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Comment by preciz | Hacker News Reader

“This is a clear message to those who, for the benefit and selfish pleasure of a few, rob us of our common heritage and erase entire swaths of our history.”

There should be a better process to legally report the items or exchange them for market value so this wouldn't happen in the first place?

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This will only serve to entice treasure hunting, which is an inherently destructive activity.

It does not have to be destructive, and a swarm of amateurs could achieve much more than those lazy ass ivory tower archaeologists if a good framework of rules existed.

The goal of science is to obtain knowledge and, in this case, learn more about the past and someone's heritage; not to loot.

Not really. Archeological digs aren't just scooping dirt and sifting out objects. It's a careful process that pays as much attention to the ground being dug as it does to individual items, because surroundings provide clues about the object's provenance. A "swarm of amateurs" with profit motive will not care about any of that.

How is it destructive if before the treasure hunter there was no treasure and now there is one? Things underground degrade with time so finding them helps to preserve them.

Some artifacts last hundreds to thousands of years in their original condition yet degrade almost instantly once exposed to air, especially the oxygen in it. Excavation is a delicate science.

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