Archaeological looting in Romania refers to illegal digging and removal of ancient artifacts from archaeological sites in Romania in order to be sold on the black market of antiquities in Western Europe and the United States.
Notable among the treasure looted are two dozen Dacian bracelets which were dug up and stolen around 1999–2001 from the archeological site at Sarmizegetusa Regia. Twelve of which were recovered by the Romanian state and at least another twelve are still missing. [1]
In Romania, unauthorized digs are illegal around the areas designated archeological sites. Some looters use flocks of sheep in order to justify their presence in the area: they camp near the archeological sites and use donkeys to carry their equipment. [2]
In 2009, twelve looters (among which Iulian Ceia) were convicted to between 7 and 12 years in jail for looting Dacian bracelets and selling them on the international black market; they have however appealed and the trial is still ongoing. [3]
In 2012, four looters (Liviu Darius Baci, Mircea Mihăilă, Florin Sebastian Zvîncă, Romică Hîndorean) were sent to trial for looting from Sarmizegetusa Regia between 1998 and 2009. They looted 3,600 Greek coins (estimated at €3,794,550), a necklace (estimated at €100,000) and 35 Roman denarii (from Dâncu Mare). [4]
The golden bracelets, weighing between 800 and 1200 grams each, were discovered by looters in the Sarmizegetusa Regia Dacian fortress (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) in the Orăștie Mountains and they were illegally exported. They were recovered by the Romanian authorities from the international market through a collaboration with the German authorities. [5]
Following the looting, gold Koson coins have been dispersed around the world, being sold at coin auctions. [6] The Romanian police began an international investigation which resulted in seizures in Hamburg and London (2010) and Dublin (2011), the source of the two coins seized in the Dublin auction being a New York auction. [6] Such coins have an estimated value of €800 each. [6] The Romanian authorities have so far, recovered 700 gold Kosons and 202 silver Kosons. [4]
A treasure containing 3,600 Greek coins (bearing the names of Lysimachus, Pharnakes and Asander) weighing 30 kg (66 lb) was looted in August 1998 from the Sarmizegetusa Regia site of Șesu Căprăreței. [4] It was taken illegally out of the country and sold on the Triton III auction (November/December 1999) in the United States. [7]
The Romanian authorities recovered only 28 Lysimachus coins. [4]
On 21 May 2013, three Lysimachus coins minted on Tomis and Callatis were recovered from looters among other Roman and medieval coins. [8]
In 2009, the Romanian authorities recovered from Germany an ancient golden necklace with pendants that has been looted around 2002–2003 from the archeological site of Dacian fortress of Căpâlna. [9] The authorities also recovered three royal Dacian iron shields. [4]
Dacia was the land inhabited by the Dacians, its core in Transylvania, stretching to the Danube in the south, the Black Sea in the east, and the Tisza in the west. The Carpathian Mountains were located in the middle of Dacia. It thus roughly corresponds to present-day Romania, as well as parts of Moldova, Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Slovakia, and Ukraine.
Sarmizegetusa Regia was the capital and the most important military, religious and political centre of the Dacians before the wars with the Roman Empire. Built on top of a 1200 m high mountain, the fortress, consisting of six citadels, was the core of a strategic and defensive system in the Orăștie Mountains.
Built in murus dacicus style, the six Dacian Fortresses of the Orăștie Mountains, in Romania, were created in the 1st centuries BC and AD as protection against Roman conquest, and played an important role during the Roman–Dacian wars.
George "Gigi" Becali is a Romanian businessman, writer and former politician and convict, mostly known for his ownership of the FCSB football club.
The Dacian draco was a military standard used by troops of the ancient Dacian people, which can be seen in the hands of the soldiers of Decebalus in several scenes depicted on Trajan's Column in Rome, Italy. This wind instrument has the form of a dragon with open wolf-like jaws containing several metal tongues. The hollow dragon's head was mounted on a pole with a fabric tube affixed at the rear. In use, the draco was held up into the wind, or above the head of a horseman, where it filled with air and gave the impression it was alive while making a shrill sound as the wind passed through its strips of material. The Dacian draco likely influenced the development of the similar Roman draco.
The Środa Treasure is a hoard of silver and gold coinage, gold jewellery, royal regalia and precious stones found in years 1985–1988 during renovation works in the Silesian town of Środa Śląska, Poland. The discovered artifacts date from the mid 14th century and comprise over 3,000 pieces. Today it is the property of National Museum in Wrocław and has been kept at the Regional Museum in Środa Śląska.
The antiquities trade is the exchange of antiquities and archaeological artifacts from around the world. This trade may be illicit or completely legal. The legal antiquities trade abides by national regulations, allowing for extraction of artifacts for scientific study whilst maintaining archaeological and anthropological context. The illicit antiquities trade involves non-scientific extraction that ignores the archaeological and anthropological context from the artifacts.
Mărtinești is a commune in Hunedoara County, Transylvania, Romania. It is composed of seven villages: Dâncu Mare (Nagydenk), Dâncu Mic (Kisdenk), Jeledinți (Lozsád), Măgura (Magura), Mărtinești, Tămășasa (Tamáspatak), and Turmaș (Tormás).
The Dacian bracelets are bracelets associated with the ancient people known as the Dacians, a distinct branch of the Thracians. These bracelets were used as ornaments, currency, high rank insignia and votive offerings Their ornamentations consist of many elaborate regionally distinct styles. Bracelets of various types were worn by Dacians, but the most characteristic piece of their jewelry was the large multi-spiral bracelets; engraved with palmettes towards the ends and terminating in the shape of an animal head, usually that of a snake.
Victor Viorel Ponta is a Romanian jurist and politician, who served as Prime Minister of Romania between his appointment by President Traian Băsescu in May 2012 and his resignation in November 2015. A former member of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and its leader from 2010 to 2015, he was also joint leader (2012–2014) of the then-governing Social Liberal Union (USL), an alliance with the National Liberal Party (PNL). Ponta was a member of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies for Gorj County from 2004 to 2020. In the Emil Boc cabinet, he was Minister-Delegate for Relations with Parliament from 2008 to 2009.
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Zurobara was a Dacian town located in the northwest of today's Romanian Banat. It was positioned by the Tibiscus (Timiș) river, north of Sarmizegetusa Regia and south of Ziridava.
Ziridava was a Dacian town located between Apulon and Tibiscum, mentioned by Ptolemy in the area of the Dacian tribe of Biephi.
Roșia Montană Project was a proposed gold and silver mine in Roșia Montană, Romania. If approved, it would have become Europe's largest open-pit gold mine and it would have used the gold cyanidation mining technique. The project met with widespread protests in 2013 that indefinitely delayed the project, which saw its end in 2021, when Roșia Montană became a part of the UNESCO World Heritage list and was also included in the List of World Heritage in Danger. Following these measures, any mining activity in Roșia Montană is prohibited in the future.
Situated at the top of a steep hill, the Dacian fortress of Căpâlna was built in the second half of the 1st century BC as a military defense, guarding the entrance from the Sebeș Valley to the capital of the Dacian kingdom, Sarmizegetusa Regia.
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