<< Sites under Threat >> North Ossetia Plundered of its Golden Age
Submitted by coldrum on Friday, 09 June 2006 Page Views: 3594
Site WatchCountry: Russia Type: Burial Chamber or DolmenInternal Links:
The authorities stand accused of inaction as grave-robbers raid ancient sites for gold treasures. Archaeologists in North Ossetia say an ancient and unique heritage is slipping away because of systematic plunder, while the authorities stand by and do nothing.
By Victor Buividas in Vladikavkaz (CRS No. 343, 08-June-06)
“Each year our institute rescues around one million US dollars' worth of historical relics from being stolen or destroyed,” Mark Bliev, director of the institute of history and archaeology at North Ossetia’s State University, told IWPR.
Bliev and his colleagues regularly go out on excavation trips to try to preempt the grave robbers who dig up valuable items.
They have saved an impressive amount, he said,“There are over 200,000 pieces. For example, a set of golden harness fittings found near a dig in the small town of Zilginsk [on the outskirts of Beslan] is worth over two million US dollars on the world market. It dates from the Sarmatian period of the third century BC.”
But sometimes Bliev and his colleagues are not quick enough to stop the thieves – termed “black market archaeologists” - who make a living from illegal excavations.
“Yes, unfortunately they exist,” he said. “But if people inform us that the storm clouds are gathering over a particular burial mound – that there are thieves there – we’ll send out an expedition. We usually get this sort of information by chance. A great many valuable ancient artifacts are found by workmen with bulldozers in clay quarries.”
Bliev cited one recent case where a group of miners found a large gold artifact, “Instead of handing it in to us, they took it and divided it up by cutting it into four pieces. But there turned out to be one honest person among them, and as a result, they were forced to hand over the relic, albeit in fragments.”
Khasan Chshiev, senior scientific expert at the republic’s Institute of History and Archaeology recounts an incident last September when his colleagues rushed to a grave site at the village of Nikolaevskaya after receiving a tip-off that it had been plundered.
But they were too late. “The thieves had been over the whole site in a big way, using a powerful mechanical digger,” said Chshiev.
Over the last 15 years, valuable items have been taken illegally from 50 large burial grounds, some dating back 3,000 years. As of 2001, the number of burial sites recorded as having been plundered stood at 30, and an average of five a year have been dug up by robbers since then.
Source: Institute for War and Peace Reporting
This article originally appeared in the Caucasus Reporting Service, produced by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, www.iwpr.net
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