By Philippe Coumarianos - Agence France-Presse

BAKHCHISARAI, Ukraine - Small-time tomb-raider Volodya shone his torch into the ancient terra-cotta amphora and swore. No gold. No precious stones. No documents. Nothing. Foiled, yet again.

Night after night, Volodya and his band have combed the forests of southern Ukraine, tracking down one grave after another, in search of gold bracelets, rings and broaches commissioned by wealthy merchants but drawn a blank.

Twelve burial sites, all dating back to the mists of time, have offered up a barrow-load of clay pottery but little that would flutter the hearts of the collectors and specialists who frequent the region’s illegal antiquities markets.

“Hey, look over here,” hissed Sergei, an accomplice, as he bent over a stone slab he had uncovered at a depth of 3 meters (10 feet). “Another tomb.” Several hefty blows with a steel bar later, and Volodya is able to squeeze through a passage into the neighboring vault. This time the beam of his torch falls onto the scattered remains of a woman buried some 1,500 years ago. Scratching around among the bone fragments, he’s able to unearth a few bronze bits and pieces, some multicolor paste-glass necklaces, and some red earthenware jars, worth maybe a few hundred dollars at the Sevastopol flea market where Ukrainian and Russian collectors do their antiquity shopping.

Every weekend in the season, the merchants and the adventurers gather on the hill overlooking the Black Sea port to negotiate their deals and commissions for the stolen historic treasures. Contacts are made by phone, or through trusted intermediaries for whom a nod is as good as a wink. The prize objects — gold artifacts, statuettes, glazed objects and vases from the Hellenic era — are sure of a rapid transfer to Moscow where they will change hands for a handsome profit. Some find their way onto the international antiquities market and to the auction houses where they can fetch tens of thousands of dollars.

“It’s a disaster. Thousands of tombs have been looted in the past 10 years, and there’s no sign of it abating,” said Culture Ministry official Shukri Seytumerov.

The Crimean peninsula, jutting into the Black Sea, forms a historic crossroads between the Mediterranean world and the Eurasian steppes. It has been home to numerous civilizations. The Scythians, among the earliest of the region’s known occupants, were followed from about the seventh century BC onward by the Greeks, to be succeeded by the legionnaires of Rome and the emperors of Byzantium.

The burial sites, scattered over what is now wild and broken terrain, mostly date back to the period between the second century BC and the fourth century AD. Older Greek and Roman tombs are exceedingly rare. “Most of the tombs belonged to ordinary people. The objects buried with them usually have no commercial value but are extremely valuable historically,” said Seytumerov.

During the winter, bands such as Volodya’s roam the region looking for possible sites and preparing for the spade work which they begin in the spring. They move in groups of three or four, communicating by cell phone and leaving men strategically posted to stand watch in case the police should show.

“Their leaders are specialists, often having extensive historical knowledge comparable with archaeological experts,” Seytumarov noted.

“Unfortunately, Ukrainian law is not strict enough to stamp out the trade in antiquities and the police are inefficient,” he said.

In most cases, he noted, the few tomb-raiders who fell into police clutches faced little more than a suspended sentence.