SAA: "Treating Artefacts as Commodities Endangers Sites"

Archaeological bodies are failing to sing from the same songsheet. On 10th November, The Society for American Archaeology wrote the AIA St Louis chapter a letter:

The SAA has always strongly opposed the buying and selling of objects out of archaeological context. As noted in our Principles of Archaeological Ethics, commercialization “...is contributing to the destruction of the archaeological record on the American continents and around the world. The commercialization of archaeological objects - their use as commodities to be exploited for personal enjoyment or profit - results in the destruction ofarchaeological sites and of contextual in in the destruction ofarchaeological sites and of contextual information that is essential to understanding the archaeological record.” 

AIA is still thinking about that one, over in England, the Portable Antiquities Scheme is not*.

*See their government-funded "Advice on Buying Antiquities"("it's legal innit?")