1) It was first established by European men and women looting to fill their “curio cabinets,” which makes it hard to position it as a noble field.
2) digging something up later (with more advanced technology) will always be better than digging it up now. There’s even some people who believe the only ethical archaeology is that which occurs before an area would be otherwise destroyed (i.e. before a construction project happens)
The above makes career archaeologists (at least the good ones) a bit neurotic. This seems like an example of that, I just hope their preservation methods aren’t accidentally destructive.
I can't think of a single field of study that wasn't established by Europeans seeking status, except possibly for mathematics which was established by Babylonians seeking grains.
If physics had somehow involved taking stuff from India they would have done it, which shows that the problem was with the attitude of the colonial era conquerors to the countries they took over rather than with archeology. In fact, a lot of the "they took the crown jewels" stuff has nothing to do with archeology at all.
I'm not so sure "leaving it in the dirt" is a valid conservation technique. Else museums would be full of boxes of dirt.
I recall when Siberia melted (yes, it melted) ephemera were appearing as the snow and ice disappeared. Even here on HN folks argued emotionally about "leaving it all where it was" instead of collecting it. Even though it would be gone in literally days (fibre bags, lost arrows with fragile fletchings, and on and on) and not collectable later, as it immediately rotted or the wind blew it to pieces.
There's a cult of "leave it where it is!" that defies rationality. So that's part of the equation too.
1) It was first established by European men and women looting to fill their “curio cabinets,” which makes it hard to position it as a noble field.
2) digging something up later (with more advanced technology) will always be better than digging it up now. There’s even some people who believe the only ethical archaeology is that which occurs before an area would be otherwise destroyed (i.e. before a construction project happens)
The above makes career archaeologists (at least the good ones) a bit neurotic. This seems like an example of that, I just hope their preservation methods aren’t accidentally destructive.