The Ages of Empires, the passing of dynasties, the religious and ideological spread of entire people lays waiting its own demise under the hands of those who care not for where they came from. To me that is the greatest tragedy.

You see, reader; we know only a fraction of the history of this world. Some would say that the Bible, and the Odyssey and Herodotus speak it all; others would say that those who were in power at the time it was written wrote the history of the world. But what Archaeology seeks to give is a past, an objective past, of the site that is studied. By offering up findings to the scholarly world, that objectivity can be obtained. However, a site is required. A site devoid of TNT scars and charred remains of tyres. From my point of view, with the way the world developed, these most ancient and diverse cultures are the basis for the development of world culture. Unfortunately, reader, there is little we can do to make these sites sacred. These sites lay in places where the social intolerance precludes the adequate study of them. Now this is wrong in more than one way, but the benefit we could gain by learning from these sites could provide us with just much more of the history. Imagine if full scale bombing of Gettysburg was allowed, or the desecration of the Tower of London. The insult is inherent, and the scholarly evidence tainted.

So, reader, to you I wish Godspeed and I look forward to hearing about your further adventures.

Aaron O'Keefe

04.10.01. Front Page

Back Issue Page