Forensics

Dogs May Soon Be on the Front Lines in the Fight Against Artifact Smuggling

At the University of Pennsylvania, Roxie, Moxie, Pacy, Scout and Grizzly are ready for their first archaeology class. The pupils—four Labradors and a German shepherd—each take a turn with a trainer in a quiet room to focus on the task at hand: sniffing cotton that had been sealed in a bag with bits of ancient Syrian pottery, and then getting a treat.

At the Penn Vet Working Dog Center, researchers have taught dogs to detect bombs, drugs, arson, people, even cancer. But this is the first time dogs are learning to recognize the smell of artifacts. The goal is to reduce the smuggling of archaeological treasures from Syria and Iraq, where looting has skyrocketed as a source of funding for terrorist groups.

The K-9 Artifact Finders project is a collaboration with Penn’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and Red Arch Cultural Heritage Law and Policy Research, a nonprofit trying to stem the trafficking. “How do you keep these smuggled cultural artifacts from crossing borders without searching every shipment, every suitcase?” asks Ricardo St. Hilaire, the executive director of Red Arch. The K-9 initiative was his idea, a way to see if detection dogs can curb trafficking at airports, seaports and other places stolen antiquities slip through security.