Saccage by Cousteau

Cousteau once related a parable for the sin of saccage. He was describing his
experiences in searching for ancient shipwrecks. "On the bottom, the wrecks
eventually open up and are covered by mud," he said. "After a few centuries, you can
spot them only by seeing the tips of the necks of amphora sticking up above the
sands or by a few artifacts scattered around on the bottom." Knowing that exquisite
artworks had been found in the early years of the 20th century in an area of the
Aegean near Antikythera, Greece, Cousteau and his crew decided on an expedition.
They discovered that trawlers had scraped the bottom bald. Nonetheless, they managed
to find some treasures. More than 2,000 years ago when the Romans sacked ancient
Greece, a departing Roman ship had sunk with a cargo of loot. From the sands of the
bottom, one of Cousteau's divers also disengaged a beautifully shaped miniature
bronze arm. From what priceless artifact, Cousteau wondered, had trawlers possibly
broken the piece? When he later visited the National Archaeological Museum of
Athens, Cousteau spotted a bronze figure that had been found at the Antikythera site
in 1901. It was missing a limb. The little arm found by his team fit exactly.

Razed by trawlers, the bottom of the Aegean has been stripped of countless clues it
could have provided to the ancient wrecks and artworks it engulfs. Saccage destroys
both natural and cultural treasures. How fitting that the plunder, pillage, and
looting of Antikythera stands as a metaphor for the global saccage of our past,
present, and future.

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