In all of the hustle and bustle of starting a business, etc., I have been able to enjoy a few moments off. This morning, Gwyn and I attended one of the Tuesday with a Scholar presentations she goes to each week. It's part of the OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) program that she is involved in. I am quite impressed with OLLI, so far. Gwyn loves it. While I doubt I will have enough time to attend many of these classes, I found this one fascinating.
This particular talk was a fascinating look at problems with ownership of antiquities and art, especially looted and stolen art objects. He looked at various problems with art theft, looting of antiquities, etc., and talked about the various protection treaties in place.
One question I asked the speaker after the talk was when an object qualifies as an art or archaeological artifact. In archaeology, there are a number of gray areas, in which something might or might not be artificial. Specifically, the Ararat Anomaly (Noah's Ark?), the Bimini Road formation, the apparent ruins found off the coast of Cuba, etc. At least not as far as I know, these are generally not accepted in the scientific community as being legit, but if any of them are, they would be truly priceless. So when does something come under the protection of antiquities treaties, etc.
Archaeology is a fascinating topic, one that I would love to pursue more - if I had the time. I love things at the frontier of our knowledge, and I have the feeling we have only scratched the surface of what is really in our past. I suspect that there is a deep hidden history that we have truly forgotten. But I guess that will have to wait for a while - until I retire from my retirement... :-)
