Real relic hunters
Does anyone know or know anyone wheter or not there really are relic hunters?
Thats all.
There likely are real relic hunters but unlike the Hollywood themed Indiana Jones or 'The Relic Hunter', most of them are the types of scoundrels who rob ancient tombs of their treasures and sell them for a profit to a collector or to a wealthy contact. The authorities in relic or archaeologically rich but financially strapped countries like Egypt, Bulgaria, Greece or Russia have their hands full protecting their own treasures and excavation finds from the hands of looters. And I know is that Egypt alone has several hundred warehouses crammed full of antiquities (stelas, statuettes, scarabs)--spread throughout their country--and there have been a few cases where some of their own antiquities officials have been arrested trying to smuggle these items out of the country. Greed tempts even those who are supposed to be uncorruptable. When antiquity rich countries collapse in chaos, the result can be catastrophic to a country's rich archaeological history such as Iraq. When Saddam fell from power in 2003, one of the first places looters stormed was the Baghdad Museum; Iraq has also been pockmarked by hundreds if not thousands of illegal excavations in Mesopotamia and in the desert by looters looking for treasure because the government has to deal with law and order issues today. As a result, countless ancient Iraqi artifacts have been smuggled out of the country into the hands of less than scrupulous foreign collectors.
There are indeed some "professional" relic or treasure hunters who search the world's seas for old ship wrecks which may hold invaluable gold, silver, bronze, diamond or other semi-precious stones. They usually identify the ship, its cargo and then try to negotiate the cargo's market value with the ship's legal owner. This ship is usually a typical Spanish or Portugese galleon which sank in the 16th, 17th or 18th century in the Caribbean or off South America--so the legal owner is Spain or Portugal. Sometimes, they do reach a satisfactory accomodation and split the treasure say 60-40 with 40% going to the treasure hunters...but this is a risky proposition because the Spanish or Portugese state may try to lay claim to all of the ship's cargohold and leave the sea (or relic) hunters with nothing at all. All I can say is that at least this is a more honest attempt to find, lay legal claim to and divide the value of ancient relics in the real world.
Thank you for this long but informative and clear respond.
shareSure. Its not a problem. I know the situation in Egypt because that country is stock full of treasures many of which still lie hidden under the desert. Zahi Hawass, Egypt's well known head of the Supreme Antiquities Council, has often said that perhaps only 30% of his countries treasures have been found. Most have yet to be discovered....which is why there is a big problem with looters there.
There are many professional archaeological teams (the British, Poles, Czechs, French, Germans, Italians, Dutch, Japanese, etc) excavating in Egypt and sometimes they make many wonderful discoveries of intact and unrobbed tombs which miraculously escaped looting into modern times but they are not really 'relic hunters' who intentionally search for gold, silver objects or semi-precious stones stones such as lapis lazuli, jade, turquoise, beryl, amethyst or malachite. They mostly try to find how the objects in a tomb were placed, determine its quality, type, and catalogue their quantity. They do this to further scholarly understanding of Ancient Egyptian culture, religious beliefs and customs---not to make money. They then also turn over all their finds to the Egyptian government at the end of the excavation season each year. Cairo may respond by giving the succesful (say British here) archaeological team more places to excavate in Egypt or allowing some of these items to be put on a visiting museum display in the UK but the Egyptians will never surrender ownership of these items to any foreign state or people.
That is why anyone who wants to be a relic hunter and expects to be paid...can forget Egypt. Personally, I don't see why other archaeologically rich states like Bulgaria, Russia or even Iraq should surrender part of their treasures today since it belongs to their own people. At least, the show 'Relic Hunter' depicts the real world where people are willing to betray their own friends and defy the law just to make money from rare or one of the kind artifacts. As they say: "people have sticky fingers." Give a person $50.00 and you will be lucky if you get back $10.00! Everyone is greedy and the motivation of greed has never changed from ancient times to the 21st century sadly.
With best Regards.