An article I read on antiquities looting in Northwest Frontier Province stated that large quantities of stuff have been coming out of that region for about 100 years and today there is more on the market than ever.  I do not ignore the basic situation of the world in which we live, in which people take things and do things willy nilly.  I read another article relating the story of an American Indian girl who found some pots out in the desert and asked her mother, who replied that they belonged to someone else (never mind if it was 1000 years ago), so just leave them there.  And the story of the other guy in SW USA who, finding his property under potential of litigation from Native American parties and the USA government on archeological heritage grounds, bulldozed his site with all of the artifacts to eliminate the "bones" of contention.

People find things, they dig them up.  This is happening everywhere, not just from looters, but from road and building construction and farming.  Exposed things deteriorate if they are not conserved.  Archeologists are light on the ground and permanently underfunded, the stuff slips through their fingers, "leave it alone" laws unenforceable.  Museums and universities are bursting at the seams with stuff uncatalogued and unconserved.  At least, when the stuff enters the market, it is taken care of, as opposed to being thrown away as worthless, which is still what happens to most of it, or recycled.  The article on NWFP looting stated that substantial destruction of ancient monuments is being done simply to make building stones!  Half of the Colosseum in Rome was dismantled for the same reason.

I do not mind living and working in an ambiguous situation.

About the organization of these pages.  I debated with myself for about an hour on the question of whether I should organize the objects by culture/period or by type of object.  To me it seems slightly more intellectually rigorous to go with the culture/period structure, but there is a problem with that framework.  It is difficult in many cases to nail down the culture.  Even if I had specific and accurate site data there would still be some degree of vagueness involved in the attribution of, say, the bronze razors to the late Scythians or the early Kushans.  I think, therefore, that I will go, for the most part, with the division by object type.  I don't like it so much, but what can I do?  Got any ideas?  And in my typical fashion I will make exceptions right off the bat: starting with Neolithic stone and progressing to Indus items, and also a page of stuff from a single cave, before getting into the thises and the thats.

LINKS TO THE STUFF:
PAKISTAN, Neolithic stone tools sold
PAKISTAN, Indus Valley culture, beads, seals, weights
PAKISTAN, iron things from a cave near Udigram
PAKISTAN, Sasanian artifacts from Darel

WEAPONS, TOOLS, HORSE TACK, OTHER MILITARY
PAKISTAN, bronze axes
PAKISTAN, iron axes
PAKISTAN, bronze swords
PAKISTAN, bronze knives & daggers
PAKISTAN, iron knives & daggers
PAKISTAN, bronze spearheads
PAKISTAN, bronze short spears
PAKISTAN, iron spear & javelin heads (& butts)
PAKISTAN, ancient and medieval arrowheads
PAKISTAN, horse tack & ornaments
PAKISTAN, antique military miscellany
PAKISTAN, tools

STATUES & OTHER OBJETS D'ART, RITUAL OBJECTS, BELLS
PAKISTAN, stone sculpture
PAKISTAN, bronze sculpture
PAKISTAN, clay sculpture
PAKISTAN, bells & ritual objects

SEALS, JEWELRY, DRESS
PAKISTAN, ancient and medieval seals
PAKISTAN, ancient shell, clay, & stone jewelry
PAKISTAN, ancient and medieval metal jewelry
PAKISTAN, ancient bracelets
PAKISTAN, ancient buttons & pins

PERSONAL CARE ITEMS
PAKISTAN, ancient bronze perfume bottles & lids
PAKISTAN, ancient razors, mirrors, cosmetic palettes, & other toiletry articles
PAKISTAN, ancient and medieval kohl applicators, etc.

HOUSEHOLD ITEMS
PAKISTAN, cups, bowls, small knives, spoons, other food related
PAKISTAN, lamps, inkpots, other vessels
PAKISTAN, door latches & locks, handles, etc.

OTHER
PAKISTAN, some fake Indus & Greek material