The PAS and their supporters say we should "partner" artefact hunters as they will lead us to new sites. Alternatively, we could arrest them (Jessica Bateman, '
The discovery of the ancient Greek city of Tenea' BBC
16 September 2019)
illicit antiquities smugglers had known about the site for years, and would often pay local farmers for vases and coins they came across. In 2010, Korka worked alongside the police and informants to intercept the illegal sale of two statues that had been looted nearby. [...] in 2013 the excavation began.[...] Last October, houses were discovered, and the team realised they had finally found the city itself. “Most of the surface level findings had already been taken by looters,” Lagos said.
This is rather problematic 'news'. The location of the site was known for decades, if not more, also in the archaeological world. The looted statues were not from the site itself but from the nearby cemeteries, they were apparently found during ploughing, or perhaps 'traditional' looting. The surface of the urban area is not more or less looted than any other 'average 'Greek urban site -- it has (probably) been visited by illegal detectorists, and here and there some remains may have been dug up, but the excavations show the site (or major parts of it) are in a pretty good condition.
ReplyDeleteThanks, I suspected that there was some journalistic licence involved here, but my interest in the story was not so much the archaeological discovery but the counter to the British PAS-narrative that if you do not collaborate with looters and pat them on the back, you will not find out about the new sites they are plundering. But the clarification is much appreciated.
ReplyDeleteIn this case, no new site was involved, they were looting known find spots. But there are quite some cases in Greece where looting has led to discovery of new sites -- Daskalio near Keros, which has been in the news a lot recently, is a good case (although even here some archaeological work was done long ago, in part of the site only).
ReplyDeleteIn the case of much artefact hunting, the site is already known to be 'productive' too.
ReplyDelete