Last week the Mykolayiv local lore museum received a number of artifacts originally stolen from an archeological dig in Olvia, site of an ancient Greek settlement and now an archeological and historical preserve. All these things were originally seized as material exhibits by the State Security Service officials investigating a criminal case. According to museum curator Nataliya Kukhar-Onyshko, the artifacts are of immense value for the museum. The last time the museum received original Olvian artifacts was in 1927. Recently, the diggings in the State Olvia Preserve have been carried out by visitant archeologists, sometimes even by marauders, who have taken away everything found on the site, Ms. Kukhar- Onyshko notes.
Combating tomb plunderers has lately become a key issue, with Olvia, following a presidential edict, being awarded the status of an architectural preserve affiliated with the National Academy of Science of Ukraine. Paradoxically, this fact has spurred plunderers to step up their activities, Senior Research Associate of the Institute of Archeology of the NAS and Head of the Olvian expedition Valentyna Krapivyna told The Day. If last year thieves opened about 1000 tombs (by comparison, it took Olvia’s first archeologist Farmakovsky fifteen years to explore the same number of graves), they plundered 600 graves in January to February alone. There were days, Ms. Krapivyna continues, when up to a hundred persons were involved in unlawful diggings (incidentally, even in its best years the Institute of Archeology could not command such a number of personnel for its field expeditions – Author). Such frenzied activity of thieves, Ms. Krapivyna maintains, is due to their fears that sooner or later the preserve will get better funding and will be able to strengthen their security. At present, however, there is only one guard in a 270-hectare preserve and a policeman coming occasionally from Mykolayiv. Meanwhile, plunderers have all the possibilities to carry out barbaric digging, even using heavy machinery.
Not only Olvia suffers from plunderers’ raids. Most of Ukraine’s archeological monuments, numbering 60,000 according to the Ukrainian Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments, find themselves in a similar position. For example, half of the archeological sites in the Crimea have been broken into by thieves, causing vast damage to monuments and our historical heritage, not to mention material losses the state sustains as plundering ancient graves is not only a hobby for collectors but also a very lucrative business. Tentative assessments indicate that the value of the contents of a single ancient grave can be between 200 and 260,000 dollars, Ms. Krapivyna says. Given a $29,000 average insurance value of artifacts from a single grave and a thousand graves broken into by thieves last year, everything becomes clear. The fact that local residents (just ordinary people, not the nouveau riche) can just as easily offer archeologists up to $1,500 for a valuable find makes it clear that a well-oiled system of buying and selling artifacts is in operation there.
Much to the chagrin of officials, it is not that easy to bring marauders to account, even if they are seized in the possession of artifacts. According to Ms. Krapivyna, there were cases when courts ordered law enforcement to return an artifact (found on their garden plots, suspects say) and apologize for the inconvenience.
Given the situation, one can hope that at least some part of these unique treasures can be saved by archeologists digging for artifacts. But there is one big if: in the last seven years no funding has been allocated by the government for excavation, restoration, and preservation of artifacts. Those archeological expeditions which start to dig through sheer enthusiasm of their members can be counted on the fingers of one hand. If the situation does not change for the better, unique finds will continue to gladden only collectors, primarily foreign ones, archeologists believe.
