Russians conduct up to 15 illegal excavations in Crimea every year, fate of found items is unknown – archaeologist

Ukrainska Pravda
Thu, September 14, 2023

Russia carries out up to 15 illegal archaeological excavations in occupied Crimea every year, as Russian archaeologists themselves state in their reports. The further fate of the items found in this way is unknown.

Source: Oksana Lifantii, archaeologist, museologist and specialist in Scythian culture, in an interview with Ukrainska Pravda

Quote: "This [such a number of excavations – UP] is quite a lot for such a small region. Before the occupation, there were slightly fewer expeditions in Crimea.

The same Ust-Almmen necropolis (items from which went to the exhibition and then got stuck for almost 10 years in the Netherlands) continues to be explored with the funding and participation of Russians.

In 2017, in particular, a woman's burial with gold was found there, and the Russian media began to boast that "we don't need to return that gold; we were able to dig up our Scythian gold".

Details: Lifantii says that similar excavations in occupied Crimea are being carried out at the expense of federal funding from the Russian Federation.

The further fate of archaeological artefacts found in this way, as the researcher notes, cannot be traced because "such things can be sent outside Crimea under the pretext of restoration".

She adds that according to international law, archaeological artefacts discovered this way are illegal.