un: 46692 ; text ; 2/1

[escardos]

hey guys! happy vday and stuff! quick q!

how much time needs to pass for grave robbing to become archaeology? like, if i pull a gold bracelet out of a pyramid, i've made an archaeological find. if i pull one out of the common graveyard, i'm a dick. whats the waiting period for looting the dead?

Comments

UN:ThreeCoffins

[improbablenotimpossible]

Good question, actually. At least two hundred years, would be my estimate - long enough for most people who would know the person to no longer be around.

Or if you're an archeologist from the 19th and early 20th century, any time is archeology long as the grave you're robbing isn't from anyone you know.

UN: Epicyon

[heromedal]

I do not think time is the major variable. The significant element is how unknown the identity of the grave resident is- for example, it will likely never be possible to loot the grave of Lincoln Tomb without objection because its contents are well recorded. On the other hand, if there is an unmarked grave exhumed for the purpose of identifying the dead person it is possible for that to be acceptable. Time is a factor in determining the progress, but not the key quality.

Also the intentions of the person doing the digging. For personal profit vs academic study.

un: xx_heartoffire_xx

[stavros]

Are they cursed?

un: hemlock

[spelleton]

If the occupants are animate and sentient enough to object, or they have living descendants who still consider the grave ancestral property it's graverobbing no matter what the original time period is, I believe

Most archaeology happens to be graverobbing by that metric but that certainly didn't stop anyone.

If none of those rules apply then wait a few hundred years probably. [ He's not that interested in archaeology but a few hundred years seems like a safe bet. ]

UN: FinalBossy

[descolation]

[Clearly this question requires all of her impressive knowledge on the subject. ]

Probably a really long time! Desco would say at least thirty years!

[She's Helping.]

[hawkwardness]

[This is the third ridiculous post from the same guy. Is that like, a thing people do on the internet?? Maybe he should try it.]

Five thousand years.

un: werther

[imitationsoul]

I don't believe there is a hard line. It depends on two things:

1. How well you make your argument, because the art of speech is really what makes or breaks a social construct.

2. What kind of events have occurred since the death of the person. Normally it would be frowned upon to open the casket of someone who died only 20 years ago, but imagine Nightfall occurred and left humanity with only very few survivors. Knowledge of the old world would wind up being lost much faster, raising the value of sepulchral culture at a much greater speed!

UN: JOJO2

[standless]

[wait

wait!!! wait-]

Oh dear...

It shames me to say but I've never actually considered this question. I don't want to say it felt obvious, but somehow I just never thought....

oh

UN: REIRA

[soft_focus]

[it's reira she's back again with the hot takes]

It's still stealing if it's from a pyramid.

Don't be mean to dead people.

[nor_iron_bars]

mostly it comes down to who you sell it to.
if you gotta arrange a clandestine meeting at 2AM with a couple drug lords and a museum curator, it's archaeology.
if you get 50 bucks for it at a pawnshop, it's graverobbing.

[playitagain]

Hm...

"Do they have living grandchildren?" seems like a fair way to judge.

[hatesdeerstalkers]

Flat, don't rob any graves. It's rude.

[JUST PUTTING THAT OUT THERE]