At Thessaloniki's Makedonia International Airport, a routine baggage check uncovers two unusual objects: a carved scarab and a small female figurine. Suspected to be antiquities, they trigger a chain of alerts.
With archaeologists unavailable, police turn to a new digital platform, code-named ENIGMA. An officer uploads measurements, material and photographs; the system generates 3D models and shares the data instantly. Soon, an Egyptologist in Brussels replies: The objects are illicitly trafficked Egyptian antiquities.
The episode was a simulation, part of pilot tests in Thessaloniki and Malta. "It was one of the scenarios we ran so we could get feedback and improve what we have designed so far," said Charalampos Georgiadis, an associate professor at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and coordinator of the EU-funded research project.
ENIGMA aims to help authorities combat the illegal trade in cultural goods, focusing on objects without documented provenance, often from looting. "These are the big problem," Georgiadis said, because their origin and legal status are unknown. Still under development, the platform combines shared databases, artificial intelligence, satellite monitoring, and citizen reporting. Its goal, Georgiadis said, is to help solve "the riddle of antiquities trafficking."
Archaeology Crime