Five contestants in Paestum for Special BMTA Award

Naples - The Mediterranean Exchange of Archaeological Tourism (BMTA), which will take place in Paestum from October 26 to 29, will be an occasion to celebrate important archaeological discoveries. In cooperation with international media partners (Current Archaeology, Antike Welt, Dossiers d'Archeologie, Archaologie der Schweiz) the XX BMTA will present the International Archaeological Discovery Award Khaled al-Asaad, an award in its third edition and dedicated to the archaeologist from Palmyra who gave his life for defending cultural heritage.

This year's contestants are the following countries: Egypt with the boat tableau discovered inside a building in Abydo containing the images of 120 ships, located near the tomb of pharaoh Senwosret III; France with the first architectural work of Neanderthals in a cave in Bruniquel; Iraq with the large Bronze Age City in the small Kurdish village of Bassetki; Pakistan with the Indo-Greek city of Bazira; and the United Kingdom with the 400 writing tablets from the Ancient Roman period discovered in the City of London. In addition, one of the five finalists will be presented with the Special Award for the archaeological discovery that garners the greatest consensus on the Facebook page of the BMTA. The awards ceremony will take place on Friday, October 27.