Artifact looting ruins Cambodia's archaeology sites

[dArKeR]

AFP , PHNOM PENH
Friday, Jul 30, 2004,Page 6

At a bustling market in the capital city, Cambodia's heritage is being sold off: ancient beads are snapped up at two for US$1, while US$15 buys a 3,500-year-old stone tool.

Sales of such antiquities are booming at markets across the kingdom, robbing it of a rich history archaeologists are only beginning to study after decades of conflict ended here in 1998.

Ceramic pots and bronze bracelets may seem innocuous spoils compared with the stunning statuary prized by "tomb raiders," but their theft from underground sites means Cambodia's prehistory is being irretrievably lost, experts say.

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