Posted at 12:18 p.m., Thursday, February 5, 2004
'Hawaiian' skull put up for bids, then withdrawn
By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer
The listing was posted Monday by a man living in Irvine, Calif., said eBay spokesman Hani Durzy, who declined to release the seller’s identity.
The seller had voluntarily ended the auction yesterday, before eBay investigators, who routinely scan for illicit postings, discovered the file, Durzy said. However, eBay also pulled the file from the archive so that it could not be found; ordinarily, auctions that are ended can be viewed for 14 days, he said.
Durzy added that eBay is ready to cooperate in any investigation but was not aware if one has been launched. The federal Bureau of Indian Affairs learned of the listing independently and also contacted eBay, he said.
The listing violated a policy that prohibits the sale of Native American and Native Hawaiian remains and burial objects, he said.
Reading from the listing file, Durzy said the advertisement claimed the skull belonged to a "warrior who died on Maui in the 1790s," and that the seller "discovered skull in summer of ’69 in Ka'anapali Beach."
The posting claimed that "at the time the site was being excavated for development of the Whaler’s Village." A field of battle artifacts and human remains were uncovered, the seller claimed, adding that construction was halted while an investigation was conducted by the Lahaina Historical Society and the Bishop Museum.
