combining two different articles in this thread:
1. Aphrodisias
2. Dumlugoze


Since 1961, Dr. Kenan Erim a native of Turkey, supervised the digging in the all-marble city of Aphrodisias, which contains a bounty of late Greco-Roman art 100 miles from the Aegean. Aphrodisia had a wealth of marble that was used to build even workers' huts and a two-mile-long city wall, which still stands. He passed away in 1990 when he was only 61. What a loss.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE7D6123EF936A35752C1A966958260


Bumper snowdrop harvest for Turkish village Dumlugoze

Villagers are celebrating the end of their eighth harvesting season for cultivated giant snowdrop bulbs (Galanthus elwesii), a crop that provides them with regular income while at the same time helping to preserve the species in the wild.

The inhabitants of the small village of Dumlugoze in southern Anatolia once earned their living by collecting bulbs from the Taurus mountains. However, the bulbs, which are sold mainly for export, were becoming increasingly rare and, with few other ways to make a living, many villagers were leaving for cities.

Under the Indigenous Propogation Project (IPP) supported by WWF-Turkey, the villagers received money to start cultivating the bulbs, which have proved hard to grow elsewhere in the world. The cultivated bulbs are sold to exporters for 6.5 million Turkish lira (about €4) per kilo, much more than the 1.5 million lira (€0.91) per kilo for the often much smaller wild bulbs.

"We're very happy with this programme. It has provided revenue for 150 of the very poorest families here," said Abdurrahman Sahin, a villager who this year produced a bumper 125kg crop worth some 800 million Turkish lira (about €490. His other crops will bring in no more than 150 million lira (€90.

"I no longer have any reason for going up into the mountains to pick wild plants," he said.

Dumlugoze produced two tonnes of giant snowdrop bulbs this year, and two nearby villages have also started to cultivate bulbs.

Thanks to the programme, the number of giant snowdrop bulbs gathered from the wild has dropped from 40 million per year to six million, with 350,000 cultivated giant snowdrop bulbs exported each year from Turkey.

National and international legislations are also helping to protect Turkey's plants. Until 1991, there was no national legislation to protect the 500 different wild bulb species found in the country, but now, only 20 species of bulbs can be exported, with quotas for each.
http://www.ecoearth.info/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=23788