[muzani]

I'm always amused when I see things like "this pyramid was cleaned out by tomb robbers long ago". How do we know they're not cleared out by archeologists? The Pyramid of Giza was already thousands of years old before the New Kingdom (which is still technically Ancient Egypt).

The Robbers' Tunnel in the Great Pyramid sounded well like a state funded archeological dig. Just that back in the day, humans didn't take care to not damage historical artifacts.

[autoexec]

Presumably archeologists would have documented and cared for whatever they earthed, while robbers would have just kept/used/sold them

[Atotalnoob]

Isn't that the key differentiation, taking care not to damage artifacts?

[muzani]

Plenty of actual thieves just keep the artifacts for themselves, without damaging anything. British museums get a lot of hate for taking home artifacts from other countries.

An old caliphate might be the equivalent of the UK today, a seemingly invincible power, but after a few hundred years, it collapses and its treasures are looted by some other victor.

Maybe another example might be something like the True Cross or other religious relics. They may not be damaged, but it ain't archeology.