Rese­arch per­mis­si­on denied

It seems as if per­mis­si­on for archaeo­lo­gi­cal rese­arch is now more often denied than given. In sum­mer 2011, vete­ran Rus­si­an archaeo­lo­gist Vadim Star­kov wan­ted to excava­te a Pomor site in Bet­ty­buk­ta in sou­thern Spits­ber­gen, but did not get per­mis­si­on from the Sys­sel­man­nen. Now ano­ther appli­ca­ti­on from Star­kov was tur­ned down. Star­kov wan­ted to docu­ment a Rus­si­an ship­w­reck, pro­ba­b­ly dating into the 18th or ear­ly 19th cen­tu­ry, in Van Mijenfjor­den. Parts of the wreck were pro­ba­b­ly used as fire­wood or buil­ding mate­ri­al. The wreck is lying on dry ground, but is most­ly cover­ed with soil. The inten­ti­on was to remo­ve the soil, docu­ment the wreck and cover it again. The Sys­sel­man­nen has now denied per­mis­si­on becau­se of the poten­ti­al risk of dama­ge to the wreck from wind and wea­ther during the peri­od of work. A final decis­i­on will be made in Oslo (Riks­an­tik­va­ren).

Less of a sur­pri­se was the decis­i­on not to fol­low a Rus­si­an appli­ca­ti­on to build a recon­s­truc­ted Pomor house at Rus­se­kei­la, west of Barents­burg. The recon­s­truc­tion should have ser­ved as a muse­um and tou­rist desti­na­ti­on. Buil­dings out­side the pre­sent-day sett­le­ments are hard­ly ever per­mit­ted. Addi­tio­nal­ly, the site in ques­ti­on is near one of the most important archaeo­lo­gi­cal sites from the Pomor peri­od and insi­de a Geo­top (pro­tec­ted area becau­se of geo­lo­gi­cal values).

Source: Sval­bard­pos­ten (1012)

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