The Spanish just bulldozed a major ruin to make way for a parking facility. It goes on all over. The Moslems *may* be the only ones since Pol Pot who make a point of using active techniques to seek and destroy antiquities.
The dig at Jiroft (which is where the Iranians claim these pieces originated, but couldn't substantiate this) has been under intense study lately, part of Iran's drive to look for pre-Persian antiquity on its own soil to improve its national self-image.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=Jiroft
(OOPS! Sent the first one as a private message...silly me!!)
I guess "progress" is paramount. (re: the Spaniards)
As for the intentional destruction of history...damn them!
I wonder at what we could have had if we hadn't lost the library at Alexandria!!!