Читать книгу A Companion to the Hellenistic and Roman Near East онлайн

60 страница из 236

Still, at Palmyra as elsewhere, much is now lost for ever. Some material will from time to time surface, or be properly intercepted from the black market, but the main problem will be that we have just the object, without the context. If it cannot be known where (precisely, or in general) inscriptions or sculptures were set up and if the archaeological context to date them is lost, these sources become a lot less useful. The discussion also has a moral dimension. In a paper on “Scholarship and insurgency? The study and trade of Iraqi antiquities,” Neil Brodie of the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research of the University of Glasgow let the following imaginary exchange take place between an archaeologist and an epigrapher (Brodie 2011). According to the archaeologist:

The academic study and publication of looted cuneiform tablets and other inscribed artefacts from Iraq is unwarranted. Their value as historical documents has been compromised by the loss of contextual information caused by their looting. Furthermore, study and publication increases their monetary value, thereby promoting the market, which is particularly regrettable as the illegal antiquities trade within Iraq is controlled and organized by armed insurgents.