[meteorite-list] New FALL in Turkey

[mark ford]

This is not exactly honest but, I am told The trick is to buy some legit minerals from a gem shop, dump them and put the meteorites in the gem box, then you have a receipt for some rocks, a shop bag etc when you go through customs,   -	And unless they have a PHD in meteorite geology and an SEM machine ... your covered.  - with coins the old one about putting the coins in your wallet with your small change.

Personally I'd probably look so guilty I'd been found out instantly - so I'll leave it to others!!

Best

Mark


-----Original Message-----
From: meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com [mailto:meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com] On Behalf Of Bjorn Sorheim
Sent: 05 February 2007 16:42
To: Michael Farmer; meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] New FALL in Turkey

Thanks to Farmer, Seidel, Herkstroker, Fred and Matteo for the feedback on this.

I had no idea about the laws on this in Turkey.
Kichinka, in his book, make no mention of Turkey laws, but mention several other countries.
Would Greece be similar to Turkey?
I guess you are sure about the fact that meteorites fall in the categery of "cultural treasures"?

Personally I can somewhat confirm (or not?) such matters from Turkey, as I also was there during the eclipse last sping, see:
http://home.online.no/~bsoerhei/astro/eclipse/060329/Phaselis.html

Meteorites was not on my mind during the stay, but my interest in stones and geology made me pick up about one kg of typical pebbles and small stones at the southernmost beach, where the eclipse path crossed into Turkey from the south.

I had a fully packed rucksack with my eclipse equipment and everything at the airport. As I had brought about 14.5 kg to Turkey the added stones brought the weight over 15 kg, so overweight. I don't know if that was the reason, but I was ordered to leave the sack at another counter than the rest.
I didn't see it before arriving to Norway, so they must have checked it especially.

Anyway, all the stones were there still, and it didn't look like they had gone through the sack either. 
I don't know what the conclusion would be here, but at least they don't seem to be going after ordinary stones.

Bjørn Sørheim