Quote:
Originally Posted by Jet Gorgon  Quote:
Originally Posted by El Gibbon
Another pot from a middle period I believe, only 3000 years old.
E. G. | I have seen these designs before. The top seems real, but the bottom ceramic jobbies look like fakes (too perfect and no weathering). Must be many more to find there. Hope it's not looted. |
Sadly Ban Chiang has been severely looted, thousands of artifacts have been stolen, that's one reason there are so few large pieces in the museum. So much has been taken that for long while the prices for artifacts on the international antiquities market were ridiculously low, a small item in bad condition sold for as little as 30USD while the big ones in good condition were in the 3,000USD range, compare this to the price for similar genuine artifacts from ancient Greece or China (to take just two examples). Most of the looting was done in the early days, shortly after the discovery of the site, and the Thai government now says that looting has stopped. The Education Department has tried to teach the villagers that international tourism will bring them more money than looting. Most of the site is still unexcavated and it may be that the looting, although large-scale, won't have much of an impact on what we can learn from the site.