3. The Dilema in the Findings

A few years ago, a thousand graves — some with treasure — were found. More recently a 230-foot section of an ancient road built by the Romans that was the city’s main travel artery nearly 2,000 years ago.

The subway works, started in 2006, present a rare opportunity for archaeologists to explore under the densely populated city – but have also caused years of delays for the project.

In 2008, workers on the Thessaloniki metro discovered more than 1,000 graves, some filled with treasure. The graves were of different shapes and sizes, and some contained jewelry, coins or other pieces of art.

A massive excavation project also took place during the 1990s in the capital, Athens, before the city’s new metro system opened in 2000.

Thessaloniki’s new subway is already four years behind schedule, due to the excavation work as well as Greece’s financial crisis. Thirteen stations will operate initially, before a 10-station extension is added later.

We read in BBC by Liz Klimas, a reporter, that many artifacts found in the excavation, from items such as gold hoops, benches, and thousands of everyday objects, up to whole churches, remnants of the glorious, long history of Thessaloniki, have come to light. The archaeologists and city authorities dream of a metro station combined with a subterranean museum, that will become a major tourist attraction and a constant reminder of the city's glorious past - a past lamentably hidden today by decades of anarchical construction and disastrous city planning.

Engineers with the company implementing the metro project, Attic Metro SA, however, say the two cannot exist together.

Keeping the ruins would mean scrapping the central subway station - and jeopardizing the entire 3.5bn-euro  EU-co-financed project - one of the few major public works under way in Greece's moribund economy.

Attiko Metro SA is armed with a decision by Greece's Central Archaeological Council, authorizing the transfer of the finds to another area. But removing a road complex from its original position is considered by some archaeologists to be tantamount to destroying it.

"Moving it would be catastrophic. A road is not a portable monument. It would lose all reason for being," said the director of the Thessaloniki Archaeological Museum, Polyxeni Veleni, to the reporter, according to BBC news.

"We realize how important the find is, but it is impossible to keep it there. Everything else is hot air. I respect the archaeologists, but I ask them to respect our expertise as well", Stratos Simopoulos, Greece's secretary general for public works, told the BBC. 

Article found in: Ancient Dilemma for Modern Greece