Brève n° 261
Divers plunder Greece's sunken treasure troves
Government move to boost tourism backfires as looters descend on
antiquities
Article d’Helena Smith écrit à
Athènes pour le Guardian du vendredi 30 janvier 2009.
For
centuries they have lain forgotten and untouched in the murky depths of the
Mediterranean. But the sunken glories of Greece are now threatened by modern
treasure hunters, who are targeting their riches since the lifting of a ban on
coastal scuba-diving.
At
risk, say archaeologists, is an unseen part of the country's cultural
patrimony, comprising thousands of shipwrecks dating from Classical, Hellenic,
Roman, Byzantine and early modern times and their priceless cargoes of coins,
ingots, weapons and gold.
"Greek
waters are some of the richest in antiquities in the world," said the
marine archaeologist Katerina Dellaporta. "Thanks to very stringent
controls over underwater exploration shipwrecks have been extremely well
preserved."
Until
recently divers were allowed access to just 620 miles of the country's 12,000
mile coastline, but in an attempt to boost tourism, the conservative government
opened the country's entire coastal waters to underwater exploration in 2003.
Since
then, looting has proliferated, say archaeologists.
Treasure
hunters, encouraged by scuba-diving websites from America to Australia, are
homing in on the "archaeological sea parks" armed with hi-tech
scanners, cameras and nets.
One
US-based diving company offers on its website an exhaustive list of
"underwater treasures" which have been discovered by scuba divers,
including sculptures, jewellery, warrior helmets, Phoenician beads, vases, and
a variety of personal items reflecting life in the region in ancient times,
from oil lamps to medical supplies.
"Man
has been sailing the Greek seas for more than 9,000 years," it says.
"This means that ships have been sinking for over 9,000 years - ideal for
treasure hunters."
It
offers a fleet of 400 yachts, some with crews, and "customised"
diving packages for everyone from beginners to experienced divers as the
"best way to discover Greece".
Marine
archaeologists, who have appealed to Greece's highest administrative court to
reverse the relaxation of the law, also point to the surge in blogging by
divers boasting of their finds.
Last
summer, one police raid intercepted two trucks crammed with ancient artefacts
discovered in a wreck off the island of Kalymnos.
But
with growing numbers of would-be looters posing as tourists on yachts, Greece
appears ill-equipped to tackle the problem.
Unlike
Italy, which has units of specially trained divers and helicopters to chase
underwater thieves, Greece has an art squad that is under-funded and, with just
20 members, woefully understaffed.
The
sheer scale of the problem is also an issue: an estimated 6,000 wrecks are
believed to dot the Greek seas, with most of them in the Mediterranean, where
entire submerged cities are thought to exist.
"The
future of archaeology is in the water - on land most riches have been
discovered - but in the sea there are thousands of sunken ships with cargoes
that have yet to be found," said Harry Tzalas, a marine archaeologist who
has discovered numerous treasures off the coast of Alexandria in Egypt.
"Each
time an artefact is removed from the sea its value in terms of information and
context is automatically lost, a tragedy for archaeologists."
DATE DE PUBLICATION EN LIGNE : 22 AVRIL 2009