Eight Tomb Robbers Arrested in Turkey

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Last week in Turkey it was announced that the arrest of some illegal antiquity traders who they had been shadowing for seven months has revealed they had been taking artefacts from an especially significant site. The artefact hunters had been plundering the previously undiscovered tomb of a fourth-century B.C. king. State security officers discovered a clandestine excavation near Bodrum being conducted by as many as eight culture thieves, and in it was found the grave of King Hecatomnus who died in 377 BC (the father of King Mausolus, ruler of Caria, whose tomb was the better-known Mausoleum at Halicarnassus nearby). In the tomb was found a remarkable sculpted sarcophagus 2.75 meters long and 1.85 m high, hailed as "one of the most important archeological discovery in modern times".


MİLAS - Doğan News Agency, 'Illegal excavation reveals an important discovery', Aug 8th 2010.

See also The History Blog, 'Looters lead Turkish police to undiscovered tomb of king', Monday, August 9th, 2010.

Looting Matters: Looting in Caria.

There is a currently a video here of the men being led away by burly Turkish policemen and some of their grave looting equipment, as well as shots inside one or more of the tombs.