MCLC: tomb raiders

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Bill (billgoldman at mac.com)
Subject: tomb raiders
***********************************************************

Source: Guardian (01/01/2012):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/01/china-tomb-raiders-destroy-reli
cs/print

China's tomb raiders laying waste to thousands of years of history
Bulldozers and dynamite used to strip priceless artefacts from remote
sites, with booty sold on to wealthy collectors
By Tania Branigan

China's extraordinary historical treasures are under threat from
increasingly aggressive and sophisticated tomb raiders, who destroy
precious archaeological evidence as they swipe irreplaceable relics.

The thieves use dynamite and even bulldozers to break into the deepest
chambers ­ and night vision goggles and oxygen canisters to search them.
The artefacts they take are often sold on within days to international
dealers.

Police have already stepped up their campaign against the criminals and
the government is devoting extra resources to protecting sites and tracing
offenders. This year it set up a national information centre to tackle
such crimes.

Tomb theft is a global problem that has gone on for centuries. But the
sheer scope of China's heritage ­ with thousands of sites, many of them in
remote locations ­ poses a particular challenge.

"Before, China had a large number of valuable ancient tombs and although
it was really depressing to see a tomb raided, it was still possible to
run into a similar one in the future," said Professor Wei Zheng, an
archaeologist at Peking University. "Nowadays too many have been
destroyed. Once one is raided, it is really difficult to find a similar
one."

His colleague, Professor Lei Xingshan, said: "We used to say nine out of
10 tombs were empty because of tomb-raiding, but now it has become 9.5 out
of 10."

Their team found more than 900 tombs in one part of Shanxi they researched
and almost every one had been raided.

They spent two years excavating two high grade tombs from the Western Zhou
and Eastern Zhou periods (jointly spanning 1100BC to 221BC) and found both
had been completely emptied by thieves. "It really is devastating to see
it happening," Zheng said. "Archaeologists are now simply chasing after
tomb raiders."

Experts say the problem became worse as China's economy opened up, with
domestic and international collectors creating a huge market for thieves.

Zheng said a phrase emerged in the 1980s: "If you want to be rich, dig up
old tombs and become a millionaire overnight."

But he added that a crackdown by authorities was helping to contain the
problem to an extent. According to the ministry of public security, police
investigated 451 tomb-raiding cases in 2010 and another 387 involving the
theft of relics. In the first six months of that year, they smashed 71
gangs, detained 787 suspects and recovered 2,366 artefacts.

Those caught face fines and jail terms of three to 10 years, or life in
the most serious cases.

Officials say tomb thefts have become increasingly professionalised. Gangs
from the provinces worst hit ­ Shanxi, Shaanxi and Henan, which all have a
particularly rich archaeological heritage ­ have begun exporting their
expertise to other regions. One researcher estimated that 100,000 people
were involved in the trade nationally.

Wei Yongshun, a senior investigator, told China Daily in 2011 that crime
bosses often hired experienced teams of tomb thieves and sold the plunder
on to middlemen as quickly as they could.

Other officers told how thieves paid farmers to show them the tombs and
help them hide from police.

Local officials have insufficient resources to prevent the crimes and
often do not see the thefts as a priority. Others turn a blind eye after
being bribed by gangs.

Often, raiders return to a site repeatedly over months. In some cases,
thieves have reportedly built small "factories" next to tombs ­ allowing
them to break in without being noticed.

But international collectors bear as much responsibility for the crimes as
the actual thieves: the high prices they offer create the incentive for
criminals.

Wei said: "Stolen cultural artefacts are usually first smuggled out
through Hong Kong and Macao and then taken to Taiwan, Canada, America or
European countries to be traded."

The sheer size as well as value of the relics demonstrates the audacity of
the raiders ­ last year, the Chinese authorities recovered a 27-tonne
sarcophagus that had been stolen from Xi'an and shipped to the US.

It took four years of searching before China identified the collector who
had bought the piece ­ from the tomb of Tang dynasty concubine Wu Huifei ­
for an estimated $1m (£650,000), and secured its return.

Luo Xizhe of the Shaanxi provincial cultural relics bureau told China
Daily: "If we don't take immediate and effective steps to protect these
artefacts, there will be none of these things left to protect in 10 years."

He said provincial and national authorities planned to spend more than
100m yuan (£10m) on surveillance equipment for tombs in Shaanxi over the
next five years. But video surveillance and infrared imaging devices for
night-time monitoring cost 5m yuan for even a small grave, he added.

Spending on protecting cultural relics as a whole soared from 765m yuan in
2006 to 9.7bn in 2011.

Wei, the archaeologist, said precious evidence such as how and when the
tomb was built was often destroyed in raids, even if relics could be
recovered. "Quite apart from the valuable objects lost, the site is also
damaged and its academic value is diminished," he said.

In a particularly alarming case last year, raiders simply bulldozed their
way through 10 newly discovered tombs in eastern Jiangxi province.

The Global Times newspaper reported that pieces of coffins and pottery and
iron items were scattered across the ravaged site, which was thought to
date back 2,000 years. Archaeologists said further excavation was
impossible because the destruction was so bad.

Additional research by Han Cheng