The Controversial Dark Side of Archaeology

We’ve learned so much about ancient humans through archaeology over the years but this feels like a good time to talk about whether we should be digging up ancient people and the objects that once supported their livelihoods in the first place. Archaeological digs haven’t always gone down in the most ethical ways. That might be because archaeology really came into its own as an academic discipline in the nineteenth century, right around the same time that modern nation states were emerging. So let’s get into it.