Sunday 23 August 2015

Illegal excavations at Tell Adeh


Video: Idlib - Massif Calcaire: fouilles clandestines à Tell Adeh (source)

This seems to be Tell Adeh (36°14'58.06"N 36°48'2.14"E) on Djebel Halakah in the limestone hills north of Apamea in Idlib governate in NW Syria.  The site is now in the hands of the 'Syrian opposition' and has been for some time, with Al-Nusrah territory not far to the east.

Dealers will try to tell you that holes like this are not due to the existence of a (their) market in antiquities. To my mind the ground is so rocky here and the brush so thorny, the idea that people are digging them for sheer "fun" seems less plausible than the notion that they are digging holes here because they are looking for something.  So, how many "guards" would the dealers have the Syrian opposition authorities (or whoever) put here, and why, and how would they be paid for? Can't antiquity-dealing dullards come up with something more effective - like cleaning up their own sordidly careless industry?


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