From my time majoring in Arch, I’d say the rule of thumb is:
“Is the culture the body came from vanished or changed to the point where no one has a personal stake in it.”
So for example, vikings are long since gone. Modern northern europeans are generally a completely different culture, therefore not grave robbing. Same with Ancient Egypt, Ancient Rome, etc…
Indigenous tribes in North America and Australia for example, still very much around and still very much grave robbing (though that opinion is controversial)
Basically, if the existing culture still shows reverence to those ancestors…leave them alone. If the existing culture no longer honours them as ancestors, dig baby dig.
Is your intent to learn from and preserve a lost culture, or profit off of stolen goods?
I feel like it’s pretty simple.
Even if there was something to learn I don’t want anyone digging up my grandma. If someone’s descendants are saying “Don’t do that to our ancestor’s grave, it’s disrespectful in our culture” then you’re defiling a grave.
I guess that as long as nobody complains, it isn’t grave robbing.
It’s a government permit thing, not a time thing. If you go an dig up an Etruscan grave on your own it is absolutely grave robbing.
Yeah but that’s just putting the problem of defining it onto governments.
If a court orders the exhumation of a murder victim, is that technically archeology?
Hmm true. Adam Savage would say it’s whether or not you’re keeping notes.
