Priceless Artifacts Destroyed by Human Stupidity

Idiocy needs no introduction. For as long as humans have been making nice things, there have always been people around to ruin them. Armed with an awe-inspiring combination of stupidity and ignorance, people have destroyed priceless paintings, ancient tombs, archaeological sites, and much, much more. Today we’re going to cover the most ridiculous of these instances, with everything from blowing up the ancient city of Troy to straight up bulldozing historical sites.

Schliemann’s Troy

This video will cover many artifacts that have been damaged or destroyed by a serious lack of critical thinking, but what if instead of just a single artifact, someone were to destroy an entire ancient city? Well, that’s exactly what happened in the 1870s in Turkey.

Meet Johann Ludwig Heinrich Julius Schliemann, born in Germany in 1822. Schliemann was a remarkably intelligent fellow, reportedly being conversational in 13 languages, including Russian, Arabic, Greek, and Latin. He used his wits to make a quick buck everywhere he went, such as setting up a bank in California during the Gold Rush, and selling it for a huge profit after six months, after which he moved to Russia and cornered the market on lead right at the outbreak of the Crimean War, selling a fortune worth of ammunition to the Russian Empire. By age 36, his various business ventures had made him wealthy beyond his wildest imagination, and decided that for the rest of his life he would dedicate himself to his dream: archaeology.

Specifically, Schliemann had a keen interest in the stories of Homer, and ancient civilizations around the Mediterranean, and he had a burning desire to investigate the mysteries of the ancient city of Troy, the supposed location of an epic battle between the Greeks and the Trojans, as described in the Iliad.

But before we get into his archaeological escapades, let’s get a few things straight about Schliemann. First of all, for as smart as he was, it’s pretty clear in hindsight that he wasn’t the most honest guy around. In his autobiography he claimed that he was in California when it officially became a state in 1850, and he was granted US citizenship. However, other sources place him across the world in St. Petersburg at the time, and, according to records, he didn’t get US citizenship for another 19 years.

Schliemann also claimed that before heading off to California, he met and had dinner with Millard Fillmore, the 13th president of the United States. However there is no evidence of his attendance and it’s likely that he simply read about the meeting in the local papers and added himself to the story after the fact.

And his fishy dealings wouldn’t end with business, as they extended into his archaeological endeavors as well. In 1868 he visited sites of ancient Greece and published a book, which he submitted to the University of Rostock, for which he was awarded a PhD. However, later analysis showed that much of his work was simply translations or interpretations of others contemporary works.

Regardless, he was working his way to becoming a prominent member of the archaeological community, and set his sights on finding the lost city of Troy. After coming up empty handed in a few hypothesized locations, he ran into an Englishman named Frank Calvert, a fellow amateur in the field who had also been looking for Troy for many years. Calvert convinced Schliemann to begin excavating at a site called Hissarlik, which he eventually agreed to and began digging in 1870. After just three years, digging had uncovered layers correlating to nine different cities, aptly named Troy 1-9, with 9 being the nearest to the surface.

But Schliemann did not have the delicacy or care that comes with modern archaeological training. In his haste to reach the treasures of the Trojan War, which he assumed was in Troy 2, he dug huge trenches, destroying artifacts all along the way, and, in his biggest lack of judgment, used dynamite to more quickly pass through the levels. After brutalizing Troy 9 through 3, he finally spotted gold, which he assumed to be the jewelry belonging to Helen of Troy, and announced his success at locating the legendary city. Turns out, they were about thousand years too old to be from the estimated time of the Trojan War, meaning that IF this were indeed the correct location, the remains of Troy were likely in one of the higher levels that he had so explosively cast aside.

One professor in 2012 remarked that Schliemann was able to achieve what the Greek’s never could, that is, completely annihilate Troy. He essentially shoveled and blasted his way through the earth, picking up trinkets as he went with no documentation of their location, surroundings, or anything else that might give them some historical context. Heaps of treasures were then smuggled out of the Ottoman Empire and sold to the highest bidder, with most of the artifacts ending up in Germany.

It’s quite a shame because the destroyed layers not only had the possibility of containing artifacts from Troy, but also thousands of years of other history. Who knows what secrets we might have uncovered if it hadn’t been for Schliemann all those years ago.

Expensive Accidents

Sculpted more than 300 years ago, the Statue of the Two Hercules is a detailed, intricate sculpture featuring two figures of Hercules holding the emblem of Cremona, a city in northern Italy. On top of the emblem is a beautifully sculpted crown, or, should we say, WAS a beautifully sculpted crown.

Unfortunately, this statue, which had managed to remain unscathed for hundreds of years without an issue, was damaged in 2015 by a pair of tourists who climbed on top of it to take a selfie. They allegedly wanted to take a photo to show how big the statue was, but it seems they may have underestimated their own size, because while climbing around, one of them grabbed the crown, and, under the weight of the tourist, it broke right off, fell to the ground, and shattered.

Locals were outraged that a historic symbol of their town had been treated so recklessly by a pair of foreigners, whose identities and nationalities were never revealed.

But this wasn’t the only such case in the region, as it seems Italy may be some sort of magnet for unintelligent tourists. Just a month before the Hercules incident, a Japanese woman faced charges after writing her name on the dome of the Florence Cathedral with an eyeliner pencil, and in 2013, also in Florence, an American man accidentally broke the finger off of a 600 year old statue of the Virgin Mary. He said he was trying to compare his finger to the statue’s, but local authorities were confused about how this plan could possibly include bending the statue’s finger and snapping it off.

And the incident with the two Hercules wasn’t even the only selfie-related destruction in Europe at the time. Just a year later, Portugal would be the next victim of an ill-conceived photo op, when a man climbed up to take a photo with the statue of Dom Sebastiao, which was displayed between two doorways in the Rossio Railway Station in Lisbon. The statue’s 126 year lifespan came to an end when the man, who remained unnamed in the media, accidentally knocked it over, sending it tumbling to a shattering death on the floor of the train station.

Construction Carnage

As stupid as it is to ruin a statue while trying to take a selfie with it, at the very least, those responsible had no destructive intent behind their actions. However, the same cannot be said for these next couple incidents.

First up is the Nohmul complex, an ancient ceremonial site used by the Maya people. First used as far back as 250 BC, it’s one of the oldest and most important archaeological sites in Belize, featuring several hundred mounds, dozens of small buildings, and a central temple. The temple was quite large, with a roughly square base with sides 50 meters long, with its highest point more than 17 meters tall.

It was this central temple, the largest and arguably most important structure of the entire complex, that was almost entirely destroyed by a construction company. On May 13, 2013, contractors working with De-Mar’s Stone Company showed up to the site with bulldozers and excavators and smashed up nearly 70% of the temple, crushing up its limestone to be used as gravel for a road they were building in a nearby village. Photos showed the excavator clawing away at the sloping side of the pyramid, and loaded vehicles heading off with what was once part of the structure.

It might have been somewhat understandable if they’d bulldozed one of the many mounds, having mistaken it for a natural hill, but the temple was a large and unmistakable structure, not to mention the fact that the ruins were widely known in the area. The head of the Belize Institute of Archaeology noted, “These guys knew that this was an ancient structure. It’s just bloody laziness.”

After an investigation, charges were placed against four people, the foreman, the excavator driver, and the managing directors of the company. Each were fined the equivalent of about 3,000 dollars, and made a public apology, stating that the company would take steps to make sure nothing of the sort ever happened again.

But this sort of minimal fine is exactly why this keeps happening in Belize. One professor said, “I don’t think I am exaggerating if I say that every day a Maya mound is being destroyed for construction in one of the countries where the Maya lived.”

And it’s not just a problem where the Maya used to live. On the other side of the world, a similar issue faces Chinese archaeologists, who constantly have to deal with the destruction of ancient sites that happen to be blocking the path of construction crews.

In 2013, archaeologists in Guangzhou returned to a site they were in the middle of excavating to find that nearly all of it had been plowed through with bulldozers and excavators. The area had been cordoned off with red tape, but workers extending the Guangzhou Metro had ignored this and destroyed at least 5 of the sites.

According to the archaeologists, the sites were ancient tombs, between 2 and 3 thousand years old. When they were destroyed, they were still filled to the brim with artifacts, inscriptions, and much more evidence of what life was like in the region long ago.

Even more frustrating is that the construction team, who had not even received permission to build there, deliberately moved aside the researchers tools, equipment, and field notes before flattening the area, so they clearly knew that it was still being researched and decided to mow it down regardless.

A few years earlier, the city of Nanjing faced a similar tragedy, when construction workers building a new IKEA branch destroyed another archaeological site that was in the middle of being researched. There were about 10 tombs in total, dating back to the ‘six dynasties’ period about 1800 years ago.

Under Chinese law, companies destroying ancient tombs can be fined anywhere from the equivalent of 6 thousand to 60 thousand dollars, but these fines are hardly enforced, and, even when they are, companies would rather just pay the fine and get on with their project than sit around and wait for researchers to examine every nook and cranny.

It’s sad, but to many big businesses, deadlines are far more important than preserving history.

Erasing History

But of all the destruction in this video, perhaps none are as tragic as this final entry. The Buddhas of Bamiyan were two giant statues carved into the side of a cliff in central Afghanistan. Dated to 570 and 618 AD, they were carved directly into the sandstone cliffs, with the so-called Western Buddha reaching 55 meters in height, and the smaller Eastern Buddha reaching 38 meters in height.

The statues represented an important part of local culture and history. Long ago, the location was described by Chinese travelers along the Silk Road as a hub of Buddhism, and was a well-known landmark in the region, even a site of pilgrimage for Buddhists. There are even rumors that a third statue existed at some point.

Bamiyan’s problems began long ago. On four separate occasions throughout the centuries, invaders tried to destroy or deface the statues, either by cracking the stone or, in one case, directing cannon fire at it. But the statues stood strong, and remained the tallest standing figures of Buddha in the entire world.

That was, until 2001. Beginning in March of that year, the Taliban, in a classic showcase of their critical thinking skills, decided that the statues were nothing more than offensive idols, and their destruction was ordered by their leader Mullah Omar.

Anti-aircraft guns and artillery were fired at the statues, which caused a lot of damage, but failed to completely destroy them. After a few weeks, the Taliban resorted to having men rappel down the side of the cliff and place explosives in holes in the statues, which were later detonated along with anti-tank mines placed at the base of the carvings.

In the end, there was almost nothing left of the once great works of art, immediately sparking protest from both the international community and from locals, who said they were forced to assist the Taliban with the demolition.

Mullah Omar claimed that the issue was purely religious and bothered no one, and even exclaimed, “What are you complaining about? We are only waging war on stones.”

But despite trying to frame the destruction as a religious right, the Islamic world staunchly opposed the move. 54 member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference met and condemned the statue’s destruction, even including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, who officially recognized the Taliban’s government. Saudi Arabia called the action ‘savage’, and Pakistan did all they could to stop the demolition.

In a meeting with Pakistan’s interior minister, Omar was asked why he found it his religious duty to destroy the statues when so many Muslim rulers had allowed them to stand for so many centuries. Omar simply replied, “Maybe they did not have the technology to destroy them.”

This was a man simply bent on destroying something beautiful. He disregarded repeated requests from Japan to transfer the statues out of the country free of cost, brushed aside 36 different letters from UNESCO offering various solutions, and ignored even his own people who protested the destruction. In the end, UNESCO’s director called the move not only an offense to Buddhism, but a “…crime against culture. It is abominable to witness the cold and calculated destruction of cultural properties which were the heritage of the Afghan people, and, indeed, of the whole of humanity.”

Several governments expressed interest in rebuilding the Buddhas of Bamiyan after the ousting of the Taliban by the United States during the war in Afghanistan, but, given the recent resurgence of the Taliban back to power after the US withdrawal, this is an option that seems less and less probable, and the cliffs where the great Buddhas once stood will remain empty.

Key Takeaways

• Schliemann’s excavation of Troy destroyed layers of history due to his reckless methods.
• Tourists have damaged historic statues in Italy and Portugal while attempting selfies.
• Construction companies in Belize and China have destroyed ancient sites for development.
• The Taliban destroyed the Buddhas of Bamiyan in 2001, despite international protests.
• Minimal fines and lax enforcement encourage the destruction of historical sites.

Sources

• Original Side Projects video: Priceless Artifacts Destroyed by Human Stupidity
• Hero image source by Ayratayrat / openverse, by-sa.

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