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Did grave robbers plunder battlefields?

science.org

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Re: Did grave robbers plunder battlefields?

#71

Post by oalae5niMiel7qu »

ggm wrote: post #12

... in the modern era. It's a given that fabric and metals are high cost of production from raw inputs, and pre-mechanisation would be far too valuable to just leave in the fields. Post mechanisation the problem is logistics. (The factory war era pretty much begins with the Napoleonic war: Marc Brunel (Isembards father) made boot making machines and block making machines for the british war supply chain. You can see…

It goes further than that. If you find someone who's almost dead but not quite, you can steal that person's organs, netting you way more than metals, weapons, or anything else you're likely to find on a battlefield.

Re: Did grave robbers plunder battlefields?

#72

Post by seabass-labrax »

worthless-trash wrote: post #70
seabass-labrax wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're seriously asking, I highly doubt so. Great Britain has massive deposits of relatively clean, accessible coal. They are mostly in Wales but also in England and Scotland. Therefore there would be little reason to import any fuel from Egypt; over that distance, the steam ship would probably consume as many mummies as it was carrying.

I highly doubt so too, which is why I'm wondering why they would import it en-masse. What value would mass remains have ?

Archaeology was a booming field in Britain throughout the 19th century, being a fashionable pursuit for predominantly upper-class individuals. Many private collections were started, and most of the great museums were founded during this time. Egyptology in particular struck a chord with European society at the time.

Just have a look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_museums_with_Egyptian_... to get an rough idea of the extent of Egypt-mania in Britain; the 'UK' section dwarfs the others! So although that quote is rather vague, I strongly suspect that it is simply referring to the large quantity of Egyptian artefacts that were being excavated and moved to museums in Britain, especially after Epypt was annexed by and amalgamated into the British Empire in 1882.

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