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Dutch
archaeologists are disreputable characters, according to a
spokesperson of the Dutch Ministry of Finance, on 12 December 2005.
After the wreck of an eighteenth-century Dutch
trading
vessel, carrying a cargo of silver, was identified off the British
shore, the discoverers soon got in touch with the Finance Ministry and
the Dutch National
Service for Archaeological Heritage.
It was decided by these organizations, however, that Dutch
archaeologists would not be invited to investigate the find, because,
according to the spokesperson, "we were afraid that disreputable
characters would dive for treasure".
He meant that the Ministry wanted to prevent
private
treasure hunters being attracted to the wreck, but there was also the
implication that Dutch archaeologists are no longer to be trusted. Tell
them about an interesting discovery and in no time, the news will get
out.
And indeed, Dutch archaeologists know how to use
the
press. Not so long ago, a medieval wall was excavated in Amsterdam. The
city archaeologist announced it to be the castle of the first lords of
Amsterdam, even though the wooden foundations were obviously not that
old. Or take the Roman helmet from Leidsche Rijn that was presented in
the summer of 2005. It was decorated with a representation of the
goddess Cybele, and was claimed
to be of great importance due to the rarity of her cult.
Nonsense: Cybele was a perfectly ordinary deity in the Low Countries.
The same rules apply for Dutch archaeology as for
commercial television: if you're unable to show something spectacular,
your sources of money will run dry. The consequences were demonstrated
recently in Nijmegen.
For years, archaeologists have been fooled by a forger who carved
Christian symbols on Roman shards. The city archaeologists swallowed it
jubilantly, even though some of their colleagues pointed out that one
of the shards dated back to the first century. Before Christ.
The hoaxes were supposed to be the
showpieces on an exhibition at the Valkhof Museum
called "Nijmegen, the oldest city of the Netherlands". That's not the
whole truth either, but let's allow that to Nijmegen's treasure
hunters.
[A Dutch version of this article was published in De Volkskrant,
17 December 2005.]
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