Archaeology vs. grave robbing: Where’s the line?

Opinion

Discussion

August 22, 2009

Dwain Walden The Moultrie Observer Sat Aug 22, 2009, 10:22 PM EDT

Question one: Is there socially redeeming value in digging up mummies and trying to determine facts about their lives?

Question two: How old does a body have to be before you dig it up and gawk at it? In other words, where is the line between archaeology and grave robbing?

I realize these questions do not rank up there with: How do we fix health care? How do we solve the energy crisis? And how do we fix Congress? And I may be the only one asking these lesser things. But they came to mind today when I read about Stanford University scientists who will scan a 2,500-year-old mummy to determine how the man died.

Certainly a mummy is a great conversation piece if you happen to have one in the closet. This mummy is believed to have been a priest. I think they’ve already determined that he wasn’t a basketball player because he’s only 5-feet, four inches tall. I suppose he could have been a jockey.

When I was a kid, I visited a museum, and there was a mummy on display. And yes, I did wonder about that body wrapped in that ancient linen. Did he like to fish? Did he have a dog? Did he ever have to do community service work for writing graffiti on a pyramid? Stuff like that.

Oh I forgot. Did he ever pick butterbeans? As a youngster, I thought that was a universal thing. I would have argued that even extraterrestrials picked butterbeans.

Now the Stanford scientists will be able to examine every bone in this mummy’s body. They can look for fractures and artifacts that might have been buried with him.

Because this mummy dates to 500 B.C. just before the Persian conquest of Egypt, scientists believe their findings could help fill in some sketchy chapters of history. All of this from one dead guy. Imagine if they had three or four.

While we may be slightly interested, archaeologists are downright giddy about this event. Several years ago archaeologists examined a prehistoric man that had been preserved in a glacier. They found a spear point in his rib cage. That could mean that he was killed in battle, killed by another jealous cave man or it could mean that he tripped and fell on his own spear. Cause and motive are two different things. I learned that when the school bus tire went flat with five 20-penny nails sticking out of the tread.

I don’t think that knowing how an ancient priest died is going to shake up the world, given the other issues that we face. But on those mornings at the breakfast club when politics have run their course, it might be worth another cup of coffee and some speculation. I’m sure my friend Clem Weldon would relish attention diverted from those Hawaiian flowerdy shirts he’s been wearing.

So I do believe that examining a mummy has some social redeeming value. It gives us something to talk about, and conversation is good therapy whether it’s about Nancy Pelosi or Hawaiian flowerdy shirts. Our communication skills are enhanced.

But no, I do not know exactly where one draws the line between archaeology and grave robbing. Egyptians and the Navajo may have a better fix on that. And that thing I said about fixing Congress, sometimes I get giddy. Or maybe I’m delirious.

(Dwain Walden is editor/publisher of The Moultrie Observer, 985-4545. Email: dwain.walden@gaflnews.com)

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