In Adygea, 11 monuments of Meotian culture face threat of destruction, archaeologists assert

The Caucasian archaeological expedition of the State Museum of Oriental Art, the National Museum, and archaeologists and researchers are concerned about the fate of monuments of Meotian culture (III-I centuries BC), located in the territory of the Takhtamukai District of Adygea. At present, the oil refinery "Antei" is under construction there.

Members of the archaeological expedition believe that 11 out of the 13 monuments revealed in the territory can be completely demolished as a result of the construction works in connection with the concealment of their number done to reduce the cost of research. This was stated in the letter sent by the members of the archaeological expedition to the Minister of Culture of Russia and the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS).

In their letter, the researchers have expressed their concern about the fact that the works are being performed by the company that has no work experience not only in Kuban, but also in the South of Russia.

"The oil refinery 'Antei' decided to save money on archaeology. The estimated cost of all works to study those monuments exceeds hundreds of millions of roubles. They have founded their own company and invited researchers, whose competence is of great doubt," said Vladimir Ehrlich, the head of the Caucasian Archaeology Section of the State Museum of Oriental Art.

Fatima Dzhigunova, head of the National Museum of Adygea, told the ‘Caucasian Knot’ correspondent that the investor has allocated funds to study just two out of 13 discovered monuments.

She also expressed concern that all information is being withheld. "All archaeological digs have always been made public here. Such monuments are of national pride to us. When any archaeologists come to Adygea it’s always news number one for mass media, history and archaeology lovers. But when we and our colleagues from federal museum came to the objects, they called a security and just kicked us out threatening to take us to the court, " Fatima Dzhigunova said.