Along the overgrown road from the foot to the top of the Samobor hill, near the Podhum settlement in the Tuzi municipality, ceramics from the ancient era are scattered. Nearby are the remains of old stone fortifications from that time. More recent traces of digging, but also of covering excavations with earth, are also visible. Parts of pottery ceramic objects - jugs, amphorae and other vessels, which in orderly countries would be found either in a museum or protected on site, are neatly arranged on some larger stones.
Anyone who wants to can dig there and alienate archaeological treasures with impunity, which should be under the protection of the state.
According to some historical sources, Samobor is one of the hillforts in Montenegro where stone mounds are still visible today. Those forts are the only remaining monumental monuments that served the Illyrians for military and defensive purposes, while people were buried in the mounds.
"This basin, as well as the whole of Montenegro, represented a rich monumental 'golden wire' that we stepped on, but not only did we not exploit it, but we recklessly left it to the elements of destruction and destruction", wrote about this area one of of the best connoisseurs, historian and academician of the Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts (CANU) Pavle Mijović in the report "On the research of cultural monuments in the Skadar lake basin" from 1983.
From the Polim Museum in Berane for Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro (CIN-CG) explain that in 2016, as part of the "Paths of Continuity" project, they conducted the first systematic archaeological research in Samobor for the National Museum of Montenegro (NMCG).
"The location was then left in the prescribed condition. It's tragic that someone immediately ran in with a metal detector and destroyed the area," says the archeologist of the Polim Museum Predrag Lutovac.
According to him, many amphorae were found in Samobor, which, apart from packaging for traded goods, were used for leveling the terrain and as a kind of waterproofing.
"We found everything in that location. Old money, arrows, fibulae (buckles), various tools, items for fishing... Montenegro does not even know what cultural heritage it has, especially from the era of antiquity. For some reason, our scientists are less interested in that period. In general, cultural heritage is the last thing that our country cares about," said one interlocutor, who wished to remain anonymous, and who excavates archaeological artefacts, for CIN-CG.
Samobor is just one of many places in Montenegro where traces of illegal excavation of archaeological artifacts are visible.
The register of cultural goods is not publicly available
CIN-CG's anonymous interlocutor excavated artifacts in the entire area of Zeta, Martinić, some parts of Morača, Smokovac, Možura, the hills above Risno and Petrovac...
"In many places in the north of the country there are also interesting localities. Many, across the country were damaged. For example, on Možura, the tumuli found there are almost completely devastated," he says.
According to his knowledge, there are currently at least 15 treasure hunters in Montenegro.
Not every archaeological artefact is a cultural asset, as they are declared by competent state institutions. However, many - can be. When someone knowingly digs up cultural assets in an illegal way, he destroys the remains of cultural heritage, which for scientists describes a time, a culture, a people.
According to NMCG archaeologists Goran Pajović, Montenegro has thousands of sites of archaeological and cultural importance. Many of them are not known to the public, which, says Pajović, in a way contributes to their preservation from the prey of those who illegally excavate archaeological sites.
The register of cultural assets of Montenegro is not publicly available, and informed interlocutors of CIN-CG believe that its disclosure would "draw a target" for numerous localities in the country, which institutions are clearly not equipped to defend.
According to the data of the Administration for the Protection of Cultural Property (UZKD) from 2019, in Montenegro there were 817 examples of immovable and 630 movable cultural property, 19 intangible cultural property, as well as 579 commemorative monuments that are under the protection regime.
"There are two types of 'detonators' (treasure hunters). Collectors and lovers of antiques, which includes myself, and those who only want material benefit. Until now, I have never sold anything, because there is no price at which these objects could be bought", explains CIN-CG's anonymous interlocutor who illegally digs for archaeological treasures.
Archaeologist Pajović warns that in both cases, both collectors and teachers - do great damage.
They sell archaeological artifacts through ads, forums, social networks...
Only on the unregistered portal crna.gora.me, the CIN-CG journalist found several ads offering items that could be cultural property.
"Stone ax from the Neolithic era, found in the bed of the Bojana River at the source of Lake Skadar. Unique", reads one of the advertisements dating from 2017.
Old money, helmets and bayonets, daggers are sold on the same platform...
Even after several weeks of waiting, CIN-CG did not receive answers from the crna.gora.me portal to questions about whether and how they control the ads they publish and why they are not registered in accordance with the Media Act.
"It's very rare that something appears on its own in the bed of any river, and you'll often see ads online stating this. It's an internal 'fora' among treasure hunters, in order to protect themselves," an anonymous antiquities "digger" told CIN-CG.
"I moved to Montenegro, and I've been here for a year. I offer those who want the services of organization of trips with metal detecting. Lots of promising places. There are no problems with transporting the metal detector. If desired, I can also provide my e-truck. There are old fortresses, monasteries, villages, Roman roads and the like," wrote one of the users of the ReviewDetector.ru platform, a Russian forum for treasure hunters, in 2016.
On this platform, there are several other such announcements related to Montenegro.
Forums similar to this one in Russia also function in the region. Such, for example, is skrivenoblago.com, where users, among other things, list various places in the territory of Montenegro that are suitable for the excavation of archaeological artifacts. As a rule, these forums are closed for communication, they have a strict selection of users who go through a complicated process of registration and control. They use code names, and often it is not known who is behind these platforms.
Archeological treasure hunters most often use metal detectors. In Montenegro, the issue of using this device is not legally regulated, and the prices of detectors range from a few dozen to a few hundred euros.
On the forums, you can also find ads for the sale of metal detectors.
"Officials of the Department for the fight against crime continuously check the Internet and other advertisements related to this issue. In the course of 2022, we did not register cases of illegal excavation and prosecution of persons on this occasion," the police administration told CIN-CG.
However, they did not answer questions about how they perform these controls, or whether they had encountered such phenomena before.
Archaeologist and assistant director for the Department for the Implementation of Measures for the Protection of Cultural Property of the Administration for the Protection of Cultural Property Petra Zdravković for CIN-CG points out that it is very difficult to register these illegal activities.
"We only record the export of objects of historical or cultural importance, when the verification procedure is carried out. In the last 10 years, since the Administration was formed, we have only had a few reports that something was dug up, but it all ends with us submitting a report to the inspection, and then it submits a criminal report against an unknown person and there is no epilogue".
According to Zdravković, there is no information about the black market in connection with the sale of archaeological artifacts and cultural goods.
"Such records are not kept. This would certainly have to be dealt with in a systemic way", she says, noting that in some countries there are special departments of the police specialized in this issue.
Legal solutions are good, but the people who would implement them are lacking
The Criminal Code of Montenegro stipulates a prison sentence of one to eight years for anyone who damages, destroys or renders unusable cultural property. Whoever brings in or takes out cultural property from Montenegro without the permission of the competent authority will be punished with imprisonment of up to three years.
These are just dead letters on paper, because, as Zdravković says, "no one has ever been prosecuted in Montenegro for these crimes."
According to the Law on the Protection of Cultural Property, it is prohibited to carry out any act that can damage, appropriate, buy, pledge or otherwise acquire, conceal or put into circulation a cultural property that is known or can be known to have been acquired illegally way. The same law prescribes fines from 500 to 9.000 euros for those who, during the performance of any works or activities, come across findings of archaeological importance, and do not report them to the UZKD, the police or the body responsible for maritime safety.
One of the world's experts in the trading of cultural heritage, a lawyer and an archaeologist Samuel Andrew Hardy for CIN-CG points out that among the key problems is the lack of people who would enforce the laws.
"There is a lack of specialist units in the police, training for officers so that they have a better chance of recognizing protected cultural property (and awareness that they could find them while looking for drugs, for example), as well as establishing protocols so that they collect forensic evidence when they catch a suspect or find suspicious items," he explains.
The problem is that judges and juries often don't understand the crime, even if the police find evidence and the prosecutor manages to build a case, Hardy says.
And Zdravković points out that there is not enough professional staff at any level of cultural property protection.
In a 2022 survey by the NGO Expeditio and the Faculty of Arts in Niš, the respondents highlighted the problem of society's lack of interest in cultural heritage, as well as the lack of employed and engaged people in this sphere. Official government documents also mention the staffing problem.
Only two inspectors for the protection of cultural heritage
According to official data from the Directorate for Inspection Affairs (UIP), Montenegro currently has only two inspectors for the protection of cultural heritage.
CIN-CG requested from this Administration the statistics of field trips regarding illegal mining in the period from 2010 to 2023, as well as information on which localities were involved. We received data concerning only two cases, both from 2018 and still unresolved.
An inspection carried out in April 2018 found that the archaeological site Municipium S, a former Roman city located on the territory of the Municipality of Pljevlja, was damaged. Then, as stated by the UIP, it was established that the procedure had already been initiated at the Basic State Prosecutor's Office (ODT) in Pljevlja, so the cultural property inspector did not take further measures within his jurisdiction.
"We sent several urgent calls to the Security Center in Pljevlje to take appropriate measures and actions in order to find the perpetrator of the crime, but he has so far remained unknown," the ODT in Pljevlje told CIN-CG.
In June 2018, the inspectors for the protection of cultural property filed a criminal complaint with the ODT in Podgorica against the unknown perpetrators because, during the night between May 28 and 29 of that year, the archaeological site of Duklja was damaged.
Duklja and Municipium S are among the most valuable archaeological sites in Montenegro. In those localities, however, there is absolutely no protection, cameras, guards. Archaeological treasures from these areas were blown up and destroyed, and no one was ever held accountable.
Archaeologist Stanko Roganović it says about Duklja:
"One of the former most important cities in the Balkans today looks more like a stone dump than the remains of the most important urban center of Prevalis. True, cities are created, grow, last, age - but also die, and ours disappeared in the cruelest and most primitive way".
In 2015, UZKD recorded a case of illegal digging in the southern part of the Žabljak Crnojević fortress. On that occasion, the experts of this administration concluded, the structures of archaeological character were destroyed forever.
"A criminal report was filed against an unknown person to the ODT in Cetinje, but we never received any feedback," Zdravković told CIN-CG.
In the area of the old lodgings of the "Đurđevi Stupovi" monastery, illegal excavations were also carried out, as can be seen from the Proposal of the Program for the Protection and Preservation of Cultural Property for 2022 of the Ministry of Culture and Media.
Montenegro has a history of alienating cultural treasures
"I found church sites, remains of ancient settlements, jars, lead, amphorae, jewelry, various tools (swords, knives, daggers, all kinds of figurines), as well as various types of money, from different areas brought here by the Illyrians from Libya, Syracuse... .”, says CIN-CG's anonymous interlocutor.
Roganović states that the territory of today's Montenegro was rich in archaeological cultural monuments, starting from prehistory to the late Middle Ages. According to his writings, Budva was the world's numismatic center for the finds of silver coins from the Roman period, and the richest Montenegrin treasury of cultural heritage is Boka. Both Budva and Boka were often targeted by robbers who illegally carried out underground and underwater excavations. This archaeologist reminds us of the alienation of archaeological finds from the Koronine cave near Cetinje.
There is a well-known case from 2015, when he was one of the founders of the NGO Montenegrin Movement and vice president of the Council of the Metropolitanate of the Montenegrin Orthodox Church. Stevo Vucinic sold an Illyrian sword and helmet to the National Museum in Cetinje for 20.000 euros. "Vijesti" then announced that Vučinić took the objects from protected archaeological sites, which is why he was not allowed to sell them, but returned them to the state. Vučinić denied those accusations, claiming that he got both the sword and the helmet in another way...
There are also examples of good practices. For years, the Center for Conservation and Archeology of Montenegro (CKA) has been warning about the importance of archaeological research at the site of Brskovo, near Mojkovac, where there was a mine in the Middle Ages where German miners, better known as Saxons, worked.
"Despite the fact that Brskovo is one of the most important medieval sites on the soil of Montenegro, it has been systematically destroyed for more than 20 years, by modern ore exploitation", it is stated in the Yearbook of the CKA from 2018.
To this state institution, however, the company "Brskovo Mine", which plans to build a mine in this area, approved financial support in 2021 for the needs of archaeological research in Brskovo.
In 2021, Hardi conducted research for the purposes of the study "It's not illegal if no one sees you: The organization of hunting for artifacts in the former Yugoslavia online", in which he also describes the activities of three people who are illegally excavating in Montenegro.
Hardy's study shows how treasure hunters carefully plan their activities in order to get away with it. One of the illegal traders of cultural heritage from Montenegro stated in Hardi's research that he "prefers to do business in the winter period of the year, in order to avoid snake bites and heat strokes".
Antiquities trade is an increasingly dangerous problem according to science
"Trading in antiquities is not a new problem, but it has become more dangerous, with significant consequences for science," reads one of the texts on the website of the American educational organization "Project Archeology: Discover the past, shape the future".
There have been recorded cases of museums in which it turned out that parts of the collections were acquired in the illegal artefact trade. From the "Museum of the Bible" in Washington, they discovered that several thousand clay tablets and fragments of papyrus in their possession were collected illegally.
In 2019, it was revealed that Facebook had 95 different groups with almost two million members that were engaged in the sale of cultural goods. More than a third of the artifacts from these groups originated from war-torn countries.
The "Project Archeology" organization warns that the purchase of artifacts from the Middle East can also contribute to terrorist organizations.
In his study, Hardy warns that the smuggling of antiquities and artifacts can also have political consequences. He recalled the case known to the public as "Ikon". The current president of the entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik is in December 2020 to the Russian head of diplomacy To Sergey Lavrov, during his visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina, presented an icon of Saint Nicholas. Russia, however, returned the icon to the BiH Embassy in Moscow, after suspicions were expressed that it was a missing Ukrainian national treasure. Because of this, in February 2021, Dodik was questioned at the BiH Prosecutor's Office, from where it was announced that witnesses were also being questioned.
CIN-CG's anonymous interlocutor explains that there are groups on Facebook in which treasure hunters from Montenegro are also active.
"These are mainly regional groups, where sales are negotiated," he explained to us.
CIN-CG attempted to reach these social media groups, but access was denied due to anonymous administrators selectively allowing membership.
About 3.000 artifacts were found in one seizure alone
In many countries, a large number of illegally excavated and resold archeological objects were confiscated in the total amount of hundreds of millions of dollars.
CIN-CG was told by the Revenue and Customs Administration that in the period from 2010 to 2023 there were no cases of illegal traffic in Montenegro, nor the seizure of artifacts.
"This was determined after a check in all PJ customs offices," the answer states.
However, the documentation that the Administration for the Protection of Cultural Property forwarded to CIN-CG shows that there was still a seizure.
In 2009, six decorations that can be considered part of the cultural heritage of Montenegro were confiscated at the Kotor Customs House. Among them were medals for bravery (medals of Miloš Obilić) from 1913, the Memorial for Liberated Kosovo, the War for Liberation and Unification Memorial (1914 - 1918), the Memorial Cross (1913), the Albanian Memorial (1915), as well as the German decoration - Prussian Iron or Iron Cross (1914).
In 2018, according to the report on confiscated archaeological material and antiquities of the then Ministry of Culture, a large number of items were seized in the PJ Customs House in Podgorica, which the company "Montenegro Coins" wanted to send by mail to an auction house in England, whose name is not mentioned in this report. According to the opinion of the working team formed by the Ministry of Culture at the time, the company did not act in accordance with the legal regulations, which is why the items were confiscated.
It was a huge number of artifacts - 2.828 of them, distributed in nine packages. Among them were found stone anvils, spearheads and arrowheads, various axes, bronze spikes, candlestick bases, crosses, jewelry, numerous figures and medical tools, daggers and other weapons, ceramic seals, vessels, various ornaments... Many of these items date back to from the Bronze and Iron Ages, as well as the Roman period, and some come from other areas outside of Montenegro.
From the Administration for the Protection of Cultural Property for CIN-CG, however, they point out that they still do not know what the result of these seizures was.
"No one has any idea how much went to neighboring countries, and beyond. Just recently, a figurine of Zeus, found on the hills above Risno, 'went' to Greece", says CIN-CG's anonymous interlocutor.
"In order to preserve what the previous generations left us as a legacy, schools need to connect more with the local community. We take children on excursions abroad, and not visit some of the most important localities in their own country... Then how can they develop awareness of the need to preserve cultural heritage?", he told CIN-CG. Jasminka Milosevic from the Association of Philosophy Professors.
According to Eurostat data from 2020, some countries in Europe allocate around three percent of their budgets for these needs. According to the Budget Law for 2023, Montenegro's allocations for culture amount to only 0,9 percent.
Montenegro does not have a National Strategy for the Protection of Cultural Heritage
Our country has also ratified almost all important international conventions related to this area. Among them is the UNESCO Convention on Measures to Prohibit and Prevent the Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property from 1970. The signatory states are obliged to establish one or more national services for the protection of cultural heritage, to draft laws on the prevention of illegal import, export and transfer of ownership of cultural goods, to establish an organization for the supervision of archaeological excavations and the protection of archaeological sites...
However, Montenegro does not yet have a National Strategy for the Protection of Cultural Heritage.
Illegally mined artifacts are sold online
Looted antiquities are traded in many ways, from live meetings, through online forums, Facebook, selling platforms like eBay, OLX or specialized platforms like Vcoins, Hardy explained to CIN-CG.
However, some countries have found a way to somewhat combat the illegal online trade in cultural goods. Switzerland is one of the first countries to sign an agreement with the eBay platform. Users of this online store from Switzerland must have proof of the legality of the items they sell.
In Serbia, according to Hardy's data, treasure hunters annually sell tens of thousands of dollars worth of antiques on eBay.
One of the artefact hunters from Croatia characterized, in Hardi's research, metal detecting as a "profitable hobby".
Bonus video:
