Antiquities police arrest beachcomber

Visitors to Turkey are routinely warned not to buy or pick up ancient artifacts as souvenirs, even though the country is awash in bits and pieces of antiquity. Periodically someone is made an example of, often enough a hapless innocent:

A German man is facing up to 10 years in a Turkish prison because his nine-year-old son picked up pebbles from a beach.

The 34-year-old financial advisor, from Muenster, named only as Stefan G, was arrested at Antalya airport after security guards found a bag of stones in his suitcase. He was charged with smuggling archaeologically valuable national treasures and put in a cell with 14 criminals. . .

German member of the European parliament, Hedwig Keppelhoff-Wiechert, has now appealed to the Turkish ambassador to the EU to personally see to it that the man is set free.

The stones might indeed be of some minor archeological significance, but it seems just as likely some border guards jumped to the wrong conclusion and then wouldn't lose face by backing down. There are potsherds and tiny pieces of ancient buildings all over many sites, and in most cases they are of no commercial value and archeologically useless, coming from deeply disturbed ground. In some cases, chiefly in major cities, the sites are basically open walkways that are regularly tramped through and used as dumps and public latrines. This isn't just Turkey, I should hasten to add: the situation in Greece wasn't much different last time I was there.

Posted by David on September 26, 2003 10:51 AM