My post from the other thread on the same subject.
The line between grave robbing and archeology is separated by a very thin line, thinner when less time has past. There are millions of artifacts returned from the fields of conflict, brought back by those that were there, without disturbing hallowed resting grounds. Remembering has little to do with disturbing, respecting, even less.
Grave robbing has caused great difficulty to the study of archaeology, art history, and history. Countless precious grave sites and tombs have been robbed before scholars were able to examine them. In any way – the archaeological context and the historical and anthropological information is destroyed.
Looting obliterates the memory of the ancient world and turns its highest artistic creations into decorations, adornments on a shelf, divorced from historical context and ultimately from all meaning.
The discipline of archeology involves surveyance, excavation and eventually analysis of data collected to learn more about the past. In broad scope, archaeology relies on cross-disciplinary research. It draws upon anthropology, history, art history, classics, ethnology, geography, geology, linguistics, semiology, physics, information sciences, chemistry, statistics, paleoecology, paleontology, paleozoology, paleoethnobotany, and paleobotany.
Archaeology developed out of antiquarianism in Europe during the 19th century, and has since become a discipline practiced across the world. Since its early development, various specific sub-disciplines of archaeology have developed, including maritime archaeology, feminist archaeology and archaeoastronomy, and numerous different scientific techniques have been developed to aid archaeological investigation. Nonetheless, today, archaeologists face many problems, ranging from dealing with pseudoarchaeology to the looting of artifacts and opposition to the excavation of human remains.
So, let's see the paper work and study of the excavations, and decide which applies.