Reply To: Who owns the past?

[Miranda Jackovich]

Many civilizations have died out through the course of thousands of years. Regardless they all leave their mark on this planet. When it comes to ‘ownership’ of sites, artifacts, and remains I have always believed that these should be restored and left where they are found. Unfortunately artifacts like the ‘Berlin Kore’ were removed from its original place. There are some cases where it is necessary to move these remains and cultural material to keep them safe due to weather and/or war zones. Besides these incidences I would much rather travel the world and put myself in the environment that they once lived in. But for someone to claim a culture, endless there are direct ties to present day people, no one should claim it. I also believe that the countries in the surrounding areas should have say how things should be handled. The lines and borders that we live in today were very different from those in the past, so the cultural material found might have ties to them as well. In time, hopefully people can come together to take the right step to handle these fragile and priceless cultural material to share with each other.