Gravedigging for a Living

I picked up a newspaper last week in Europe and the following news item caught my eye:


Bulgaria unearths Thracian riches

A crown wreath of gold was found among the ruler's belongingsArchaeologists in Bulgaria have unearthed the treasure-filled tomb of what is thought to be a Thracian king.
A golden crown, ring, armour and other artefacts dating back 2,400 years were found with the skeleton in a tomb near the south-eastern town of Zlatinitsa....................Excavations of burial mounds across Bulgaria have unearthed similar finds.............Finds include ceramics, bronze, gold and silver jewels.................."Like the Egyptians built pyramids and used them as temples before they died, the Thracian rulers built mounds. When they died they were buried inside and earth was piled up on top. But here there was no mound." ............The bones are still being excavated and will be sent to Sofia for examination.

*****************


So I'm trying to figure out exactly what the difference is between what these archaeologists are doing and grave-robbing.

The only thing I could come up with is that grave-robbers don't generally issue press releases when they loot a tomb.

Grave-robbing is given a bad name because the looters steal for money. And Archaeologists? They are paid too. Museums around the world buy and sell these artifacts and provide a legitimate marketplace for the stolen objects.

I'm sure that the academic community would be aghast at the very question, but if you believe that a cemetery is a sacred and private place, then the number of years elapsing between the burial and the grave-robbing is not a material argument. Nor is the academic curiosity of the grave-robber's client.

Better that we should be ignorant of Thracian history (or ________ian history, you fill in the blank). I certainly hope that some time in the future the University of Thracia isn't interested in the burial habits of Springfield, Virginia residents. But just in case, I'm not going to be buried with any valuable artifacts.