Glenn Maffia
CORRESPONDING with one of my German archaeologist friends, he brought to my attention the level of thieving going on in the vicinity of the Temple of Apollo.
An activity that has, evidently, been occurring on a regular basis ever since the archaeological site was first excavated back in the early part of the previous century.
Robbing graves
Merely last year, after an exploratory walk along the Sacred Way to near the Aqua Park, he decided to catch a dolmus back to the Excavation House, next to the Temple.
While on the bus two young men began to speak to him about his work and then, to his utter amazement, proceeded to show him photographs on their smartphones of exquisite gold and silver jewellery and important architectural fragments the like of which, he says, the German team have never found anything even approaching this high quality.
Evading his questioning of where they had found these excellent articles they vaguely indicated that it was from robbing graves along the Sacred Way.
The Sacred Way has become the lucrative way for some
Many important and, naturally, wealthy people were interred along this revered road in antiquity.
Money in the dirt
As you can imagine I was horrified to read this, so I decided to do some preliminary investigation.
Well, that surface didn’t take too much scratching; the first person I asked replied, “Yes, it goes on all the time. There is a lot of money to be made”.
“Shouldn’t you hand these artefacts over to the relevant authorities?”
No, they do not give enough money. We can make much more selling these things ourselves. Anyway, they (the authorities) only take them, give us little money, then sell these things themselves for lots of money.”
My head was spinning with the realization this was clearly a clandestine industry, methodically enacted when the archaeologists are not here.
Stuff of dreams
It was only then that I recalled the many conversations I have had with various waiters at the cafés which surround the Temple in which they only believed the archaeologists were “looking for gold”.
They thought they were here purely on a treasure hunt. Here to find and take gold. I treated such comments as yet another sign of their ingrained ignorance.
There is also a rumour which continues to shift in the mist of their childlike dreams that a farmer once unearthed so much ancient loot that “he now owns a big tourist boat”.
I presume the impoverished mind and pocket of this fool was trying to allude to a cruise liner. I have been told that story three times, by different waiters.
Nonetheless, here are open confessions that looting of an archaeological site is being actively perpetuated and no one, not a single soul in a position of authority, is doing anything about this.
I must admit I have always seen this town as a particularly disparate place, though one thing that will always unite it is a ravishing lust for money!