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Pieces of pottery have filled the fields of an ancient city in southeastern Albania, writes AFP, where robbers have raided the highlands of the area in search of antiquities to sell to international traffickers.
Illegal treasure hunters operate with near impunity in the country, sparking outrage among archaeologists over the theft of precious national heritage.
“Illegal excavations are already a serious problem in our entire Korca region. recent works, we found traces of illegal excavations in almost all the archaeological sites and in the fortifications surrounding the field of Korçë. The problem is particularly worrisome at Raven’s Shadow, an important archaeological site where the discovery in the 1980s of a hoard of coins attracted the attention of illegal diggers.”said Rovena Kurti, Archaeological Institute of Albania
“People come here from almost all provinces, even from Tirana, from Korça. They dig and search in the hope of finding gold, silver or other valuable materials.” said Axhem Lagastllari, a resident of the area.
“The first violent destruction occurred in the 2000s and is being repeated regularly. The last time we saw evidence of digging was a few months ago, and again two days ago, robbers robbed another grave, next to the ones they opened four years ago.” said Skender Mucaj, Archaeologist.
The government says it is working on measures to protect and preserve the sites where the looters operate, but so far there has been little use, even though the removal of archaeological objects is a crime, as in most countries.
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