You might object that professionals excavate to acquire knowledge, notmoney. Moreover, ancient artifacts are part of our global cultural heritage,which should be available for all to appreciate, not sold to the highestbidder. I agree. Sell nothing that has unique artistic merit or scientificvalue. But, you might reply, everything that comes out of the ground hasscientific value. Here we part company. Theoretically, you may be correct inclaiming that every artifact has potential scientific value. Practically, youare wrong.
I refer to the thousands of pottery vessels and ancient lamps that areessentially duplicates of one another. In one small excavation in Cyprus,archaeologists recently uncovered 2,000 virtually indistinguishable small jugsin a single courtyard. Even precious royal seal impressions known as melekhhandles have been found in abundance more than 4,000 examples so far.
The basements of museums are simply not large enough to store theartifacts that are likely to be discovered in the future. There is not enoughmoney even to catalogue the finds; as a result, they cannot be found again andbecome as inaccessible as if they had never been discovered. Indeed, with thehelp of a computer, sold artifacts could be more accessible than are the piecesstored in bulging museum basements. Prior to sale, each could be photographedand the list of the purchasers could be maintained on the computer. A purchasercould even be required to agree to return the piece if it should become neededfor scientific purposes.
【2014年考研英语阅读的经典试题及答案(4)】相关文章:
最新
2016-10-18
2016-10-11
2016-10-11
2016-10-08
2016-09-30
2016-09-30