Business Spotlight Übungsheft 01/2025: Hörverständnis

Turkey’s treasure hunters

In many parts of Turkey, men can be seen walking with metal detectors and laptops. They are looking for buriedvergrabenburied treasureSchatztreasure. The remnantsÜberbleibselremnants of lost empireReich, Imperiumempires can be found all over. Gurkan Cagan, conservator and archaeologistArchäologe/Archäologinarchaeologist at the Rezan Has Museum, in Istanbul, told The Economist: “You can’t step anywhere in this country without stepping on something historical.” 

Thanks to this abundanceFülleabundance and the laxlasch, nachlässiglax enforcementDurchsetzungenforcement of laws that are meant to stop the illegal trade in antiquityAntiquitätantiquities, amateur[wg. Aussprache]amateur treasure hunting has become hugely popular. It is widely discussed on social media — under the TikTok hashtag #defineci (Turkish for “treasure hunter”), there are thousands of videos with millions of views. However, this trend is ultimatelyletztendlichultimately being drivenhier: beflügeltdriven by the lack of opportunity in the country’s flat economystagnierende Konjunkturflat economy, in which fewer than half of all Turks work full-time.

In Erciş, in eastern Turkey, close to the border with Iran, for example, unemployment is more than twice as high as the national average. Most young people have left to look for work elsewhere, and a lot of the men who remain have turn to sth.sich etw. zuwendenturned to treasure hunting. However, careless digging and crudegrob, primitivcrude methods, including the use of explosives, are damaging historical siteStättesites and destroying much of Turkey’s cultural heritageKulturerbecultural heritage. And when artefacts are found, they are often sold illegally to private collectors.