Monday, August 11, 2008
Vandalism of Bosnian Archeological Sites
Not too far from Visoko, once capitol of medieval Bosnia, not too far from the Pyramid place either, there was a castle built by the earlier kings of Bosnia. The National Museum has had a dig site there for some time. Among the remarkable things there is a cistern that is glass lined, that is to say it was before vandals did something about it. Glass in that era was an expensive item. Keeping a good castle meant you had a well or two if possible and always there were cisterns. Usually the cisterns were not lined with glass. This may have been the only such cistern in BiH.
The article was actually in Friday's Oslobodjenje. I didn't finish reading everthing until yesterday.
Sites here really need guards. The worst thing was the police reaction, or should I say NON-reaction! Maybe a pile of stones dating to the Middle Ages isn't diamonds or a drug bust, or even a war criminal who should be caught, but such places are national treasures, if only because foreigners may wish to come see them sometime or other, and if only because it is historical record, historical information, which is as irreplacable as a book, or a painting.
There is for someone who comes from the United States a special thrill in seeing old castles, precisely because in America we don't HAVE castles! I realize the thrill might not be the same for a European, but Americans pay good money to see castles if they are available. Ask anyone in England, France, Germany, (home of WONDERFUL castles!) or for that matter, Wales, Ireland or Scotland. I have paid to get into castles some of my ancestors would have liked to escape from at any price, just to say I was there! I have also paid to see castles that belonged to ancestors of mine, to see if the place was being kept up....
In short they are valuable for tourism, which here is a growth industry.
The article was actually in Friday's Oslobodjenje. I didn't finish reading everthing until yesterday.
Sites here really need guards. The worst thing was the police reaction, or should I say NON-reaction! Maybe a pile of stones dating to the Middle Ages isn't diamonds or a drug bust, or even a war criminal who should be caught, but such places are national treasures, if only because foreigners may wish to come see them sometime or other, and if only because it is historical record, historical information, which is as irreplacable as a book, or a painting.
There is for someone who comes from the United States a special thrill in seeing old castles, precisely because in America we don't HAVE castles! I realize the thrill might not be the same for a European, but Americans pay good money to see castles if they are available. Ask anyone in England, France, Germany, (home of WONDERFUL castles!) or for that matter, Wales, Ireland or Scotland. I have paid to get into castles some of my ancestors would have liked to escape from at any price, just to say I was there! I have also paid to see castles that belonged to ancestors of mine, to see if the place was being kept up....
In short they are valuable for tourism, which here is a growth industry.
# posted by Katja R. @ 1:06 AM 
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Forget tourists. The substance of a country's past is more precious than diamonds, it anchors the country's history in reality.
# posted by 
: 10:14 AM
: 10:14 AM
Also true, but you can't leave out that the influx of foreign money can't be altogether a bad thing! :) And another point, is that destruction of national treasures was a part of ethnic cleansing!
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