The link below will take you to the tresure of the century and no it is not the Anitocha. Enjoy the read Jess http://www.kultur.gov.tr/portal/arkeoloji_en.asp?belgeno=6092
The site works for me. The article is titled "History of Elmalı Coins". I'd cut and paste it, but don't want to violate their copyright without asking. It's a good article, especially for anyone with a special interest in ancient coins.
Helleniades atomes "We are honored on behalf of the humanity that these coins, defined as the treasure of the century, are gained to Turkey at the outset of 21st century." Blah, blah, blah... The central government in Ankara got the coins back because NATO needs them as a doorstop. That is all there is to it. The coins are GREEK and if they belong anywhere, they belong in ATHENS! And where they truly belong is where they were: in the hands of hellenists all over the world who love what classical Greece means to our world today. My father's family came from Palermo in Sicily. In ancient times, it was called Panormos ("all ready" as in getting your ship ready). On his mother's side, the family came from Corsica. These were the stomping grounds of the Carthagenians and Greeks and eventually the Romans. The artifacts found there are as much a part of _MY_ heritage as they are of the second-cousins left behind. The same line of argument applies to my mother's side of the family, which is Hungarian. The cultural artifacts -- in my case, coins of Rokoczy Ferenc II or for that matter, my grandmother's Psalm book -- are part of who and what we are as a family, even though we are in America. Certainly, they are our "heritage" as well. Even without a single Magyar or Hellenic chromosome, anyone who is interested in the history of a time or place -- China, Mali, Tierra del Fuegao or Greenland -- has earned a right to own that with which their spirit is in key. Even without any mystical considerations of "heritage" or "culture" or "spirit" the fact is that unclaimed property belongs to the person who finds it. For the government of Ankara to steal these coins is wrong. It is typical of the looter/moocher demon-driven mentality that haunts our world today.
Marotta - I'm right there with you - I think the coins belong in Athens. What a lot of people fail to realize is that Turkey simply "claimed" a large part of Greece at one point and called it land of their own - much like Saddam Hussein did with Kuwait in 1990. Most of the Western coast of modern day Turkey is Greek, was Greek, and should be Greek, to include Konstantinopoli, now called Istanbul by the muslims that invaded and conquered it. My wife is Athenian, she is Greek through and through. Her mother lives in Greece, and her heart is always in the sunsets of the beautiful mediterranean beaches surrounding the country. She has very trong feelings against people buying and selling coins that legally belong to Greece - in fact, I have to hold her back from verbally attacking ancient dealers at shows. Give the coins back - let them go on display. Let them be available for on-site study to those who are interested in the ancient culture. That's my piece.
