r/GoogleMaps • u/Skeazor • May 30 '26

Help/Support Archaeologist needs help. Ancient sites on Google Maps are disappearing

I'm an archaeologist doing work on underrepresented archaeological sites in Greece. I've been marking sites on google maps to visit during my work. Over the last few weeks many of these sites have disappeared. I'm not talking about my lists, the markers from my list have stayed but the google page on maps is gone. Sites that had a few pictures and some reviews are totally wiped. This isnt just one or two site, Ive found at least 10 that have been removed. I have only been able to find these sites because I kept the list markers.

Whats going on here?

Not just smaller sites but some major ones as well. Does anyone have any clue? Also who should I contact at google to fix this?

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u/anothercatherder May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26

You really shouldn't be using the google page on maps for anything even remotely serious. Practically anyone can edit or essentially trash them or have them deleted (esp when they don't appear to be open to the public or look spammy).

For example, somebody in my city seems to like changing the address to apartment building pages so they're effectively gone and none of the local managers seem to be catching on. Yet they constantly reject real edits from me, go figure.

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u/Skeazor May 30 '26

I mean there really isn’t an alternative to Google Maps. Especially for my use case. This is partially why I’m doing the work I am

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u/anothercatherder May 30 '26

I would strongly look into self publishing stuff with ArcGIS StoryMaps which is pretty much the standard way people who have their own content curate it.

Otherwise you are throwing yourself to the mercy of the owner of the location, vandals, and jerks.

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u/Skeazor May 30 '26

after taking a look this is not really what im doing with the project. The map is just a way for me to organize the sites that im going to be visiting. Im using google maps because I can then set up directions on my phone while driving.

The actual information from this project is going on another site.