On Taking from Others: History and Sensibility in Archaeologists’ Arguments for Treasure Trove Legislations

Abstract

The Indian Treasure Trove Act of 1878 is understood as a landmark legislative victory in the preservation of South Asian material pasts. This paper presents a detailed archival history recounting how archaeologists themselves were crucial to the promulgation of the Act and the authors of its specific provisions. It demonstrates how arguments for the reform of royal prerogative into an instrument for the discipline were born in mid-nineteenth-century British debates, where archaeologists’ attempts for a similar statutory change in property laws had been frustrated. Centuries-long tensions in common law definitions and their governance of treasure are demonstrated to be crucial to how we may better understand the new ‘policy’ of the colonial law and its operation. To do so, the paper reviews select cases and presents an evaluation of the archaeological justice of the rule of this law. It asks why our critical historiography has remained insensible to the victims of this law — archaeology’s counter-publics — who have been routinely incarcerated and punished in the name of the greater archaeological common good. Through these examinations, the paper reflects upon the enduring sensibilities and commitments that are involved in continuing to take treasures from others.