Excavations had gone on for ten years at a major Maya site in the…
Question Answered step-by-step Excavations had gone on for ten years at a major Maya site in the… Excavations had gone on for ten years at a major Maya site in the Yucatán, Mexico. The archaeologists had made a major effort to involve the local villagers and once took an injured child to a distant hospital.Toward the end of the last field season, an old man from the village came out to the site with a small bag containing a beautiful painted figurine. The figurine had been looted from the site some years before. It is a museum-quality piece, although its exact provenience at the site is unknown. The old man offers to sell the artifact to the archaeologists. The dilemma arises.QUESTION: Should the archaeologists pay the old man for the artifact, potentially encouraging others to loot the site for other valuable items? Or should the object be refused, even though the old man will probably sell it to a tourist? Anthropology Social Science Archaeology ANTH 1001 Share QuestionEmailCopy link Comments (0)


