7 he Plunder of the Ulúa Valley, Honduras, and a Market Analysis for Its Antiquities Christina Luke and John S. Henderson By 1941 Doris Stone (1941) had documented at least several hundred mounds at the site of Travesía in the Lower Ulúa Valley. Today approximately twenty- ive mounds remain, most riddled with large trenches. hese looters’ pits make it impossible to walk comfortably across the former downtown area of the site. Over the last ity years Ulúa-style polychrome ceramics, jades, and—the most desired—marble vases have drawn local recreational treasure hunters, collec- tors, professional looters, and international dealers to the site and others in its vicinity. Many of these objects now reside in collections around the world, while their contexts have been completely lost. he destruction of this single site is symptomatic of a much larger, indeed global, problem of commercially moti- vated archaeological destruction. his chapter uses data from the Lower Ulúa Valley of northwestern Hon- duras to address the global problem of pillage (map 7.1). Our goal is to explore how systematically collected archaeological data provide an invaluable tool for exploring the result of pillage on the landscape. In the irst half of the chapter we summarize the indings of archaeological projects geared toward documenting the cultural history of the region to give readers a framework. Next, the correla- tion between intense looting, development, and the art market in Honduras is explored. Building on these data we examine the international art market for a speciic object type, Ulúa marble vases, and the intensity and aim of looting activities for these vases. Background on Pre-Columbian Looting Many scholars argue for a direct relationship between the plunder of archaeo- logical sites and the market for antiquities. A few excellent quantitative studies have shown a strong relationship between pillage and the art market for speciic objects (Chippindale et al. 2001; Elia 2001; Gill and Chippindale 1993; Nør- skov 2002). he market for Pre-Columbian antiquities is no exception (Cog- gins 1995, 1998; Gilgan 2001). While some studies have shown that in Central America extreme poverty alone may promote looting (Matsuda 1998; Paredes