Grave robbery

Grave robbery, tomb robbing, or tomb raiding is the act of uncovering a tomb or crypt to steal artifacts or personal effects. A related act is body snatching, a term that is related to the taking of one's body (usually not from a grave). Grave robbery pertains to the disinterring of a grave chiefly for the purpose of stealing a corpse and/or stealing other objects.

Grave robbing has caused great difficulty to the study of archaeology, art history, and history. Countless precious grave sites and tombs have been robbed before scholars were able to examine them. In any way, the archaeological context and the historical and anthropological information are destroyed:

Looting obliterates the memory of the ancient world and turns its highest artistic creations into decorations, adornments on a shelf, divorced from historical context and ultimately from all meaning.

Grave robbers usually sell their goods on the black market. Though some artifacts may make their way to museums or scholars, many end up in private collections.

Chinese jade burial suits were believed to be myths for many years until two were discovered in 1968; it is now believed that most jade burial suits were removed long ago by grave robbers.

Grave robbing is still problematic in 21st century China. The increase in technology, such as night vision goggles, air breathing equipment, and metal detectors allows grave robbers to better find and rob ancient gravesites. There are institutions in which you can learn how to rob graves– “for about 200 yuan (about $30) a day. Land surveying skills are first taught, before progressing to probes and shovels, then finally explosives. After 10 days, adepts have the chance to assist an instructor in a real tomb robbery”.

Ancient Egyptian tombs are one of the most common examples of tomb or grave robbery. Most of the tombs in Egypt's Valley of the Kings were robbed within one hundred years of their sealing (including the tomb of the famous King Tutankhamen, which was raided at least twice before it was discovered in 1922). As most of the artifacts in these ancient burial sites have been discovered, it is through the conditions of the tombs and presumed articles that are missing in which historians and archaeologists are able to determine whether the tomb has been robbed. Egyptian pharaohs often kept records of the precious items in their tombs, so an inventory check is presumed for archaeologists. Oftentimes, warnings would be left by the Pharaohs in the tombs of calamities and curses that would be laid upon any who touched the treasure, or the bodies, which did little to deter grave robbers.

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