Re: Chinese peasants battle police over dinosaur fossils

[Adrienne Mayor <afmayor@aol.com>]

On Nov 28, 2007, at 5:37 AM, Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. wrote:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/11/071127-peasants- 
dinosaurs.html

The armed stand-off between the Chinese peasants who discovered the  
dinosaur fossils and the government is not unique to China.

Similar conflicts over fossils have occurred recently, for example in  
Mexico, between villagers and government and museum officials, and in  
the Badlands of South Dakota, between Sioux Indians and the National  
Park Service.

The history of powerful authorities appropriating valuable fossils  
discovered by local people is ancient:

In 560 BC, the Spartans took important fossils away from Greek villagers

The Roman Emperor Augustus plundered fossils from Greek temples for  
his imperial museum in Rome

In 1794, Napoleon removed the Maastricht Mosasaur from Holland (the  
skull is still on display in Paris).

On Nov 2, I presented a talk ("Whose Bones? Whose Story?") about the  
ancient, international history of conflicts over the ownership of  
significant fossils at the History of Science Society annual meeting  
in Washington DC. I'd be happy to share this paper with any who  
contact me off list.