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.
"Most archaeologists are not really interested in finding a giant statue of Buddha or a single magnificent artefact. We're interested in spatial context," says Kyle Latinis, a US archaeologist specializing in Southeast Asia.
For items such as humble beads or tools to be useful to historians, they must be studied and assessed while still in the ground.
But with mines being cleared across war-ravaged Cambodia, farmers are clearing formerly dangerous land and uncovering artefacts they quickly pass to middlemen. And when archaeologists are called in, their finds fall prey to looters.
"We can't make head or tail out of a site that's been looted. It's killing historical interpretation," laments Latinis, who acknow-ledges that desperately poor Cambodians are often compelled to sell their finds.
The middlemen move the artefacts to local markets, where they are affordable enough for both Cambodians and tourists to buy, or they shift into the international black market, which is as yet unquantified and unstudied.
UNESCO removed the majestic Angkor Wat temple complex, the country's most treasured landmark, from its World Heritage in Danger list this month, de-scribing its preservation as "a success story."
Illicit excavation, pillaging and landmines were the main threats that put the capital of the ancient Khmer Empire on the list in the first place. Angkor Wat, founded in the ninth century, is Cambodia's main tourist destination today.
Dougald O'Reilly, director of Heritage Watch, which is working to protect Cambodia's buried cultural riches, emphasizes the global importance of this knowledge.
"In terms of world archaeolo-gy, Cambodia is an amazing gold mine, and it's completely unknown. Angkor is one of the greatest civilizations in the world, and as prehistorians we know nothing about how that came about."
Extensive burial sites containing huge iron swords and helmets decorated with buffalo horns -- items never before seen in the region -- have been wiped out by looters, O'Reilly says.
The new government's culture minister, Chuch Phoern, says the laws are excellent but police are untrained and citizens remain unaware of what antiquities should be protected.
"We plan under the new mandate of the government to educate people and inculcate deeply the laws concerning protection and preservation," he says.
Heritage Watch, formed earlier this year, also aims to educate villagers about the items' value and plans to establish museums in threatened areas.
O'Reilly says the hope is that such sites will generate long-term income.
"We'd like village people to make a living off that sustainable resource, thereby perhaps passing on the message that they don't need to loot the stuff and sell it so it's gone forever."
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS