The Vlochos Archaeological Project (VLAP ) team has published an statement in their website, in order to clarify some points concerning the media coverage of the results of the Vlochos fieldwork earlier this week. The announcement reads:
“The world of international media is somewhat different to that of international archaeology.
This we experienced today as our little press release on this year’s fieldwork hit the news. We’re very glad for all the attention, but somewhat overwhelmed. Infortunately it seems like some potentially misleading information sneaked into some of the reports.
Just to be clear, we would like to clarify some points, and in case some journalists are passing by, we’d be very happy if you could pick this up:
-The archaeological remains at Vlochós has been known for at least 200 years.
It is only the status of a city that can be confirmed by the new project. There has been several different theories about what the remains represent, all based on more or less unsystematic observations. The preliminary results of VLAP shows that the remains at Vlochós do indeed belong to a sizeable urban settlement. We would like to stress that the archaeological remains at site were well-known to the local archaeological service, and that our collaboration is focussed on discovering the unknown aspects of the site.
-VLAP is a Greek-Swedish collaborative project.
Contrary to what is stated by some, VLAP is a collaboration between the Ephorate of Antiquities of Karditsa (Greece) and the Swedish Institute at Athens. Archaeologists from the said Ephorate (Greece), the University of Gothenburg (Sweden) and the University of Bournemouth (UK) are working side by side, with equal responsibilities at site.
-All surface finds are kept at the Archaeological Museum of Karditsa.
VLAP will not collect pottery or other finds. It is only in the few cases when very special finds (such as stray coins) are observed on the ground that objects are collected by the Ephorate of Antiquities of Karditsa and brought to the Archaeological Museum of Karditsa. No finds have left or will ever leave Greece.
We are sorry if some of the press headlines are a bit exaggerated, and we hope this little blog post will bring some more clarity in the matter.”
