I read with great interest Theo Giantsos’ article (NKEE Letters 23
February) “Stop pillaging Greece’s marine treasures”.

The article saddened me greatly.

However I was totally disgusted with Steven Papadopoulos’ mercenary, if not barbaric, response in last week’s Letters! 

In effect Mr Papadopoulos is advocating the cultural annihilation of Greece’s undersea heritage with his cavalier approach to this matter.

Maritime archaeology on the coasts of the the many countries of the Mediterranean and particularly the Aegean have yielded priceless objects relating to our Hellenic heritage.

There isn’t enough money to fund land-based archaeology let alone what is underwater! The concept of ownership raised by Mr Papadopoulos is very simplistic, but he appears to contradict himself by saying:  “finders
keepers” and “no one owns anything”.

Who owns the objects of past epochs – especially those underwater is the subject of significant research and study.

I urge all NKEE readers to consider the implications of Mr Papadopoulos’  views regarding this matter very carefully.

There are many interesting web-sites to visit, particularly
the www.underwaterarchaeology.gr site.

Spiros Sarris

Thebarton, South Australia