For most of its history, archaeology has too often taken an indulgent attitude toward looting and antiquities trafficking. The primary response to these dangers has been to publish the main findings made outside of academia. As a result of this approach and the prominent role played by police techniques in investigating such crimes, investigations are primarily based on documentary research. This approach makes it harder to determine such essential factors in this field as an object’s collecting history or discovery date. This paper proposes new ways of studying collecting history, drawing on research projects on the use of archaeometry to shed light on cases of looting or trafficking involving police, court, or government intervention; hence, its qualification as “forensic”. Although the current state of knowledge does not enable the presentation of novel research, we believe that researchers and interested institutions should be made aware of the advisability of using archaeometry more directly in the fight against these scourges.
El objetivo del presente trabajo es ofrecer un análisis historiográfico preliminar de la revista Archivo Español de Arqueología desde su nacimiento en 1925 como Archivo Español de Arte y Arqueología hasta el año 2019. Este largo periodo se ha dividido en varias etapas en razón de los cambios en su estructura, organización y orientación temática, relacionándolas con los cambios que ha experimentado la Arqueología española durante casi un siglo. Finalmente se avanzan algunas consideraciones generales, estableciendo futuras líneas de investigación historiográfica para analizar de forma más detallada en el futuro.
For most of its history, archaeology has taken an indulgent attitude toward looting and antiquities trafficking. The primary response to these dangers has been to publish the main findings made outside of academia. As a result of this approach and the prominent role played by police techniques in investigating such crimes, investigations are primarily based on documentary research. This approach makes it harder to determine such essential factors in this field as an object’s collecting history or discovery date. This paper offers an overview of the state of the research on the fight against antiquities trafficking. It then proposes new ways of studying collecting history, drawing on research projects on the use of archaeometry to shed light on cases of looting or trafficking involving police, court, or government intervention; hence, its qualification as “forensic.” Although the current state of knowledge does not enable the presentation of novel research, we believe that researchers and interested institutions should be made aware of the advisability of using archaeometry more directly in the fight against these scourges.
Este es un artículo de acceso abierto distribuido bajo los términos de la licencia Creative Commons Atribución-NoComercial-SinDerivar (by-nc-nd) Spain 3.0.
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