Archaeological Boxing
Okay. Imagine you're from a poor family. You don't have a lot of education. You've just dug up some old bones and beads. Someone offers you a lot of money for them.
Your whole village is poor. If you don't dig up the grave first, your next door neighbor will. What should you do, tell the police? (Hah. Does *any* poor person really trust the police??)
Dougald from Heritage Watch returned from a site visit in Banteay Meanchey this January. He was bummed that people were leveling forests to dig up pre-Angkorean graveyards. The speed and extent is stunning.
Here's one of the crew (Kyle) going up in an ultralight to check out the looting.
(Click for larger photo - all photos here by Heritage Watch unless otherwise credited.)
I believe this is Donald Cooney's group. I think they've got a site somewhere.
Here's an example of a looted site.
Below: the big holes are the graves, the small holes are the test excavations. All dug up and sold.
Doogs stuck a picture up near the office, of a Khmer boxing match.
"This is how I feel after seeing all that destroyed."
(Picture by John Bugge, given for Dougald's wedding).
After a few days of walking past this defeated boxer I started to feel a little glum myself.
You've got to have positive mental images, right?
I wrote some new dialogue and proofed it with the Heritage Watch staff who know all the correct terms.
Then I asked Vuth if I could commission a sketch from him.
"Don't steal Cambodia's priceless archaeological Heritage!"
"I'm sorry. Don't hit me again."
We had some frames left over from the animation exhibition so we just slid in the new picture.
We stashed the original in a corner of the Heritage Watch office and waited for the reaction. Hee hee.
If images mess with your head, mess right back.
The bigger challenge? Changing the mindset of the entire structure that supports grave robbers.
Looters, middlemen, buyers, the whole thing. It's not just about money, it's about ideas.
Tags: Cambodia, history, archaeology, heritage, ultralight, boxing
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